Nicolai’s penchant for destroying tires has extended to rims. During his very short driving career, he has managed to destroy (not talking flat tires here) four tires. Today’s incident was his first foray into rim damage. According to his account, he drove across a construction trench at the high school at a reasonable speed. The photographic evidence suggests that either he was going very fast or he had very little air in the tire. Regardless of whether it was due to excess speed or poor maintenance the bill to Nicolai for this lapse of judgment will be $550. On a positive note, reaction to his recent news coverage has led to a speaking engagement request in Pennsylvania which may help him offset the damage to his bank balance. Today he also gave an interview to a commercial website called Proving People Wrong and donated the $1000 fee he earned to the CCHS Soccer Team.

Nicolai, with engineering consultation from Maya, constructed this PVC xylophone for a school project. As part of the assignment, he had to explore the mathematical relationship between the length and diameter of the pipes to the frequency of the tone produced by each, and the relationship to the speed of sound. Apart from the questionable paint job, the construction turned out quite well and the “instrument” produces an array of tones. I appreciate the fact that this assignment has helped further Nico’s interest in building things in the shop and with each new project he is gaining new skills and mastering new tools. I particularly enjoy watching the way Maya offers her assistance. She anticipates problems but lets Nico make his own discoveries and then offers helpful suggestions and ideas.

Nico’s interview with Jim Axelrod of the CBS Evening News aired this evening. Jeanine and I sat with him on the couch, our anticipation growing with each promo. It is fair to say that he was more nervous waiting for the segment than he was during the interview. We were thrilled with the piece and pleased to see so many of his teammates included in the opening scene (they have had to put up with a lot of media attention for Nico and each is a star in his own right). Phone calls and e-mails started pouring in from all over the country and we are so happy that this story has allowed us to reconnect with so many people.