Last week, I got my first chance to test-drive a BMW iX3. Although my reservation is in the queue, I am toward the tail end of the 100,000-plus orders that have been placed for the car, and my expectation is that it will not arrive until April, 2027. The car lived up to my high expectations, with the exception of the steering wheel buttons and the general lack of useful storage compartments. This notwithstanding, it was a total joy to drive.

Given the rather lengthy wait, however, I have decided to do a little more auto research. Today, I test-drove the highly rated Rivian R2. There is certainly a lot to like about this vehicle as compared to the iX3: off-road capability, thoughtful storage, awesome acceleration, and an unconventional but oddly attractive body design. Despite reviewer claims to the contrary, it still has very truck-like handling, however. The BMW, on the other hand, has superior range and faster charging, lives up to the ultimate driving machine catchphrase, and has an expansive service network.

I decided to reserve a place in the Rivian queue just to keep my options open.

The kids and their partners joined us this evening to celebrate my birthday. My nephew John also attended but arrived after we had already taken photos. Jeanine prepared Enchiladas Suizas for dinner, with corn fritters (one of my favorite foods) as an appetizer, and a decadent chocolate-raspberry layer cake for dessert. Everyone contributed photos for a wonderful slideshow presentation, and I spooled up some old videos of the kids when they were small. All in all, a fantastic birthday treat for me.

Earlier in the day, my soccer team won our toughest match of the year by a score of 2-0. I had to watch from the sidelines because my pinky toe has not sufficiently healed to play. After the game, I took advantage of the fair weather to create the official team portrait for this season.

Easing my disappointment for not having played, one of my teammates presented me with a delicious birthday gift, a huge jar of peaches from his orchard. I can’t wait to sample them.

The good news first. I timed my visit to Franconia Notch perfectly. Fall color was at its peak; the vibrancy this year was off the charts and the sky was clear. The bad news. I was not the only person who figured out that today would be an optimal time to visit. Traffic and congestion were terrible. Click on the photo below for a look at the crowds at the Artist’s Bluff Lookout.

Zoom in on the photo below to appreciate the classic New England fall foliage palette. I think the photograph is pretty good, but it does not do justice to the experience of seeing it in person. If you have never witnessed peak color in the Northeast Kingdom, it is something you should add to your bucket list.

Coprinus comatus, commonly known as the shaggy mane or lawyer’s wig, is a distinct mushroom recognized by its tall, white, scaly cylindrical cap. I found a few emerging on the edge of our driveway today. As the mushroom matures, its gills turn pink and then undergo rapid self-digestion, melting into a black, inky liquid that spreads its spores. At the rate it was being eaten by the slug in the photo, I doubt it will reach that stage. For more information on this mushroom, follow the link below.

Tom Volk’s Fungus of the Month for May 2004

More diners may be found enjoying this nearby crop of Hypholoma genus mushrooms.

Jeanine and I drove to Scituate this morning to meet up with her sister, Susan, and friends Jean and Debra Jo, who are renting a house there.

I flew my drone 2 miles out to sea to photograph the Minots Ledge Light and was lucky enough to catch a sailboat in the background. The original iron-pile lighthouse, completed in 1850, was destroyed in a fierce storm in April 1851, killing its two keepers. Rebuilt between 1855 and 1860 as a sturdy 97-foot granite tower, it is also known as the “Lover’s Light” or “I Love You Light” because of its distinctive 1-4-3 flashing pattern.

Pictured below is my own version of the “I Love You Light.”

When in Scituate, the Lawson Tower is a must-visit destination.

<copied from the post I made after my last visit here>

Described as the most beautiful, most photographed, and most expensive water tower in the world, it is said that Lawson’s wife Jeannie was thrilled with her new home until, in 1901, the Scituate Water Co. decided to build a 276,000 gallon, 153’ high steel water tank in the town center. Mrs. Lawson saw this massive standpipe as a monstrosity and urged her husband to do something about it. Having made a fortune in the stock market, he was happy to oblige her wish.

The Scituate Lighthouse is another popular destination. Each time I visit, I try to explore a new composition, but I keep returning to the one below as my favorite, captured today with the American flag at full attention.

My injured pinky toe is on the mend. It is more colorful and less swollen than it was earlier this week. I think my odds favor a return to the soccer pitch this weekend. I was able to complete my routine 4-mile run on the elliptical this morning with only moderate discomfort. The real test will come when I try to squeeze into my tight-fitting soccer shoes on match day.

On an aesthetically more pleasing note, I received the birthday card below this morning, hand-painted by my cousin Heather.

I feel fortunate that my birthday falls during autumn, my favorite time of year. Fall color usually doesn’t arrive in this part of Massachusetts until mid-October. Over the years, however, I have discovered nearby pockets of vibrance that emerge earlier. The one below is only a few hundered feet from our prior home on Mattison Drive and remained undiscovered by me until I purchased my first drone.

The title of today’s post expresses my age today as a function of my favorite number, two, and Jeanine’s favorite, three.

