From ChatGPT:

Ice can make a variety of sounds, including cracking, crunching, tinkling, whooshing, groaning, sizzling, and roaring. The sounds ice makes depend on how it’s interacting with its environment, such as temperature changes, wind, waves, and icebergs.

None of these words come close to describing the sounds emanating from the frozen Sudbury River this morning. The closest thing I can think of is the sound made by a handsaw whose blade has been pulled into an arc and then released. I made several attempts to use my audio recorder to capture the sound with no success. Later in the day, Jeanine and I went for a walk along the opposite side of the river down to Fairhaven Bay, hoping to hear the ethereal song again. Once you hear this sound, you want to hear it again and again. It is yet another gift of the river for which we are grateful.

This morning, a light coating of snow and high winds produced mesmerizing moving patterns on the frozen Sudbury River. Due to the freezing outside temperatures, I operated my drone from the comfort of our great room. It felt a little like cheating. The stress of flying in high winds, on the other hand, made for a traumatic flight. The experience made me think about picking up a used backup drone for our upcoming trip to New Zealand, should I lose or crash my primary one. Instead, I opted to purchase a newer model that has better safety features and radio range. This combination of enhancements should reduce the probability of a fatal crash or loss of aircraft.

When I initially installed the vent hood over the induction cooktop on the kitchen island, I set the height so that it would just clear my head. Good for me, but not so much for taller cooks. Such hoods perform better when closer to the cooking surface, so my instinct was to keep it as low as practical. Today, I raised it by 7 inches after a recent guest bonked their head on the glass canopy. To compensate for the increased height, I installed new electronics that allow the fan to operate at a 75% higher flow rate. A pair of band clamps were just what the doctor ordered to facilitate an otherwise very precarious operation. Head clearance is now 6′ 3″. If you are taller than that, you cannot go on the ride.

At the end of February, Jeanine and I will be leaving for a 5-week New Zealand and Australia vacation. I spent the entire day and a good part of yesterday securing reservations for air, car, and ferry travel and lodging for 18 different accommodations ranging from an overnight voyage into the Milford Sound on a small cruise ship to a tiny hut previously used for sheep shearing. The array of housing also includes a small cottage on a llama farm and an off-the-grid tiny house. Even though we will be traveling during the shoulder season and we are booking almost 2 months in advance, it is crazy how many places are already fully reserved. On a positive note, we finally received a check for the energy credits earned by our geothermal system. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center calculated the projected output of our system over the next ten years and provided a one-time payment based on the greenhouse gas emissions savings our system will deliver. The amount will cover the cost for our entire vacation. Even though it is money that came out of our pocket to pay for geothermal in the first place, it was still a welcome psychological treat.

In November, Jeanine signed me up for a senior adult recreational pickleball league. Today, the program commenced, and I played for the first time. Just as she insisted, the game is a lot of fun. The time I spent learning about it on YouTube proved to be quite helpful, and I felt pretty comfortable halfway through my first match. It should be noted that I was one of two men in a group that included 11 women, half my junior and half my senior. If my knees prove they can tolerate the sport, I think I may join a more competitive group next session in light of a request from one player who asked me not to hit the ball so hard.

Conantum, our neighborhood, has common land shared by all who live here. This includes a community garden, boat dock, tennis and basketball courts, playground, baseball field, and a network of trails. These amenities are maintained by volunteers from the community. I recently joined the Trails Committee and received my assignment today. I am to be the Steward for trail segments X and Y as labeled on the partial map above. I will be responsible for keeping the path safe and clean. As illustrated below, this may involve the occasional clearing of fallen trees. Jeanine joined me for an initial assessment this afternoon and I am pleased to report that my predacessor has left the trail in very good condition.

While sectioning downed trees in the yard with my chainsaw today, I encountered the work of another lumberjack who shares our property. Interestingly, beavers can fell up to 300 trees in a year, with a single beaver capable of cutting down a medium-sized tree in just one night. When beavers cut down trees, they primarily want to eat the inner cambium layer of the tree bark. In addition, doing so is necessary to maintain their fast-growing, self-sharpening teeth. These animals are truly remarkable. I wonder what it would take to train them to work on the downed trees that are the target of my efforts?

Maya slept over last night so she could have her new car inspected by the dealer who sold it to her first thing in the morning. We will accept any reason for a visit from one of the kids. While she was enjoying coffee in the great room, I was struck by the similarity of texture and color between the swivel chair, her fleece, and the lampshade. We enjoyed a far-ranging discussion with her last night and are so proud of the woman she has become.

High winds in the area took out power to our neighborhood this morning. I was working at my computer and did not notice anything until I received a message from our battery backup system informing me of the outage. In our last house, we had a natural gas-powered generator, and it would take about half a minute to come online, making it very obvious when a blackout had occurred. It also tended to not want to start during extremely cold or windy conditions, those most likely to be present when the system was needed. This is now the 7th time the grid has gone down since we moved into the house and I have to confess to being happy every time it happens. Our backup system was fairly expensive and the more times it is pressed into service the better I feel about the investment.

Concord has its own electric utility (CMLP), and I have nothing but great things to say about its responsiveness and competence. They had the whole neighborhood back online within 90 minutes.

With the new year, Jeanine and I are both switching to new email domains. We are leaving behind our “@comcast.net” domains in favor of an “@gmail.com” domain. This transition will complete our disengagement from Comcast, a company that has caused us no end of frustration and grief. We would ask everyone to update their contact database accordingly.

Happy New Year!