No good deed goes unpunished or so goes the saying. An example to back it up. When I received two copies of a 60 gallon, 4HP air compressor that I ordered for my new shop, I immediately checked to see if I mistakenly ordered two. That was not the case. I then called the online merchant from which I purchased it. They confirmed that I had only ordered one and only been charged for one. I then contacted the manufacturer to report the double shipment. The remainder of the story is too lengthy, cumbersome, and irritating to recount. Suffice it to say that I have spent countless hours on the phone with various parties and a month storing this behemoth in our new garage. Today, I reached the limit of my patience when they wanted me to be present during a 4-hour window for pickup and to provide multiple copies of the bill of lading (recall we do not yet have internet, or wi-fi, or printing capabilities at the new house). I told the manufacturer that I was going to leave the air compressor outside for them to pick up. If it was still there in the morning, I was going to sell it and keep the profit. Two hours later it was gone.
Our kayaks, topped on Maya’s Audi, have joined her tiny house on our new property. Maya has suggested we construct a rail track so that we can do a torpedo style launch from the house. I think we may opt for a more traditional approach to putting in. My work for the day including decommissioning the tiny house 50amp circuit at our old house and installing a similar one at the new house to provide power for charging my car.
The family gathered today to bid farewell to our old house and to say hello to our new one. We started by making one last walk through all the rooms of our old house and recalling stories from the past. The kids relitigated why Maya got the bedroom with the fireplace and private bathroom while the boy’s bedrooms had neither. We then walked to our new house traversing our beloved field one last time. The distance is just over 1 mile as the crow flies, 2 miles as the car drives, and about 1.5 miles walking. When we arrived at the new house, Jeanine performed an ancient Native American spiritual ritual called smudging in which a bundle of sage is lit and carried throughout the home allowing the smoke to permeate the new space. This was prefaced by giving thanks to and honoring the Bartlett family who owned the house before us. It was followed by a visit from the Concord Fire Department in response to our smoke detectors going off. They arrived in under five minutes in full fire fighting gear on a big red pumper truck with the sirens blaring and the lights flashing. Let’s just say that we have made a dramatic entrance into our new neighborhood. Jeanine has now earned something of a reputation for setting off smoke alarms in our new homes. When we moved into our first house as a couple, she thought it would be nice to cook a turkey on our move-in day to feed our friends who were helping us. She placed a wet cheesecloth over the turkey which came into contact with the heating element and caught fire.
Earlier in the day, Maya and I moved the tiny house to our new home. Things were going smoothly until we arrived at our new driveway where a telephone poll necessitated a wide turn and I managed to get the rental truck stuck on a tree stump. Fortunately, I was able to use my chainsaw to extricate the truck and after a few repositioning moves we were able to enter the driveway and position the tiny house in a very nice setting. The video below shows the departure sequence which utilized a ramp to come off the leveling blocks.
Although we have been moving our belongings from our old house to our new one over the past several days, today is the day when we make the final transfer and begin living out of our new home. Before picking up the U-Haul truck that will carry the last load, I swung by the new place with a car full of more fragile items including all of my camera gear. Right on cue as I was unpacking my telephoto lens, the cardinal pictured above perched on a branch just outside one of the picture windows and I naturally proceeded to take a picture through the window. I could not help but feel like this vibrant little bird was welcoming us to the neighborhood and was very pleased to make his acquaintance.
I spent most of the morning and early afternoon loading our rental truck before both Maya and Kyle arrived to lend a hand with an extremely heavy granite tabletop. Working collaboratively we came up with a clever approach to moving it without putting ourselves at risk of injury. That same focus on safety was absent while I rushed to pack the last items into the truck. I took a step back only to discover that I had run out of truck bed and began falling. Somehow, I managed to pivot and get one foot on the ramp and then another even as I was falling off of that. Luckily, Maya was standing at the base of the ramp holding a 4’x8′ piece of 2-inch thick foam core insulation panel. I crashed into her and grabbed the foam core which I used to cushion my contact with the driveway. It shattered into a half dozen pieces and I walked away unscathed. The kids suffered more trauma than I fearing I had been very badly injured which would have been the case if Maya was not standing in exactly the right spot with exactly the right thing in her hand.
This was a Thanksgiving like no other. Our entire family tried to observe CDC guidelines and avoid further transmission of the Covid-19 virus. My brother Mark delivered a home-cooked feast for our mother who is not allowed to receive visitors in her senior living residence.
Nicolai cooked up a storm for his roommates in Sommerville including the buns pictured above and a reportedly overcooked turkey.
