Yesterday’s first blizzard of the season was impressive. It lasted all day long and dropped up to 24 inches of snow in some nearby areas. We only received about half of that and it was distributed very nonuniformly because of the winds and drifting. Our new electric snowblower got its first real work out and I am happy to report it was up to the task although, to be fair, the snow was very fluffy and light. Still, it managed to chew through the dense two-foot buildup left by the street plows at the end of our driveway with little complaining. I did, however, deplete both sets of batteries and had to wait for a recharge cycle before I could finish the job. I should probably just bite the bullet and order a third set but at nearly a thousand dollars a pair, it may be worth putting up with the recharge delay for larger snowfalls.
The shed I ordered to house our snowblower and trash cans arrived yesterday at 2:30 pm. It arrived in a large box in kit form. With a blizzard forecasted for today, I desperately wanted to get it assembled and ready for use before the snow started. It took just over three hours to complete the work following 40 pages of pictorial instructions. It should have taken half the time but I was slowed down by the cold weather, a number of ill-fitting components that I had to coerce into place and the lack of daylight for the final hour. All-in-all, I am happy with the result and pleased with the aesthetic match to the house. I will need to add a carpet to the interior because the floor is dangerously slippery as things stand.
This evening we were joined for dinner by our good friends Irene and Eric. Completing the guest list was their dog, Cobi, who is an absolute peach. He is very well behaved and extremely friendly. Jeanine and I continue to discuss the possibility of getting a dog when our new house is completed. Visits with Cobi only increase the probability of that happening.
I have spent a good bit of time this week working on the mechanical systems for the River House. At this point, I think we will be using two cold climate heat pumps, one for each wing of the house. This partition is essentially the night time zone (west wing) and the daytime zone (east wing) allowing for a straightforward temperature setback strategy to save energy. It also means that we will have a measure of redundancy should one unit fail. Furthermore, the east wing zone is almost entirely an open floor plan which means we can use a common return, whereas the west wing is composed entirely of individual rooms which will benefit from having a return vent in each. Locating the HVAC trunk lines is the biggest challenge and I now have a plan which I believe will work very well.
Kyle shared these photos with me of his first 2×4 wall segment. Thus far, I have been leading the effort on his basement renovation project. He has been paying attention and learning how to use all the various tools. After our last work session, I suggested he tackle this remaining wall segment on his own. I wouldn’t say he is a master carpenter quite yet, but he is certainly off to a great start.
Jeanine received this orchid as a present and has been taking great pleasure in its care. It has bloomed for the second time which filled her with much joy. I was happy to oblige when she asked me to photograph it for her.
My work for a new client has been very exciting and I wake up almost every morning with a new idea to improve the design I am working on. It has been a lot of fun but time-consuming to learn about an entirely new field. In many ways, it is like learning to speak a new language. It took me days to get through a summary of the technology, having to stop every third word to look it up. Fortunately, I have hit my stride and I am very confident I can design the machine that will achieve the client’s goals.
Jeanine has decided she would like a mural on one of the walls in her office. We spent some time together going through my photo archive and she selected these three as her favorites. The one above was taken in Switzerland while we were hiking in the mountains during a soft rain. The hanging laundry was taken by Jeanine in India during her coming of age adventure with Maya. The final was taken by me of the Maroon Bells in Colorado while we were visiting Nico at college. Her first choice was the laundry shot but unfortunately, it was not of high enough resolution to use for the 11 foot by 7-foot mural. The angles in the Maroon Bells photo work against those in the room and the dark upper left corner would have made for an abrupt color transition with the space above the door where the mural ends. Hence, the Swiss House is on order and should be here in early February.
We enjoyed a lovely lunch with my nephew John and his girlfriend Quinn today. We met at the River House for a pre-demolition tour and a good location for walking their dog, Miso. We moved on to the Road House for a vegetarian meal and the opportunity to catch up while also celebrating his upcoming birthday. John’s last name is Quinn and Quinn’s first name is Quinn, hence the title of this post and possibly a foreshadowing of things to come.
Mercifully, after almost two weeks of intermittent service, our broadband network issues have been resolved. The root cause was determined to be a poorly secured cable connector located at the amplifier on the power pole at the edge of our property. It has taken a total of three technicians, three linesmen, and one supervisor to resolve the problem. Based on our own observations we determined the problem was exacerbated by low temperatures and made sure this morning’s visit was scheduled for a period of chilly weather. Having endured this major inconvenience, I can honestly say I would have preferred to have no heat than no broadband. Dealing with the front end of Comcast Customer Service is like dental work without anesthetics. There highly automated response systems and similarly-programmed humans are designed to deal with typical problems like the power cable to the modem is not plugged in. It is impossible to talk to them about a problem that does not fall within their framework without first repeating the same set of time-consuming and unproductive diagnostics. By contrast, I found their on-site technicians and technical supervisor to be extremely friendly, capable, and easy to work with.