Mercifully, I woke up to discover that the swelling of my pinky toe was no worse than yesterday. Even so, it was still too painful to walk on it while wearing a shoe, so I had to skip my routine gym workout with Jeanine. Instead, I spent most of the day with my foot elevated while watching TV. I did manage to spend a little time in the shop making minor repairs to a set of chairs gifted to Nico and Teddy by Jeanine’s sister, Susan.

Nicolai, who is also recovering from a soccer-related toe injury, shared the AI-generated photo above sent to him by his coach. Apparently, Nico is expected to lead the US to a World Cup victory in Mexico with his newly acquired right leg and third arm. Just in is the World Cup group draw. Uzbekistan finished 3rd and Morocco 5th in the last World Cup, presenting very stiff competition to the USA, which finished 15th.

The 2022 World Cup results. Looks like Group B will be a cakewalk for Turkiye.

Rank	Team
1	Turkey
2	Angola
3	Uzbekistan
4	Haiti
5	Morocco
6	Brazil
7	Tanzania
8	Italy
9	England
10	Argentina
11	Japan
12	Colombia
13	Poland
14	Iran
15	United States
16	Mexico
17	Liberia
18	France
19	Iraq
20	Republic of Ireland
21	Uruguay
22	Indonesia
23	Spain
24	Germany

This weekend, our region has been hit with a nor’easter, resulting in non-stop rain and high winds for several days. This morning, my soccer game was played during a torrential downpour with a wind chill that only increased the discomfort. Adding insult to injury, or rather, injury to misery, the pinky toe of my right foot was cleated by a careless opponent. By the middle of the second half, it had swollen enough to make further play untenable. I hope that it will heal sufficiently before next weekend, but have little doubt it will be worse tomorrow than it is today (count on an updated picture). The only satisfying part of this story is the 5-0 drubbing we inflicted on Wayland.

This evening, Jeanine and I attended the 2026 Bionic Project BBQ. Pictured above in their magnificent Cambridge home are our hosts. On the right are the Bionic Project founders. What started as an adaptive 5K road race in 2018 has evolved into an education program designed to dismantle disability bias, build empathy, and foster connection through education, story, and sport. Nico, Lead Educator for the non-profit, was in Vermont with Teddy to celebrate her birthday weekend. I am glad he chose the woman over the work function, a lesson it took his father a long time to figure out.

I volunteered to photograph the event, and the results can be found here. The evening social was originally planned to be outdoors, but the nor’easter that is clobbering us this weekend forced it to move indoors.

Located just twelve miles, as the crow flies, from our home is the lovely town of Harvard. I decided to make a quick visit today in advance of the nor’easter that will inundate us with rain and high winds starting this evening and continuing until Monday. Pictured above is the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church in the foreground and the Harvard Cultural Council in the background. Below is the Public Library and Elementary School.

The Fruitlands Museum, pictured above is a popular destination, and some actual nearby fruitlands are pictured below. The high ground where these are located is one of my favorite night sky viewing locations.

A short drive farther west, I stopped at Fort Devens to visit the Fort Devens Post Cemetery. It contains the remains of soldiers who fought in six of America’s wars – the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Early this morning, Jeanine spotted a raccoon climbing the oak tree next to our house. Given their ubiquity, it is odd that we see them so rarely. Nestled 30 feet up in the tree, he viewed me as a curiosity rather than a threat, allowing me to take a rather nice portrait.

For the fourth time, Nico will captain the US National Amputee Soccer team at the Amputee World Cup. Once the young buck, he played his first World Cup in 2014. Now among the older members of the just-named 2026 squad, he brings a wealth of experience and maturity to the role. There is no doubt that this is the strongest team that the US has ever fielded. It remains to be seen, however, if they have gained ground on the rest of the world when they take the pitch this November in Mexico.

UPDATE: Our newly discovered visitor made a return appearance and posed for another photo.

Our neighborhood features common ground and amenities that are shared by all. Today, Dave, a new neighbor, and I volunteered to replace the backboard and height-adjustable mounting bracket for our basketball court. The project took just over 2 hours and was complicated by the fact that the mounting system was designed to attach to a 3 1/2″ round pole rather than the existing 4″ square pole. We figured out an adaptation that required some machining of the existing bracket, necessitating a return home to utilize my drill press. Despite several other challenges along the way, we were quite pleased with the finished result. We set the height to an intermediate level since most of the kids in the neighborhood are still quite young. Too low, and we figured it would be a temptation for teenagers to hang from.

Nicolai is an assistant coach for the Lexington High School Men’s Varsity Soccer Team, and I photographed the team today at his request. Having done this last year, I applied the lessons I learned and set up something of a production line to speed up the process and achieve better consistency. Gusting winds wreaked havoc with my light stand-mounted softboxes, and I had to use athletic tape to keep them from pivoting off-axis. If asked to do this again next year, I will use a more robust stand. All things considered, I am happy with the results. The full set can be found here.