Credit for the lighting idea goes to Nicolai but Kyle once again captures a great photograph. This is probably my favorite from the whole vacation.

 
Day two starts with homework. Kyle is taking a class in photography and his assignment this week is portraits. Here he makes use of morning window light to capture a portrait of his father.

 
Jeanine and I share a room on the second floor while the children have a suite on the ground floor. This split arrangement afforded us more privacy than we are accustomed to on vacation and we took full advantage of the situation.

 
We arrive on Nantucket at about 5PM and make our way on foot to the Centerboard Guest House, a quaint bed & breakfast we will call home for the next four days. We have three bicycles with us and will rent a double moped for mobility on the island.

 
After a four year hiatus, the boys rediscovered their passion for chess and played almost nonstop during idle time. I would say they played at least 100 matches over the course of the four day get away. The two hour and fifteen minute ocean crossing passed quickly.

 
Today we travelled by ferry to Nantucket for a family vacation. The kids are out of school this week for spring break.

 
Nico and Chris after the game. All in all it was a most enjoyable afternoon on a perfect spring day with an inspirational host. Chris, by the way is single. Allison are you paying attention?

 
Nico captures an image of Manny during his only at bat. He was ejected for unsportsmanlike comments to the umpire. I have never heard so many people booing so loudly.

 
A close up of the ring for the Red Sox fans out there. No ring for me, but I did score a goal this morning in our game against Harvard where we had to settle for a 1-1 tie.

 
On the way in, Nicolai got to wear an actual World Series ring. Between the luxury box, complementary food, ring, and come from behind win, I am not sure how we will ever match this baseball experience.

 
Today Nico and I viewed the Red Sox game against the Rangers from the NESN (New England Sports Network) luxury box courtesy of Chris Waddell. Chris, a five time Paralympian gold medalist will attempt to be the first paraplegic to summit Kilimanjaro. He will use a custom designed, lay flat, hand-cranked wheelchair for his attempt. Please visit his website to learn about this courageous mission. I shared what we learned from our Kilimajaro adventure and he enlightened me about baseball and the game we were watching. The Sox went down 5-0 before rallying late in the game with 6 unanswered runs to win the game. Nico did a little long lens photography from the front row of the balcony.

 
Fortunately, the day ends on a more subdued note as Kyle engages Alex in a game of chess. It has been several years since this table I built for the boys has seen any serious use.

 
As I looked back on my photos of the day it occurred to me that there must be a risk taking gene somewhere in the Calabria family line.

 
Today we joined the Gutwillig family for white water rafting on the Concord River. Normally it is quite tranquil but for a few weeks during the spring it is transformed into a Class 3-4 challenge by snow melt and heavy rains. I must admit that I was not expecting much excitement from the docile Concord but that changed after we shot our first rapids. On the third set Alex was ejected from the raft and we had to fish him out of the chilly water. On our second run of the day we got sideways against a large boulder and the raft flipped rather dramatically sending all of us and our guide into the water. Nico and I were trapped under the inverted raft as it continued down the rapids. I was able to breathe from the air pocket but Nico had to struggle mightily to get out from under. Kyle flew straight up in the air and landed feet first on some combination of the rest of us. He assumed a good rapid running position (feet pointed down stream and out of the water) but crashed into a submerged rock resulting in a nasty bruise on his thigh. Jeanine, not a big fan of the water in general, suffered a number of bumps and bruises but made it to shore safely (where she decided to remain for the rest of the afternoon). I lost my glasses ($800) and thought it was a small price to pay for such a thrilling experience. Later I discovered that my camera ($600) was entirely submerged inside the water tight bag I had purchased earlier in the day. Silly me, I had assumed the bag was meant to keep the water out rather than in. I did the math again and decided that we were lucky no one was seriously injured and that the other stuff really didn’t matter. Our guide told us it was the first time she had flipped in nine years of river rafting.

 
Nicolai invites friends Kevin, Zack, and Oliver (hasn’t arrived yet) to a sleep over. Perfect weather draws a highly charged game of cards to the sun porch.

 
This morning I came down to breakfast and Jeanine greeted me with those 4 words I live for.

My computer isn’t working!

This is right up there with,

The dog ate your new soccer shoes!

The LCD monitor was dark and the CPU was on. Begin troubleshooting. Monitor or CPU? Monitor fails to display internal menu ruling out CPU. Close inspection of screen in bright sunlight reveals pixels present but backlighting is absent implicating either high voltage inverter or CCFL lamps. Disassemble monitor, locate inverter, power on, check for high voltage (absent), check for low voltage input (present) implicating inverter. Remove inverter, notice burn marks on back side of insulator, map burn marks to components, identifying switching transistors U1 and U3, check diode voltage drops, both are open implicating these two devices. Quick check on the Internet and they are available for three dollars a piece. With any luck I will salvage the monitor for $6 and 20 minutes of effort. Pictured here is the inverter board. Maya says it looks like a miniature city.

