Jeanine and I joined old and new friends atop the Old Hill Burying Grounds in Concord for a sparkling cider toast. For the second year in a row, it was the starting point for a New Year’s Eve party hosted by one of our neighbors. This year, however, we did not join the group for dinner as Jeanine is trying to shake an incalcitrant case of bronchitis. Instead, we opted for a quiet evening at home. It has been a year full of change and excitement for us so we were more than happy with a low-key transition to 2025.

I designed a very simple stainless steel handrail today for the steps to our front door. I did not want to do this work until the stairs had sufficient time to settle. I have sent the rendering and dimensioned drawings out to a couple of fabricators for price quotes.

I also began the incredibly annoying and time-consuming process of fully extricating myself from Comcast, possibly the worst company I have ever done business with. When we moved into the new house, we switched to fiber optic-based broadband access through our local power and light company. Performance, reliability, and support have been exceptional. The last vestige of our connection to Comcast is the “@comcast.net” domain, through which all of our e-mail correspondence is routed. Even though we are no longer customers, the company is legally required to continue to support access to these addresses. Like everything else they do, it works until it doesn’t, and then the process of troubleshooting is enough to drive a person insane.

With well over 200 accounts linked to my “@comcast.net” address, it is going to take quite some time to switch them all over to my “@gmail.com” address.

Maya picked up her new car today. It is a grey/silver 2023 Subaru Outback Limited. This is the first car she has purchased for herself so it is a milestone that we were happy to witness. I really enjoyed sharing what I have learned about how to buy a new car with her, having done so ~20 times in my life. She handled all of the negotiations yesterday and took care of the paperwork today. Owen drove her up from Somerville in his new grey/silver Toyota RAV4, the other car Maya was seriously considering. I suspect that there will be a race between the two cars at some point and I am urging caution should that happen.

Maya has yet to name her new car although her gender has been determined as female.

Maya, Jeanine, and I made a day of car shopping for Mishka’s replacement. Maya was up late last night doing research. She also consulted with Owen and his dad, who are car experts. She downselected to the Toyota RAV4 and the Subaru Outback. We visited the local dealers for both brands, and she test-drove both models. We returned home late in the afternoon, from where she conducted price negotiations. Once she secured an acceptable discount, we returned to that dealer to put down a deposit. Tune in tomorrow to see which car she purchased!

In 2011, I purchased a new Audi Q5 and passed it down to Maya five years later. She named it Mishka. It is the car she learned to drive in even before her legs could reach the pedals. Sadly, Mishka fell ill last night while Maya drove to the River House. She was pronounced dead this morning after being towed to Maya’s mechanic. The autopsy revealed a total loss of compression, possibly caused by a broken heart (timing chain.) The cost of replacing the engine with a used one is more than the current value of the car so Maya decided to donate it to WBUR. Mishka lived a good life and was a strong and reliable companion who lived to the age of 150,000. She will be missed by all who felt the warmth of her heated seats and the embrace of her retractable seat belts. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to National Public Radio.

Maya has decided to start dating new cars immediately and is considering a new long-term relationship with either a Toyota or Subaru.

Despite her assertions to the contrary, Jeanine prepared a perfect batch of popovers to kick off our traditional Christmas breakfast which included a lengthy conversation about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on humanity. Next, we plumbed the depths of our Christmas stockings for the various treats and presents within, a process that took about two hours. Games and noshing carried us into the afternoon when Secret Santa gifts were opened, followed by various forms of resting. Jeanine is pictured testing her new yoga bolster (hidden under her back), which caused her legs to stretch to twice their normal length. Several more hours were devoted to the evening meal with Nico acting as head chef. Our menu included prime rib, bacon, mushroom and pancetta risotto, and a pomegranate seed and pear spinach salad. Kyle’s flatmate Eloisa joined us for the feast.

This morning, we were fortunate to get a dusting of snow, providing the backdrop for a white Christmas. The river is frozen creating a pristine ribbon of white weaving through the neighborhood and past our house. Conversely, the trees remained brown and green because the snow was too powdery to stick to the branches. This is the inverse canvas produced by a normal snowstorm and made for some interesting drone photography.

The kids arrived midday and helped prepare our traditional Swedish Christmas Eve dinner of Raclette cheese served over boiled potatoes, sausages, and cornichons. Nico prepared the most delicious Focaccia bread I have ever had in my life, and a nice salad provided nutritional balance to the meal. After dinner, we were joined by Maya’s friend Fiona, who is spending the night here between nursing shifts at the hospital where she works.

