Jeanine spotted this rather large hornet’s nest attached to the gutter above our front door.  It is possible tomorrow’s blog entry will feature a picture of me on a ladder wearing a funny outfit or possibly an image of me laying on the ground in agony. Safe to say that Jeanine is not going to embrace a live and let live philosophy with respect to these little fellows.

UPDATE:  After considerable research, we have decided to leave the nest undisturbed.  The hornets will abandon the nest over the winter and since they pose no immediate risk to family or guests we will make no attempt to extricate them.

Canon announce their new 5D Mark IV camera today and I have decided to add it to my kit. Fortunately, I was able to return my recently acquired Canon 5DS (replacement for one of my cameras stolen in Costa Rica) for full credit towards the new model which has exactly the same price point.  Even though the 5DS is a 50 MPixel body compared to 30 MPixel 5DM4, the later has better dynamic range, better low light performance, a more balanced feature set and is a better fit with my needs. I hope to have the new camera by mid September.

Nicolai arrived in Colorado Springs today only to discover that all his stored belongings and academic research materials were discarded by the landlord of the home where they were being stored.  He lost all his clothes, furnishings, books, and his research journals (needed for his final project). He had stored these items in a garage being rented by four fellow students along with all of their similar belongings.  The landlord mistakenly assumed that all of these items were left behind by the former renters and called a service to have them removed so the place would be ready for the new tenants.  We are still waiting to learn if some of the items can be recovered and what restitution the landlord intends to make.  In the meantime, Jeanine prepared a care package with some essentials and I mailed it to Nico this afternoon.

Crane Beach is arguably the most pristine on the North Shore.  Although crowded, the beach extends for miles and it is possible to find unoccupied sections. Today, the family minus Nico (who is en route to Colorado) enjoyed perfect weather for an afternoon outing to the Atlantic Ocean.

When swimmers emerged rapidly and began pointing to the waters just offshore I immediately grabbed my camera.  I observed a fin surfacing from and disappearing into the shallow waters.  The movement of the fin did not seem particularly natural and I was left to wonder if it was not some kind of hoax.  That said, I watched for a good while and could detect no evidence of anything but the obvious that would explain what I saw.  The water temperature alone was enough to limit my entry into the water to ankle depth. The shark sighting only served to reinforce that limit.

Nicolai left this morning for Colorado College where he is set to begin his junior year. Posing here with his recently acquired Mazda which he purchased by himself and with his own funds.  It has been great having him back for the summer and we will miss having him around. I am already starting to plan a road trip to the Western states and will be sure to connect with him.  There is a chance that Kyle will join me for part of that adventure and it would be nice for the three of us to do some camping.

At about 3:20 AM this morning Concord was hit by an EF1 tornado (100mph winds).  Damage was extensive but limited to a 400 yard wide by half mile long swath centered on Revolutionary Ridge just above the Wayside on Lexington Road.  Thankfully no one was injured despite significant property damage.  Crews were on the scene working to clear roads and restore services to those impacted by the tornado.  Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito toured the area and received briefings from Kurt Schwartz, director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, and Town Manager Chris Whelan.  I happened to be touring at the same time and listened in on the conversation while taking photos of the entourage. Damages are expected to exceed $1M.

1957 – 2016

Today I learned that a former iRobot colleague was killed while on a lunch hour bicycle ride last week.  Mark was a senior electrical engineer who I will remember as being exceptionally friendly and good-hearted as well as extremely competent in his field.  I found this photo of him, taken during an engineering team building event, in my archives and presented it to his widow with two dozen others I had taken of him over the years.  It is impossible to make sense of such a tragic loss or to comprehend the impact on his family.  The only solace I can find is in the knowledge that he died doing something he loved.  Yet another somber reminder to enjoy life to the fullest every day. Mark was born one year before me.

For the first time in my life, I had a chance to watch a great deal of the Olympic Games coverage and really enjoyed the experience.  I especially liked the fact that I could watch the entirety of the freestyle wrestling (both men and women) competition, something that I was never able to do in the past.  Family favorites included soccer, volleyball (indoor and beach), gymnastics, swimming and track and field. The whole family gathered to watch many of the final events and it was wonderful sharing this time together.  With the competition coming to a close today, however,  it was time to turn off the TV and get back to work on some household projects.  As part of our ongoing downsizing effort, I decided to sell a bunch of photo gear that is not getting much use and posted listings for several items including those shown here.

Kyle turned 24 earlier this month but we celebrated as a family today.  It is the first time we have had all three kids (plus Johnny) under our roof at the same time in quite a while.  We are very proud of Kyle who is our first bird to leave the nest.  He is working for a financial startup in Menlo Park, CA where he shares an apartment with two roommates and owns his own car.  Since graduating from Santa Clara University with a degree in Finance and a minor in Computer Science he has completed his Series 7 and Series 24 financial certifications and is now working independently towards a CFA credential. Naturally, Jeanine prepared a small feast for the occasion including a very yummy cake that did not last very long.

Maya wrapped up her 6 week internship at the Brookhaven National Labs today.  Students are required to prepare a poster describing the work they completed over the summer and to present to colleagues, peers, and visiting family members.  Kyle and Nico traveled to Long Island to support their sister and I flew in from Minnesota last night.

I believe Maya found the internship to be extremely worthwhile but was also thrilled to be heading back home and familiar surroundings. Click on the poster below to learn more about the quark gluon plasma that was the subject of Maya’s work.

