The Amputee World Cup is very similar to the regular World Cup. Teams play round-robin within groups before top finishers advance to the elimination rounds. The US drew Group E which includes Iran, Japan, and highly regarded Turkey. I decided that today would be the best day for a team photo, anticipating that players will be increasingly banged up and sun burned with each passing day. This is the strongest team the US has ever fielded although our goalies are both rookies and late additions to the squad.

The US faced Japan in their opening match. The game was scoreless at the half with the US squad looking more dominant. Midway through the second half, our goalie was red-carded for stepping outside of the box and Japan was given a penalty kick. This infraction is unique to amputee soccer, designed to keep goalies from thwarting break away opportunities. In this case our goalie lost track of where he was, took two steps outside of the box, made no contact with the ball (which went out of bounds by itself) or any players. His excursion had no effect whatsoever on the play but the consequences were devastating. We lost our starting keeper for this match and the next one and had to play a man short for the remainder of the game (much more punitive than regular soccer with only 6 field players to a side.) Our backup keeper got his first dose of amputee soccer facing a penalty kick from 7m which he was unable to save. Despite being down a man, the US still dominated for the remainder of the match but were unable to equalize the score. Nico had a great game and Maya captured the full match on video which I will post when we return to the US.

Opening ceremonies were held in the evening and included remarks by tournament officials and local dignitaries, introduction of the teams, a performance of traditional Mexican dance, all culminating with fireworks.

Nicolai was named co-captain of the US national team this morning. He shares that honor with 5-time World Cup veteran, Ignacio “Nacho” Medrano. I had to hold back tears of joy as the image of him at birth flashed into my mind. I remember feeling great sadness assuming he would never know the joys of athletic competition. I have never been so blessed with being so wrong. We are very proud of what Nico has achieved and the inspiration he has provided to so many.

The team practiced for 90 minutes and reviewed a couple of set plays. We watched the team from Japan practicing on an adjacent field and it is clear the US will have an up hill battle when they face them tomorrow.

Later in the day, we met up with Burton Craige, the husband of my cousin, Heather. He has come for the World Cup games along with his brother, Tito, who was delayed in Monterrey but will be joining us tomorrow. Burton directed us to a very authentic seafood restaurant where we enjoyed a very nice dinner and a taste of the local culture.

The family departed for Culiacan, Mexico where the 2014 Amputee World Cup soccer tournament is being held.  Kyle and I are hoping to make a side excursion to the Copper Canyon region of Sinaloa depending on how the US team fares in the competition. Nicolai could not be more excited about this opportunity to play on the world stage.  He has been training at school and is definitely up to the challenge.

For the second year in a row, Jeanine and I participated in the Concord 5K Turkey Trot, a fundraiser for our local running club and food drive for Open Table.  I save actual trotting (and knee wear) for the soccer pitch.  We completed our walk in 52 minutes and were undaunted by the 32F temperature.  Good exercise for a good cause and a great way to justify portion size during Thanksgiving Day dinner. Jeanine prepared a veritable feast and it was wonderful having all the kids together for the first time in a long while.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, we have been treated to a couple of inches of snow. I don’t usually like to shoot through glass, but the light was exquisite and I did not want to risk missing it while I put on shoes.  I now know where the expression “picture window” comes from.

Nico arrived early this morning on the red-eye from Colorado to join the family for Thanksgiving.  We are all five under the same roof again and it feels great.  Nico is also featured in the latest promotion from SideStix, the manufacturer of his crutches.  They are offering a 20% discount through the end of the year for all World Cup participants.

On the way home from work I encountered one of the most vibrant red skies ever.  I briefly paused traffic to get the shot as did many other drivers with their cell phones.

 I managed to reach Great Meadows before the light show ended.

A gift from her father, Jeanine’s lemon tree has been very fruitful.  One of the recollections in the memoir cookbook she is writing is centered on the lemon tree of her father and she asked if I would capture an image to accompany the story.  The tree currently has six lemons, five of which are ripe.

Mother swan and her three cygnets out for a leisurely paddle on Sabbatic Lake. This photo is the only positive outcome of a one-hour journey to Taunton this morning where the Division 1 Over-50 Soccer Championship was contested.  My team’s lackluster performance allowed Western Mass Lusitano to win by a score of 2-1 and secure first-place honors and the trophy. Hard to be disappointed with a second-place finish in a field of 66 teams,  but I am.  We beat this team earlier in the season and it would have been very nice to do it again this morning.

Jeanine and I slipped away this morning for brunch at our favorite spot for this meal, Nancy’s Airfield Cafe. The food is locally sourced and expertly prepared if somewhat overpriced. We both ordered “Green Eggs and Ham” which we enjoyed while watching several planes coming and going.  Our conversation was centered on the idea of learning to fly and buying a plane.  No decision was made but it remains a possibility still under consideration.

