I returned to Concord early this morning for a soccer scrimmage while the rest of the family was still sleeping. My fall season opens next weekend and it was important I get a game under my belt before then. We played Lowell United, last year’s Northern Division 1 runnerup. We won 3-1 and I scored two rather nice goals. The first was off a break-away and one-on-one with the keeper. He closed rather quickly taking away my angles so I slotted the ball between his legs. The second was a powerful full volley from inside the box after the defense failed to clear a corner kick adequately. Torrential rains started in Concord shortly before the end of my game but the weather could not have been nicer when I arrived back on Plum Island shortly after noon. Jeanine and the kids had just returned from a lunch excursion to Newburyport and we all headed to the beach for an intense game of bocce. Father and daughter took on the brothers in an epic match which featured play on the heavily sloped dunes and among the rock outcroppings. The first game went to Maya and I as we spanked the boys. The second saw them rebound and beat us like a drum. In the tie breaker, however, our pinpoint accuracy and control of the pallino led Maya and I to a victory that we will savor until the next rematch.

As the sun began to set I asked the kids to pose for a photo and this may well be one featured in our Christmas card this year. Later in the evening, Nico and I returned to the beach to photograph and make videos of him using his recently acquired light gloves. These gloves have multi-colored flashing LEDs at the tip of each finger and when a skilled performer moves them in rhythm to the music it has a very hypnotic effect on the observer.