 
I decided to make the coaming for my kayak out of carbon fiber. So far this has been the most difficult part of construction. I used a layup of FCCFCCFCCF where F=fiberglass and C=carbon fiber. It took almost four hours to complete the task which involves building up one layer at a time and then waiting for the epoxy to stiffen before beginning the next layer.

 
A quick art shot featuring our pineapple lamp. Nice study in shadows.

 
Between Jeanine’s birthday yesterday and my soccer match this morning, I was not able to do much work on the kayak. We played Lexington, one of the reputedly stronger teams in our division and beat them in a strong 3-1 showing. I scored a nice header off a corner kick for the first goal. I did manage to cut out the cockpit opening and install the vertical coaming later in the evening.

 
Even though the day has been peppered with intense rain storms, the sun was out for the entire game. Maya constructed this tepee frame and hung a jacket on it to shield herself from the intense rays while she watched the game.

 
Later in the day the entire family drove out to Lancaster to watch Kyle (#5) in action. Here he wins a header (not exactly obvious from the photo) and together with teammate Ray totally dominate their defender. The boys dropped a 2 point lead in the last five minutes to settle for a tie. Despite the dissappointing outcome, Kyle had a nice assist.

 
Today is Jeanine’s birthday. Despite receiving many wonderful gifts, she was most please when we opened her composting bin for the first time in three years. You may be able to see that the bottom third is now a rich loam. Her birthday wish was to install a raised garden for Maya and we completed the project using the newly created soil. I often refer to Jeanine as a granola girl. Now I am considering changing that to Earth mother. Had I married anyone else, today’s photo would have been of a cake and candles. As soon as the composting bin was opened she told me to run and get my camera. This is why I love Jeanine. Who else could get this excited about dirt.

 
Jeanine will celebrate her birthday on Saturday. She is seen here returning from a lap around the neighborhood on a new road bike, her early present from me. This makes the third bicycle I have given her over the 23 years we have known each other. She will continue to use her hybrid for mixed and off-road riding.

 
Jeanine spotted this little fellow traversing our field and I chased him down for the close up.

 
Nala is growing up like the rest of the children in the family. She has progressed from gnawing on the furniture to wasting energy and messing up the house. When she wants to go in or out she simply opens the door. We have lever style handles and she can open a door as easily as you or I. Closing the door, or wiping her feet when she comes in from digging in the mud are very low on her priority list, not unlike my other children. I am going to have to change handles back to round knobs and pray she doen’t learn to turn those with her teeth.

 
Turning 50 this year comes with upsides and downsides. Yesterday, playing soccer in the over 50 leauge was a thrill because my speed was a factor again. This afternoon, I had my first routine colonoscopy. Between the fasting and the prep, my weight dropped to below 160 for the first time since I can remember. That’s a 25 pound loss since January and I think I will stabilize here.

 
This morning I had a soccer scrimmage with my new team (hard to believe I have graduating to the over 50 league). I scored three goals and had two assists. Amazing what playing with guys your own age can do for your game! I thought I would spare everyone another picture of the kayak and instead chose this still life. These orchids were a gift from our good friend Aliza and make me happy every time I look at them. Kyle was also in action today and his team beat the Bolts, a top ranked club which they have never defeated in several years of competition.

 
Today I fiberglassed the deck of my kayak. Once again, Maya played a crucial role mixing epoxy on a just in time basis. It took roughly 20 batches to completely bond the fiberglass to the wood. Four additional layers of epoxy are required but these should go much more quickly and Nicolai has volunteered for the next round of mixing. Jeanine just back from a bike ride inspects the progress. You really need to click on the photo for a higher resolution view.

 
Maura and Nico spent several minutes attacking the dog before they all relaxed on the couch for a portrait.

 
Since Kyle will be shooting black and white film (they develop it at the school), I thought I would give it a try as well.

 
Kyle is taking a class in photography at the high school. His teacher prefers to start the kids off with pinhole cameras which the students construct and then move them up to film cameras with minimal automation. I searched Craig’s list and found a guy who was giving away a half dozen broken film cameras. I was able to repair three of them and this is the one I will give to Kyle for his class work. I forgot how much more deliberate shooting with film is and now fully appreciate why the professor insists on starting the kids with film.