Maya celebrated with her housemates after all tested negative for Covid. This, after completing 5 days of mandatory quarantine before returning to Olin for the beginning of their final semester. It appears to me that Maya has baked some rather yummy cookies to celebrate the results.
A few weeks ago, I built the platform for a utility shed that I ordered and am waiting to receive. It will be used to store our snowblower, bikes, and trash cans. Today, I placed it in our side yard observing proper setback from the house and our lot lines. I used a laser to level the paver bricks over crushed stone foundation. Jeanine and Nicolai helped me place the very heavy structure atop the bricks. I secured a weatherproof tarp over the platform and it is now ready for the shed which is scheduled to arrive within the week. It might not look so from the picture but it is dead level and insanely sturdy.
Between the snow and rain we have had over the past week, our backyard is starting to look like something of a pond. Fortunately, none of that water is finding its way into our house or basement. Maybe we should start calling this the Pond House rather than the Road House. This tendency to flood will be an issue in the spring when we are planning to host a graduation celebration for Maya and a large group of her Olin friends and their families. A tent will be needed to enhance Covid safety and to accommodate the numbers. April, however, can be a very rainy month. I took measurements of our front and side yards and determined we could fit a 30’x20′ tent there and avoid the risk of getting rained out.
Kyle left this morning for Florida where he is renting an AirBnB for a week. This will be his first foray into the Digital Nomadic lifestyle he seeks to embrace. Pictured here is what he calls his “battle station.” A lightweight, easy-to-transport computer setup with which he can do his job from anywhere in the world given electricity and access to the internet. His plan is to spend the winter months in warm climates and the rest of his time in Boston. The warmth and sunshine are good for his soul.
The month of January always inspires me to bring organization to my life. Today, I spent a few minutes designing some bit holders that I will use with my cordless impact drivers. The next time I go into Formlabs for my consulting work, I will print them out. The round holes are for magnets.
Our internet remains down so I spent more time in my photo archive. Today’s photo features Ted Lasso himself, Mr. Jason Sudeikis. He is seen here in downtown Concord filming Tumbledown, a romantic comedy. When our streaming services are restored, I think I shall see if I can interest Jeanine in watching this with me.
For the past several days, our internet service has been intermittent. It is amazing how much I have come to rely on connectivity for my work, the new house design, entertainment, and shopping. Stranded for hours with no network connection, I decided to spend time curating my photo collection. It is currently at 106,000 photos and I like to keep culling it back to less than 100,000. One of the photos I came across today was this one of Maya and Nala. It is one of my favorites from that time period.
With the recent passing of Sydney Poitier, many celebrities have come forward to pay tribute to the legend. One of his close friends was Harry Belafonte. When I saw him on TV speaking fondly of their relationship, it reminded me that I had a photo of him in my collection. He is pictured above, on the right, standing next to my uncle at his wedding. I am assuming he was his best man. My uncle Ernie was a professional musician and played guitar in Belafonte’s band as well as with Tony Bennet, pictured with him below.
Sometimes I acquire a tool that is destined to make me happy. Such is the case with this Austrian-made 3″ long, magnetic pocket level. It is engineered to be very accurate and the workmanship is superb. I currently own levels that include lengths of 12″, 24″, 36″, and 60″. Each has its own application and they have all seen extensive use. The newest member of the family will be invaluable when the surface to be leveled is very small and by virtue of the fact that it is tiny enough to be on hand at all times. Borrowing from an old adage used in photography, “the best level is the one you have with you.”
For weeks now, I have been trying to solve a mystery. This morning, I did so with the aid of my drone. With Swiss clock precision, at 6:55 AM, a half dozen or so cars will pull into the parking lot across from our house and line up in a row. At 7 AM, a large van pulls up and some kind of exchange occurs after which the cars drive away one at a time and then the van pulls away. For weeks I have assigned nefarious explanations to this carefully synchronized exchange only able to observe it from the ground level and at quite a distance. It appeared that the driver of the van was distributing something to the drivers of the cars and then they immediately drove off. For a while this seemed to be happening every day and then it stopped. With the benefit of an aerial view, the mystery has been solved. The cars are dropping kids off for some private school to which they are shuttled. It is a shame the explanation is so mundane. I had developed a number of mystery show worth explanations that were far more exciting. The break in routine was due to holiday vacations. What I thought was the driver returning from the cars were the kids sequentially leaving their cars for the shuttle.