A visit from nephew John Quinn was all the motivation necessary for Jeanine to prepare a small feast.  The menu included several items from one of her favorite cookbooks featuring the foods of Jerusalem. I was too busy enjoying the roasted sweet potatoes and fresh fig salad to photograph it.

For all the photos I take, I have been reluctant to print many.   Perhaps it is because I spend so much time viewing them on a computer monitor which features emitted light rather than the reflected light of a print. About two years ago, I mounted a 47″ flat-screen TV on the wall in our breakfast nook where a slideshow of some of my better photos runs continuously.  A large digital picture frame if you will.  With the recent arrival of 4K TVs on the market, I decided to upgrade to a 55″ model that features 8 million pixels compared to 2 million. I have never enjoyed my photographs so much.

Jeanine appeared on the cover of the Concord Journal this week.  She accepted a donation for Open Table generated by an event at the Concord Umbrella, our local artist studio enclave.  Donors purchased “Empty Bowls” fashioned by local pottery students with all the proceeds going to feed the hungry.

Autumn has given way to winter with temperatures plunging this week to below freezing.  Ponds and marshes are beginning to ice over and soon we can look forward to snow.  Images of sun-drenched Mexican beaches are starting to become more vivid in this final week before we leave for Culiacan.

Growing up, I attended the First Unitarian Society of Schenectady with my family.  This past Sunday my mother (pictured left) was honored for her 50-year membership in the society along with one other member who had reached this milestone.  Raised Catholic, my mother was reluctant to embrace a new religion but did so after some coaxing from my father who was a quick convert after attending his first service.  Attracted by Unitarian’s acceptance of other religions, she also found a home in the society and went on to volunteer as the chair of the Visual Arts Committee, the performing arts committee, and teaching arts and crafts to the young children.

I have fond memories of my religious upbringing and feel fortunate for the decisions my parents made.

The group pairings for the amputee World Cup have been posted.  The USA drew Group E which contains Turkey, a perennial powerhouse. Nico is positively revved up for the tournament and we are all looking forward to our trip to Mexico and watching him compete.

I have now been a member of the Concord United soccer team for eleven years, first on the Over-40 squad and now with the 0ver-50 team.  The club has been around for twenty years and in that time has never won a match against Stoneham, a club that invariably wins the northern division regionals and more often than not, the Division 1 championship.  Today that all changed during our semi-final match with them.  Ninety minutes of play had us tied.  Thirty minutes of overtime produced the same result. Penalty kicks were tied 3-3 after five rounds.  It then came down to sudden death penalty kicks which went to eight rounds before our goalie made a decisive save giving us the win.  We celebrated at a local pub and I think it is the most meaningful victory we have ever enjoyed.  We now advance to the finals next weekend and we have a solid chance of winning the whole enchilada.

Dressed for a night out on the town, Maya looked lovely as she prepared to join her friends for a birthday party being held at a restaurant in the North End.  I spent the day winterizing the house which included turning off the outside water, purging the irrigation system, setting up snow sticks along the edges of the driveway (so you know where to snow blow when everything is covered in white), and assisting Kyle who got a good start on cleaning the gutters.

In preparation for the Amputee World Cup soccer tournament being held in Mexico later this month, I have been consolidating and updating my camera equipment.  I will be shooting stills and have engaged Maya and Kyle to assist with videography.  A critical piece of kit that I use to shoot soccer is a gimbal head.  It is the component sitting between the camera and tripod in the photo above. It is used to fully support the weight of a camera and telephoto lens while allowing perfectly fluid panning (left to right) and tilting (up and down).  Most pros use a monopod but I am not competing with others for space on the sidelines and prefer a tripod which allows me to shoot with a second camera without laying down the first.  Even better it would be nice to have a lens that is light enough to hand hold. I have such a lens on order and am therefore putting my trusty gimbal up for sale.

This morning the Massachusetts Air National Guard flew five F-15s at low altitude (1000 feet) over several landmarks in the eastern portion of the state.  Their first destination was Hansom Air Force Base and I correctly guessed that their approach would take them over Great Meadows where I set up to photograph them.  Scheduled to arrive at 8:10am they were 15 minutes late and I was just starting to leave when I heard them approaching.  Without a doubt, these are the biggest and fastest birds I have ever observed at this wildlife sanctuary.

Developed in Brazil and Uruguay, futsal is a variation of soccer played on a hard surface with five players to a side. The surface, ball, and rules create an emphasis on improvisation, creativity, and technique as well as ball control and passing in small spaces.  Having concluded her outdoor soccer season, Maya has joined an indoor futsal league and will train and compete through the winter months. Although she has never played the sport before, she got the hang of it very quickly and scored a few nice goals in her first scrimmage.

