Jeanine and I entertained my former colleague and close friend Laurin Herr and his wife Trisha during their short visit to Boston from their home in Oakland, CA. Jeanine prepared a light lunch before we ventured to the Minuteman National Historical Park where we watched a reenactment of “Parker’s Revenge” (patriots picking off the British as they retreated from Concord). Our next stop was the Old North Bridge and Visitor Center followed by a pitstop at Kimball Farm for ice cream. We finished the day with a tour of Author’s Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, a quick excursion into the adjacent Blue Heron rookery, a walk around Walden Pond and brief drive through the deCordova Sculpture Park before enjoying a fine dinner at Wood’s Hill Table.

Laurin, a technologist and expert on all things Japan, was my partner in crime at RasterOps/Truevision where we developed lucrative partnerships with companies including Panasonic and Sony. My love of Japan, its culture and people was first ignited by Laurin who introduced me to the country,  language, customs, and history during our many visits there.

Maya and I spent the day at Tufts University attending one of their “Jumbo Days” (school mascot is an elephant) for accepted students.  Because she will be spending the remainder of the weekend with Caleb (a freshman here) and his family, we drove separately.  I decided to beat the traffic and arrived in time for morning light and a sleeping student body. The campus is quite lovely, perched atop a hill offering a nice view of downtown Boston.  The engineering program is typical of those offered by liberal arts colleges and will present Maya with a distinctly different choice than others she is considering.

The visit from my brother and nieces was over all too quickly.  Their early morning flight back to Minnesota required a 4 AM wake-up call. One niece attempted to hide so as to be left behind. We shall miss them all and look forward to our next reunion.

It took the better part of three hours to complete repairs to the driveway after excavating and replacing the leaking irrigation pipe below it.  I had to first fashion a properly sized tamping tool to accommodate the narrow excavation. It was quite heavy and after more than 1,000 cycles of lifting and pounding, I expect to be sore beyond words tomorrow. The patch will require sealing but not before 90 days when it has fully cured.

We dined out this evening at the Pleasant Cafe in celebration of Jeanine’s 54th birthday. It is located in Maynard directly across the street from the new Open Table facility that is rapidly nearing completion.  Afterward, the cake crew, organized by John, prepared a very yummy sponge cake covered in whipped cream, strawberries, and blueberries.

Mark and I tackled a critical home project that consumed most of our day. Last year I discovered, after receiving a $1000 water bill, that our lawn irrigation system had a significant leak in the supply line. To effect the repair we had to slice a 6-inch wide slab from our asphalt driveway and replace the pipe below it. Working together and with some rather clever methods and homemade tools we were able to extract the 250-pound slab intact.

I spent a good part of the day with my brother and nieces on a nature / history field trip. We started at our local Blue Heron rookery where we were fortunate to find a number of birds on their nests. Next, we embarked on a Revolutionary War history tour starting at the Old North Bridge and ending on the Battle Green in Lexington.  The Concord River was as high as I have ever witnessed and the path on the far side of the bridge was inundated.

Early this morning (1AM), Maya retrieved her Uncle Mark and cousins Sophia and Rose from Logan Airport on behalf of her exhausted parents (THANK YOU MAYA). The long anticipated visit was made even better when my sister Alissa and her husband John drove in from upstate New York with my mother to join us. Their daughter Rachel who is a student at Babson also arrived to complete the mini family reunion.

Everyone slept in pretty late so I was not missed when I left for the opening match of my spring over-50 soccer season on what could not have been a more glorious morning. We defeated our arch rival Belmont by a score of 1-0 despite lacking our primary keeper.  I started at left midi and managed to make it through the match without injury or major error despite my lack of adequate conditioning.

Back at the ranch, John William, our live-in nephew and son of Alissa was busy preparing one of his signature Sunday dinners which we capped with a trip to Kimball Farm for the first ice cream of the season.

I managed to draw blood from my youngest niece during a game of “crocodile” in which I played the leading character with great authenticity.  What can I say? Crocodiles bite!  Later I enjoyed making portraits of the family.

My younger brother has survived both a stroke and heart attack during the past year.  He has bounced back from both with little impairment except for confusion over which end of his head to grow hair on.