Stockings were hung under the “fireplace,” where they were visited by several clandestine elves who were lending Santa a hand.

The family’s quest to purchase a mixed-use building in Somerville ended abruptly this morning. Kyle and I met on-site with a structural engineer to conduct another inspection. No sooner than he started his work, I noticed a pin-hole steam leak in one of the building’s original pipes. This type of failure is caused by corrosion, which is not uncommon in a 124-year-old pipe. Unfortunately, it stands to reason that additional failures of the plumbing are to be expected, and the cost of ongoing repairs could be exorbitant. As much as we saw the potential for this property, logic dictates that we move on to other options.

On the home front, I am pleased to report that our heating system is working as designed. Overnight, the temperature reached 2°F and all remained toasty inside. When I sized our heat pump, I used -15°F as the design temperature. Below that, an auxiliary electric resistance heater kicks in.

Owen is Maya’s boyfriend. He is Canadian. Canadians are very nice people obsessed with ice-related activities.

Maya is visiting with Owen’s family this weekend at their lake house a few hours north of their home in Waterloo. Apparently, Canadians regard the winter holidays as a good time to carve a hole in the ice of a frozen lake, span it with a chin-up bar, and then see how long it takes to make a human popsicle. I can only imagine that Maya participated in the popsicle making to prove herself worthy of a Canadian boyfirend.

Well, I have news for Owen. Maya is one-quarter Italian. Italians are very nice people who like to eat pasta which is made in boiling water!

Having sorted my full-size tripod collection, I have now focused on my tabletop tripods. Of the three shown above, I will use the largest one for travel. It weighs less than 12 ounces and fits neatly in a front pocket when collapsed. It is a pound less than my full-size travel tripod. It is tough to justify the other two as they offer no real benefits over the first. Even so, I will not be parting with them. Pictured below is a set of tripod legs I 3D printed. Although they cannot be collapsed, they are as light and stronger than all my other tabletop tripods. As of this moment, my tripod collection numbers 13 with 2 up for sale. What can I say? Some people collect stamps. I should note that part of the enjoyment for me is matching the optimal tripod head with the legs. In the group above, each base is mated with a head from a different manufacturer.

Pictured below is Jeanine’s idea of a table topper, the dish she prepared to bring with us to a neighbor’s winter solstice party. The food and ambiance were fantastic, but the highlight of the evening for me was the opportunity to hold two of the smaller guests in my arms. It has been 15 years since I have cradled a baby. Tonight, I had a chance to do so with not one but two. I have forgotten (1) how heavy they are and (2) how completely they surrender their weight to you. I did remember how soft and sweet-smelling they were. I hope and pray that I will not have to wait 15 more years before getting another fix.

Apparently, there are no materials that are both compressible and have zero water vapor permeability. I recently came across an application that requires such a solution. To address the problem, I devised an approach that combines a deformable gasket (round – orange) and a flexible vapor barrier film (thin – light blue) like aluminum foil. The foil prevents vapor migration, while the gasket provides compressibility. Since the foil is flexible, it can conform as the gasket changes shape.

When we designed the River House we decided for health and safety reasons that it would have zero indoor combustion. The most difficult thing to give up was a fireplace. Reinforcing our decision was the fact that a stone chimney is an efficient conductor of heat and, hence, a conduit for energy constantly leaving the home. Even the best flue dampers allow some amount of air through, and thus, a second major source of energy loss and drafts. Finally, we thought about our last home. It had five fireplaces of which we only ever used one and that one only a handful of times per year. Our energy efficient alternative is a virtual fire that plays on the big screen TV in our living area complete with the sounds of a real fire. Now that winter has arrived, we find ourselves “making a fire” almost every night and while we miss the heat and smell of a real fire we are equally happy not having to gather wood from outside or clean ash from the hearth. When we want the authentic experience we step out to the patio to enjoy the fire pit.

Mild winter days are the best time to do tree work in the yard. It is not so cold that your fingers get numb, and all the leaves are down making movement and pruning easier. I spent a couple of hours on the west end of our property cutting down dead trees and smaller ones that will never break through the canopy. Pictured above is the bottom half of a 75-foot tree that I dropped within a foot of my target by cutting a precisely angled hinge at the base with my chainsaw. I only wish I had the foresight to set up a camera to record the felling. As weather permits, I will need to spend another afternoon cutting this trunk into sections for firewood.