Maya hosted an end-of-the-season celebration party for her soccer team and coach.  Jeanine prepared pulled pork sandwiches, a healthy salad, and a fruit medley.  The otherwise healthy meal was balanced by the cookies and treats furnished by the players.  A more congenial and polite group of tough-minded girls you will not find.  I predict they will all go on to do great things.

The pear trees that line the drive into iRobot are always the last to turn and do so with great vibrance.  Not a bad way to conclude my morning commute.  In a week or two, even these holdouts will be reduced to bare branches in anticipation of winter.  All in all, this has been one of the most glorious autumns I can recall.

My soccer team was graced with ideal weather for the final regulation match of our fall season.  We cruised to an 8-2 win securing a second place finish in Division 1 South and qualifying us for the play-offs to begin next weekend.  I was not feeling my best but managed to finish the game with one assist, one impressively bad shot on goal (missed high, VERY) and most importantly, with no further aggravation to my slowly mending left hamstring.

Our over-50 (years old) league is composed of 5 divisions, each with a southern and northern region except for division 5 which also has a central region.  Each regional division has 6 teams for a total of 66 teams with a typical roster of 18.  That is nearly 1200 over-50 players in Western Massachusetts.  The playoffs pit the top 4 teams against each other to determine the league champion.  We are underdogs in the semi-finals to perennial winner,  Stoneham, but I like our chances this year.

Jeanine and Maya created an autumnal-themed floral centerpiece using a pumpkin for a vase.  It is a gift for the hostess of a gourmet dinner/birthday party we attended this evening.  When asked to take a photo of it, Maya was first in line with her new camera.  Once captured we reviewed her images on the computer which led me to show Maya the collection of images she has made over the course of her life, nearly 2000 in total.  Seeing the world through the eyes of your child is a rare gift and we both enjoyed our trip down memory lane immensely.

I was up with the sun for a little photography before breakfast. Hoping for dramatic light that often accompanies inclement weather, I had to make the best of what nature provided.  Any morning spent walking on a beach, however, is nothing to complain about and I was highly invigorated by the fresh air and sea breeze.

Pausing from our meeting, I dragged everyone to the beach in a light drizzle for a team photo.  There was a tiny amount of grousing but I insisted on taking the shot with the ocean in the background.  What is the point of traveling to a beautiful venue if you are not going to take advantage of it? Our team has grown to include a new head of marketing, head of North American Sales, and head of European Sales.

iRobot’s Home Business Unit leadership team retreated to the Stage Neck Inn in York Harbor, Maine for a two-and-a-half-day strategic planning meeting.  Our objective was to identify a 4-year path to a billion dollars in annual revenue.  Before we left, I could see a line of site to 2 billion and had a chance to get to know three new members of our team.  The weather was gray and rainy but the ambiance made up for it.

My brother Mark, a pilot for one of Delta Airline’s regional carriers, had a layover in Boston this evening and joined us for dinner.  Although I am the more handsome brother, one cannot deny that he looks rather dashing in his uniform.  Maya, with a little lighting assistance, was happy to take our portrait with her new camera.  I think she did a great job.

Maya is an incredibly self-motivated student and applies herself to learning more than either Jeanine or I can take genetic credit for.  She is equally strong in all her subjects but I see the inquisitive and creative mind of a scientist or engineer blossoming in front of me. Few things bring me more pleasure than chatting with her about how something works or how to solve a challenging real-world problem.

A nice sunset was the reward for an otherwise miserable weather day. Temperatures during my soccer game this morning hovered in the mid-30s.  Winds were so strong that a ball placed on the field for a direct kick would often start rolling away.  When it began to rain/snow it was more horizontal than vertical.  These conditions led to great difficulty in scoring and we had to settle for a 0-0 tie.  I had the best shot on goal for my team, a strong volley from a lofted ball, no mean feat given the wind. Unfortunately, it found the keeper rather than the back of the net.

The latest cameras do not make me a better photographer but I take great pleasure in using fine tools.  Last week I added two newly released cameras to my collection and therefore am selling the cameras they are replacing.  Pictured here is Canon 70D which I have replaced with a Canon 7DM2 and a Sony RX100M3 which I have replaced with a Canon G7 X.  Last month I gave each of the kids their own camera from my collection which reduced my total from 7 down to a marginally justifiable 4 (landscape, sports, hiking, everyday carry).

Maya hosted a Halloween party this evening which was a great success.  I resisted the temptation to photograph the kids understanding that this would have been met with much resistance from Maya.