Quincy Quarries was first opened in 1825 to supply granite for the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston’s historic Charlestown neighborhood and was actively mined to one degree or another until 1963. Once abandoned, the Quarries slowly flooded and became a popular — if dangerous — site for cliff jumping. A number of people began to die jumping into the flooded pits, so in order to curb the practice, a number of wooden pylons were placed sticking out of the water. However, these eventually sank below the waterline, becoming invisible, and deadly. The death toll went through the roof.

After being closed to the public for a number of years, the site was reopened in the 1980s after dirt from Boston’s “Big Dig” was used to fill in the pits. Now, Quincy Quarries is linked to the Blue Hill Reservation trail system and is open to the public. It has become very popular for its spectacular array of graffiti art, rock climbing and views of downtown Boston. Maya organized an early outing with Caleb to visit the park before finishing their date at the ocean.  All photos courtesy of Maya.

It was my turn to organize a “surprise date night.” I took Jeanine to the Havana Club in Cambridge where we enjoyed Latin salsa music and dancing. The crowd was mostly college-aged but there were a few other couples of our vintage.  You know you are getting old when you get tired after an hour and a half of dancing.

We learned today that Nicolai has been named a Master Certified Environmental Educator in the state of Colorado by the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education.  From his notification letter:

“As a part of the certification process, you are among an elite group of individuals who have demonstrated strong knowledge and skills in quality environmental education. By demonstrating your understanding and skill in environmental literacy, the foundations of environmental education, professional responsibilities, planning and implementation, and assessment and evaluation you are joining a network of educators in only a handful of states who have attained this level of certification.”

We are very proud of all he has accomplished.

Jeanine alerted me to the presence of seven deer in our backyard this morning.  I managed a nice photo of this grouping of four thanks to Nala’s barking from the boundary of her electric containment fence. To her intense embarrassment, the local wildlife has figured out that she cannot leave our yard to pursue them. She seems truly dejected when they ignore her and go on about their business.

Daddy’s Home 2 the sequel to Daddy’s Home is now filming a Christmas scene in downtown Concord. It is amusing to watch as they shovel man-made snow back onto the sidewalks after the town spent weeks doing just the opposite.

I use big soft boxes to create soft light for many of my studio photographs. Creating soft lighting for movies is no different except for the matter of scale. This is one of two cherry-picker-mounted lights that will be used for the movie. Time permitting I may try and return to see if I can get photos of the stars (Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell, Mel Gibson, and John Lithgow) when filming commences later this evening. 

Well I did not see any celebrities when I returned but I did get to see the crane lights in action.  The first was positioned over the intersection of Main Street and Walden Street taking on the appearance of a monstrous alien head. The second was positioned to illuminate the Trinitarian Church which never looked so good at night. 

Finally, after days and days of rain, there has been a break in the weather. While it has been uncharacteristically dreary, the promise of replenished aquifers and reservoirs is something to be grateful for. Last year’s drought and consequent watering restrictions killed major portions of our lawn.  Any chance of reviving it will be predicated on permission to use our irrigation system this summer.  It’s a shame we cannot simply store some of the water in the swollen local rivers before they discharge into the ocean. Plans to do some kayaking will have to wait until the water level drops a bit allowing for passage under the bridges.

Kyle begins a new job today as a Portfolio Analyst with City National Rochdale. This 30-year-old wealth management firm is a subsidiary of City National Bank which is owned by the Royal Bank of Canada. They provide personalized portfolio management for high-net-worth individuals, families, and institutions with over $31 billion under management and a client retention rate of over 90%. Kyle will be working in their San Francisco office located on the 20th floor of 455 Market Street, pictured above.  Kyle turned down a position with Symphony Asset Management in favor of CNR which offered a move from the back office (internal operations) to the front office (client-facing) and a better work-life balance. We could not be prouder of or happier for Kyle and wish him all the best on his first day.

Our nephew, John, created another wonderful Sunday dinner for us. Pictured above is the early stages of a sauce he prepared. Chopped onions simmering in a bath of olive oil gradually turning from white to a rich yellow. We were joined for dinner by Maya’s moot court co-counsel as they took a brief break from preparations for their next trial. The spring season opener for my over-50 soccer league was canceled due to lingering snow on our home field. I expect to be back in action later this week with a makeup game or scrimmage.