It was a grey and cold day. I spent much of it indoors doing work for a new client and organizing my tools, something I tend to do every year at this time. I also spent several hours learning about the Insulated Concrete Foundation (ICF) system offered by a company called Logix. Our builder has recommended this vendor and it looks like a great choice. Jeanine prepared an exceptional minestrone for dinner bringing the day to a perfect end.
When she woke up this morning, Jeanine announced that it was a perfect day for cross country skiing. I joined her (on foot) for a nice tour of the Newbury Field trails which received about 8 inches of snow yesterday. It was nice to get out into the fresh air, especially since we have been staying home so much to avoid potential exposure to Covid.
We got our first significant snowfall of the season today. Concord received 6-8 inches dodging the brunt of the storm which left Boston with more than a foot in some places. It was my first opportunity to use our new electric snowblower. It handled the task well enough but my expectations were calibrated to the difference between an electric car and a gas-powered one. I imagined it might throw snow into tomorrow and alas it only threw it far enough. The cab I installed, as on my last snowblower, proved invaluable but I will need to refine the positioning when I get a chance. It took about 1.3kWh of energy to complete the driveway which was well less than the 2kWh of batteries I own. By way of comparison, my e-tron stores 83.6kWh. Imagine if someone made an electric snowblower attachment that connected to my car. I could plow the entire driveway in a few minutes.
Perhaps the only thing about our Road House that is inadequate is the size of the garage. It is a tight squeeze for two cars with room for little else. In particular, we have no convenient place to store our snowblower, yard tools, and bikes. Yesterday, I ordered an 8’x6′ shed which will arrive unassembled, presumably within 2 to 3 weeks barring any supply chain issues. Given the temperature today was hovering just above the freezing mark and it is not likely to get much warmer any time soon, I decided to fabricate the platform base on which the shed will be mounted. I used 2x4s to fashion a torsion box frame which I skinned with 1/2″ plywood on both sides (screwed and glued). It took me an hour to procure the lumber and 3 hours to complete the project working in the garage and on the driveway. It is as solid as a rock. The next time temperatures favor outdoor work, I will place and level the concrete blocks on which the platform will rest.
Pictured left is Maya’s friend Connor who has been staying with us for the last few days. This evening, he organized a family cooking party and taught us how to make potstickers. Kyle and Nico joined in and we also had a brief visit from Grace, one of Maya’s high school pals. Potstickers are very labor-intensive to prepare and a certain degree of finesse is required. Many hands made for quick work and also resulted in several unusually shaped dumplings. The meal was delicious and the joy of cooking together will long be remembered fondly.
While on a 3.3-mile exercise walk to the post office and back, Jeanine and I came across this walkway made of large (5’x5′) stones. I can’t recall seeing such a large flat top stone ever before. We both liked the idea of using something like this for the walkway to our front door of the River House and the image has been added to our idea folder.
DeWALT recently announced a new battery technology for their cordless power tools. It features a pouch-style lithium-ion battery instead of the cylindrical cells that are common to the industry. The pouch offers higher current output, better packing efficiency, and longer service life. The first instantiation of the new battery is a 1.7Ah version for their 20V tool line. I ordered a pair as soon as they went on sale in November and they finally arrived today. The new (5-cell) battery has less capacity than the current version (1.7Ah versus 2.0Ah), but is smaller, lighter, and can supply a higher current allowing the tool to perform better. It is obvious to me that DeWALT will follow this battery with a 15-cell FlexVolt (20/60V) version that will probably have a 5.1Ah capacity although nothing has been announced yet. Another logical version will be a 10-cell, 3.4Ah version.
Jeanine and I spent a good part of the day at Kyle’s place helping out with his basement renovation project. Today, we worked on wall framing and new window installation. We never seem to accomplish as much as we had planned on but things are shaping up nicely. Kyle is learning many new skills as we go and accumulating a good set of tools along the way.
Jeanine prepared a delicious salmon dish this evening to start the new year on a healthy note. Earlier, I was dispatched to the supermarket to retrieve a package of barley for another component of the meal. I added a pint of Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk to the basket to ensure we maintained a well-balanced diet.
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