The drawer slide hardware I have been waiting for arrived today, allowing me to complete the drawer project I started last week. I will use this area to store my photography gear. I enjoy creating organized spaces for my equipment, which allows me to access and retrieve it quickly. One drawer will be allocated for lenses and another for my “goto” set of full-size tripods. The one in the middle is for travel and hiking (1.8 lbs). In the front is the one I use for most normal shooting situations (3.4 lbs). The one at the back is my choice when using my heavy telephoto lenses (4.1 lbs).

Over the weekend, the entire family toured the building pictured above. We are thinking about purchasing it as a group in 4 equal shares (Kyle:Nico:Maya:Parents). Today, Kyle and I revisited it to do a closer building inspection. We discovered undisclosed fire damage, a non-functional furnace for the top apartment, and a floor that slopes 8 inches over 25 feet. None of these are deal breakers but need to be considered should we decide to make an offer. I returned later in the day with my drone to survey the roof. We have decided to get an HVAC contractor to estimate the furnace replacement cost and to get a sense of the permitting requirements before making our decision about an offer.

Last week, I encountered a tower while walking through the woods. Today, I passed the same tower and went off the path to investigate. A peek into the dilapidated hut at its base revealed an abandoned well. The tower was for a windmill used to pump water for irrigation. A follower of this blog suspected as much and can take credit for solving the puzzle. As a prize for that bit of sleuthing, I am offering a new challenge based on an object I found later on the same walk. I know this mystery will be of special interest because this individual is a subject matter expert on gears.

Jeanine and I met up with Kyle, Nico, and Maya in Somerville to look at a mixed-use building in Somerville. The ground level houses two businesses with a three-bedroom apartment on each of the the second and third floors.

Kyle has been orchestrating the search for an investment property and Maya and Nico are interested in building equity rather than paying rent. The three are planning to pool their resources to buy the building. Nico and Maya would each take a floor and rent out their extra bedrooms. After the tour, we had lunch together and it looks like everyone wants to move forward with an offer. There are still a lot of variables to consider and hurdles to overcome but we all left feeling excited about the possibilities.

On the home front, I persuaded/coerced “glue girl” to help me assemble four drawers that will eventually be installed in my office to house camera gear.

While meeting with a former colleague at the house, he spotted a red-tailed hawk land on a nearby tree. I briefly paused our conversation to get a photo of this handsome fellow. He has been a frequent visitor, but thus far, I have never had time to wait and watch as he hunts. We have an abundance of squirrels that would make for a nice meal, and at some point in the future, I hope to capture that action.

I finally got around to designing our Holiday Card and placing the order. It will feature a photo of the family from our visit to the Lakes District in England and another of Jeanine and me during our southern road trip on the beaches of Pawley Island, South Carolina.

It has been almost a year since I built drawer boxes for the cabinetry in the River House. Today, I started another batch of four that will be used inside one of the cabinets in my office to store camera lenses and tripods. Assembly will require Jeanine’s assistance in her role as “Glue Girl.” The lock miter joint I am using requires that all eight corner surfaces have glue applied simultaneously. Working alone, I would have to do them all sequentially and this would take long enough for the glue to start curing. Working with Jeanine, we can cut that time in half. It was nice to be in the shop again but it is hard to get excited about building more drawer boxes. I think this batch will put me over 130.

Jeanine’s Audi Q4 eTron arrived today, which made for much excitement on an otherwise dreary day. It rained heavily from dawn to dusk. This did not stop Jeanine from taking it out for a run after I reviewed the controls with her. The Q4 is the baby sister of my eTron, so I am very well-versed in the extremely similar user interface. Jeanine was delighted each time we encountered a feature that was not available on my now 5-year-old car. It has a self-parking feature that she will be sure to enjoy.

We are giving Jeanine’s 8-year-old BMW X1 to Nicolai. Maya still has my old Audi Q5, and Kyle has long since sold the minivan we gave him. We call this trickle-down autonomics. With the new arrival, our house, cars, and tools are now 100% electric. We no longer own a single thing that runs on carbon-based fuel. Since our power company uses 100% renewable sources, we have substantially lowered our carbon footprint.

UPDATE: I forgot about our outdoor grill, which runs on propane. We use it rarely, but I do not see us parting ways with it any time soon.

Even on a grey and foggy day, I revel in the beauty of our river. I got out for a nice 3-mile walk and can finally declare my injured hamstring fully healed. Jeanine signed me up to play pickleball starting in a few weeks, so the timing worked well. I watched a few YouTube videos to familiarize myself with the rules, techniques, and strategies. I played on my high school tennis team and am not a half-bad ping pong player, so I think I should be able to hold my own against folks my age.