Kyle ordered a Chinese takeout meal and enjoyed it with his girlfriend at his new apartment just a 3-minute walk away from where Nico is living.
Maya enjoyed Friendsgiving with her roommates in Medford.
Jeanine and I, celebrated together with two surplus Open Table Thanksgiving meals which were really quite scrumptious. We will gather as a family on Saturday when the weather is forecasted to be pleasant allowing us to spend time outdoors.
Until we renovate our new house, the garage is going to be my makeshift workshop. I still have a little more unboxing to do but it is already operational and I was able to complete a number of small projects today, the first of which was the installation of a lock for the garage door.
Using a 15 foot U-Haul truck, I moved my entire shop to our new home in two trips today. Our plan is to complete a major renovation of the house over the coming year so I am setting up an interim shop in the garage. All of my major tools and storage racks are on wheels so that I can reconfigure them as needed to best utilize the limited space. On Friday, I will rent the same size truck and we will move a basic set of furniture and personal effects to the new house where we will live until the renovation work begins. The balance of our belongings are going into the POD we rented and will be placed in storage until the house project is completed. To say that I got a good workout would be an understatement. I decided to check my e-mail before taking a long hot shower only to discover that Comcast had discontinued our internet service 4 days prematurely due to a software bug in their online “Easy Move” tool. After 3 hours of extremely futile conversations with four different customer service representatives, I finally got service restored and will have that shower now.
The Mission of Nourishing the North Shore is to ensure equal access to healthy, local food to all members of the North Shore in a manner that builds community, fosters connection, and promotes dignity and self-reliance. Operating out of the First Parish Church in that community, they have transformed it into an efficient food distribution hub. Jeanine and a few members of her team recently visited the operation to see what ideas might work well for Open Table.
My soccer season came to a close this morning as we played our most difficult opponent thus far. We competed in Sherborn against Medfield on grass which is not our best surface. With half a dozen of our players sidelined by injury, those of us who were able got plenty of playing time. The first half was scoreless with many close attempts from both sides. In the second half, we gave up an early goal but managed to equalize shortly thereafter and to score again to capture the lead at 2-1. Medfield responded almost instantly knotting the score at 2-2. We spent the remainder of the game relentlessly attacking, scoring one, then two, and in the closing minutes a third unanswered goal to produce a 5-2 victory. Although this season will not go into the record books because of Covid-19, it nonetheless was our third undefeated season in a row and my first to complete without a single significant injury.
Ever since I started working in my late teens, I have saved all of my federal and state income tax returns. That’s over 40 years of filing documents, financial records, receipts, and other supporting materials. Today, I used the paper shredder at work to destroy all but the last seven years’ worth of supporting documents. I decided there was no value in continuing to store these in our new house where we are trying to downsize everything. I could not bring myself to shred the actual returns but that will probably make sense at some point. Pictured above are two waist-high trash bins of five that I filled to the top with shredded paper.
Every now and again, the combination of clouds and sunrise makes for a very lovely scene when viewed down the long extent of the field behind our house. Today we were treated to such a pairing. I am sure our new home will offer many equally enchanting sunrise views, but I suspect that they will be very different than the ones we have enjoyed here for the last 17 years. With that knowledge, I paused to enjoy this morning’s entire show which lasted for all of about two minutes before the vivid colors and patterns morphed into something much more mudane.
Last month we printed our first commercial part at Digital Alloys. The print quality of the tool steel part was fantastic but it took forever to print. Today, we hit a new speed record of 6100mm/min and we will begin the analysis to determine if we have been able to do so without compromise to quality. This represents a 61x improvement in speed and puts us above the threshold for economically attractive printing. Our next challenge is to achieve speed in this range on a much larger part.
When I learned that Bald Eagles routinely fish in the Sudbury River in close proximity to our new home, I could not have been more excited. Today one of our new neighbors posted the picture above of a bobcat taken with his trail camera which has me equally delighted. Although our closing continues to be delayed, we have made arrangements to occupy the residence until it does and took possession of the keys this morning. We will start gradually moving in over the next two weeks.
Yesterday afternoon, I started passing another kidney stone and the pain peaked earlier today leaving me in no mood for taking any photographs. Instead, I found another taken by Maya of her housemates. Bryce’s dog has since returned to his parents and Maya is going through animal withdrawal symptoms.
On the way home from my soccer match, I stopped to photograph a small herd of Holstein Friesians cattle which have been hanging out in a field near our home for several months now. Known as the best dairy cow bread, it appears these ones are heifers and not yet ready for milk production.