While walking in nearby woods on a path I had not taken before, I came across the pictured tower and small hut. It appeared to be some sort of radio antenna, but with no electrical service this deep in the forest, that seems an unlikely guess. I will have to consult some of our older neighbors to see if they can shed some light on this mystery.

This evening, Jeanine and I hosted a holiday gathering for members of the Conantum community where we live. Every year, about ten families volunteer to host a potluck dinner to which the remainder of the neighborhood is invited. We had 16 people join us, and they arrived with a delicious array of food that we set out on our island, where Jeanine had two pots of vegetarian soup on simmer. We turned the counter in the pantry into a staging area for the desserts, which worked out perfectly. Jeanine prepared a traditional Swedish glögg, a punch made with spiced wine and served hot, which was a hit with the group.

In a change from our tradition, our Christmas tree will not be topped with an angel this year. In honor of our new home, we have opted for a very adorable woodland gnome. Absent also are the shiny balls and tinsel, replaced by woodland creature-themed ornaments. The kids were here last weekend to help trim the tree and I finally got around to photographing it today.

Our friends, Alex and Lou Ann spent the night. More importantly, they said yes when Jeanine offered to make pancakes. Naturally, I had to partake as well because I am a most hospitable host.

A close inspection of this photo will reveal a very lumpy reflection of the sunrise in the waters of the Sudbury River. Temperatures for the last week have dipped well below freezing for much of the day and all of the night. The surface of the river has been freezing and thawing in patches, resulting in large plates of textured ice.

This evening, we hosted a gathering of friends who are the parents of Maya’s high school soccer teammates. We are fortunate to have found such lasting relationships and enjoyed hearing updates on all the girls.

Earlier in the day, I visited an urgent care center. After using a Q-tip to clean my ear, I noticed that the tip had become separated from the stick. I attempted to remove the cotton swab with tweezers and then with a tool I fashioned from double sticky tape. I decided to seek professional attention after several unsuccessful attempts. When I arrived for treatment, I became irritated when a nurse came in to measure my blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate, and temperature. I could not see how this had any bearing on a bit of cotton stuck in my ear. A half-hour later, I saw the doctor. He used an otoscope to look in my ear, only to discover that it was clear. I have yet to figure out this mystery but will no doubt be reminded of my irritation when I see the bill.

Now that we are settled into the new house, I finally had time today to start organizing my photography gear. I started with my tripods. I currently have five full-height versions which is two more than anyone could reasonably need. I have decided to scale that number back to three; one ultra-lightweight compact unit for hiking and air travel, one mid-weight unit for everyday use and car travel, and one heavy-duty unit to support of my large telephoto lenses. During the course of this downsizing effort, I concluded that I should dedicate one tripod to our spotting scope so that it is always deployed and ready for use. I then realized it would be nice to have a tripod dedicated to my shop where I use it in conjunction with my laser level. Before the day ended, I managed to purchase two more tripods. So much for downsizing my collection. In all fairness, I still plan to sell two leaving me with five. In a more productive exercise, I also listed one of my drones for sale.

Jeanine volunteered me to help make photo boards for the Concord 250th Celebration. These are the painted backdrops with head hole cutouts. Others will be doing the artwork, and I will be responsible for building the stands and making the cutouts. I spent a few minutes making a quick and dirty prototype this afternoon. The height of the plywood support and the spread of the legs will be adjusted to ensure that the completed assembly can handle the wind loading.

Nicolai participated in a performance art piece presented at the Harvard Art Museum today commemorating the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Imperceptibly slow movements created an ever-changing tableau that observers were encouraged to explore.

Normally, it is rather difficult to photograph insects, especially if they can fly. I found this moth resting on the outside of a house window and was able to capture this image by placing my camera with a macro lens directly on the other side of the glass. It is not a particularly interesting photograph, but I was otherwise occupied doing yard work for much of the day.

For the first time since moving to the River House, I was able to capture a photo of our River Otters. Jeanine spotted them heading down to Fairhaven Bay. By the time I got my camera, they were out of range. Two hours later, they passed by in the other direction, and I got my first decent shots. Although the second one is blurry, if you look closely, you will see that this otter has a fish in his mouth. The kids and Owen were all here to watch soccer and trim the Christmas tree. They all got to see them for the first time as well.