In an effort to get a more competitive soccer match today, we played a Division 1 over-49 team which were 10 years our junior. They requested modified rules due to Covid-19. Specifically, headers were disallowed, throw-ins were replaced by kick-ins, and slide tackling was not permitted. We were compelled to accommodate their request even though I believe none of these make sense. We were ahead at the half having scored a single goal. In the second half, one of our defenders cleared a corner kick with a header (very hard to change 50 years of habit) earning our opponent an indirect kick from very close range. They scored and we had to settle for the tie, an unfortunate consequence of the silly rule changes.
My sister Alissa is 4 years my junior and still strutting her stuff on the ballroom dance floor. I am glad to see that the pandemic has not prevented her from pursuing her passion at a time when we all need to be finding ways to preserve some semblance of normality.
I generally only post my photos on this blog, but occasionally I come across an image that is just too good not to share. Today, I have a pair related to animal photography.
I completed work on our expanded walk-in closet today and returned the original shelving and storage units to their original locations. The new owners are going to have custom-made, built-in furnishings fabricated, as was my initial plan. Until then, these should serve them well. What is not shown in the photo is the remaining 1/3 of the closet which should offer enough space to create a nice seating / dressing area.
Pictured above is the amount of junk we have acquired over 17 years of living at our current home, roughly 3 cubic yards. Next week it will be picked up and taken to the dump. We have done our best to recycle everything that has residual value or use but some things just need to be thrown away. I just hope that my extremely efficient packing of this dumpster bag has not made it too heavy for the waste disposal company to remove.
Followers of this blog may recall that we got into a bidding war for our new home, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars over the asking price and fair market valuation. Prices in the real estate market have been driven up by the Coronavirus pandemic in which many are seeking safe refuge from the virus in suburban settings such as Concord. We made some of that back on the sale of our current home which was buoyed by the same market forces. The remainder, I made back today when I sold several positions in the cruise and air travel industries. Both of these sectors tanked when the financial implications of Covid-19 first became apparent and I decided to invest heavily since the fundamentals of both suggested they would eventually recover. With the promise of an effective vaccine on the horizon, they surged to new recent highs and I walked away with a 2.5x return.
Jeanine has a new best buddy, Kobe. He is part of her posse enjoying the weekend together on Martha’s Vinyard. I had a productive day both on and off the soccer pitch. We played Hopkinton, the third-place team in the league, and defeated them soundly. I got my first goal of the season, a blistering half volley from the top of the box. It is the kind of shot that makes you feel like you know what you are doing. Unfortunately, two of our wing halfbacks pulled up lame with strained hamstrings, leaving us no subs at that position. We face our toughest opponent in the league next weekend and I am in no kind of shape to be playing for 90 minutes straight. I hope our manager will be able to find some reserve players to help us (me) out. On the home front, I was able to pack and move most of my shop from the basement to a staging area in the garage.
Jeanine is enjoying a much needed weekend getaway on Martha’s Vinyard with a small group of her gal pals. She spent part of the day doing “clam therapy” in her bare feet and will be making a meal of the harvest this evening. I took advantage of what can only be described as perfect weather to move a good amount of my shop from the basement to the garage in preparation for moving day which is rapidly approaching. Doing so with a hand truck using the sloping lawn as a ramp is much easier for the heavy items than the shorter distance up the stairs.
I find geese much less interesting than most other birds and rarely take the time to photograph them unless they are doing something interesting. Today, the field behind our house was overrun with them so I thought I would do a couple of group portraits. The first features just over a dozen, the second about a hundred, and the final one something in the neighborhood of 300. That’s a lot of geese.
Our goal is to pack the entire contents of our house (excluding my shop) into the tiny POD on the right. Impossible you say. Perhaps, but this is what we are attempting to do. The plan is predicated on selling most of our furniture which I have been doing diligently for the past several months and packing the POD from floor to ceiling. Only time will tell but I feel like we might actually make it. I will move my shop using a U-haul trailer or truck to the garage of our new house where it will be stored until I can prepare the basement for occupancy.
I have more than 50 for sale listings on Craig’s List at the moment, most of them for furniture. I am most interested in selling items that are either large or heavy so we do not have to move / store them. Our new home represents the beginning of a new chapter in our lives and we have decided we should give ourselves a fresh opportunity to furnish it. Today, I sold this set of wicker furniture to a couple who drove three hours with a U-haul trailer to pick it up.