This week’s Concord Journal featured stories about three Calabria’s.  Nico was covered for his soccer exploits in Costa Rica and Jeanine for her new position as Executive Director of Open Table.  I was included in a story about my soccer team’s visit to Iceland.

The bulk of my time in Minnesota was spent doing projects around the house (installing sliding shelves in the cabinets which line the family den, helping to finish building a window frame, assisting Sophia as she hung a shelf in her bedroom, and putting up a curtain rod to section off the second floor office from the family area).  I did find time between projects to hang out with my nieces and nephews and to enjoy the wonderful food that is part of any Calabria family gathering.  Mark prepared the best steak I have ever tasted.  If he is unable to regain certification as a commercial airline pilot he has a bright future ahead as a chef in a 5-star restaurant.

Mark had a speech therapy appointment this morning and I decided to tag along even as a fire alarm forced us outside for a portion of the session. Mark has trouble with longer or complex words often transposing the middle and beginning syllables.  Over the course of my three day visit it was clear he was making progress.  He often comes up with translations that are absolutely hysterical as evidenced below when he tried to say Osama Bin Laden (Obin Salad Men).  Immediately after his stroke his transpositions were even more extreme; mosquitos = pisculators. Difficulty with many words aside, I had no problem understanding or communicating with Mark.

Today I traveled to Minnesota to visit with my younger brother, Mark, and his family.  Mark recently suffered from a stroke which has left him with some speech, reading and memory deficits. I am hoping to help him out with some home projects and clear him for use of his woodworking equipment.

I took the commuter rail to Porter Square where I was treated to dinner by a former colleague seeking some career guidance. I then grabbed the Red Line to South Station and the Silver Line to Logan. Mark picked me up in Minneapolis and I was pleased to see that his driving skills had not diminished one iota.

Despite a heat advisory for Eastern Massachusetts, my soccer team had two more matches today in the NESO New England Open Soccer Tournament.  We made our way to the finals where the score was 1-1 after regulation time.  Overtime was scoreless and the match went to penalty kicks where we lost and had to settle for a second-place finish.  I was happy to survive the weekend without injury and was pleased with most of my play.  I had two opportunities to score in the finals but was not able to find the back of the net. Fatigue and exhaustion take their toll on accuracy and this was also the case for many of my teammates.

Jeanine and I joined Tom and Karen Metzold for dinner this evening at the Mexican Table in Waltham.  Tom was my high school wrestling partner and we have remained close friends since.  It has been a bit over a year since we last got together and it was great to catch up with each other.  Earlier in the day, I played a pair of soccer matches at the NESO New England Soccer Open.  We won our first match 5-0 and our second 3-1 which put us in great shape for the remainder of the tournament.

Although I am still mourning the loss of the images that were lost when my camera kit was stolen in Costa Rica, I now have replaced all the gear that was taken.  I carry a camera rider on my homeowners’ insurance policy which covered replacement cost for everything.  Keeping all of my receipts and good records helped to speed the process and I have been very pleased by the responsiveness and service I have received from Safety Insurance.  In the future, I will back up my images every night when traveling and be extremely suspicious of anyone offering to “help” me.

I attended Open Table with Jeanine this evening to capture various photos for their website and newsletter.  Pictured here are members of the board of directors in attendance this evening.  Jeanine is now serving as the organization’s Executive Director.

Jeanine worked the Open Table booth at the Maynard Farmer’s Market. A careful examination of this photo taken by one of her cohorts will be worth the effort.

It has been over a month since Maya left for her internship at the Brookhaven National Labs on Long Island.  We have been missing our girl and I suspect she has been missing her dog. Here is a photo from the archives intended to cheer us all up.

Today begins the long process of downloading, culling, post-processing, sorting, and tagging the 4000 pictures I took over the last three weeks (the goal is to get under 1000).  I suspect it will take me about a week to do so while I also try and catch up on my blog postings. Iceland has an abundance of rivers carrying glacier melt to the ocean and most include several waterfalls along the way.  Each also has at least one bridge to enable car travel.  I would say that 90% of these are one-lane affairs of questionable robustness. Not so for this example which is typical of the newer bridges being built around the country to accommodate the massive increase in tourism that Iceland has experienced over the last few years.

Few things could be more relaxing after back-to-back soccer matches than a visit to the Blue Lagoon.  Here our entire team enjoyed the restorative waters and silica mud masks before flying back to Boston.

Less than 15 hours since our last match we faced our second team from Iceland this morning. The game ended in a 3-3 tie.  Let’s just say that the referee had a special place in his heart for his fellow countrymen. That said, a tie made it that much easier to socialize with our hosts after the match.  Originally, our game had been scheduled for the afternoon but we agreed to move it up earlier so that everyone could attend the huge Gay Pride Parade and Festival scheduled for later in the day.  Pictured below is the newly elected President of Iceland, the first sitting president of any country to address a Gay Pride event.

The parade featured performance artists, drag queens, and straight performers.  I literally had a front row seat to the stage show and was able to get some nice close ups of the performers.

Our last dinner in Iceland was a fine feast where we were joined by several members of the team we played earlier in the day.

The motivation for my trip to Iceland is to compete with my over-50 soccer team, Concord United, in two matches against senior teams from Iceland.  Our first match was this evening and ended in a 1-1 tie.  Teams here take some liberties with age and I was surprised to be marking a 42 year old Icelandic giant.  Even so, I did my job well and deprived him of any productive trips down the pitch despite his 15 year advantage.

I spent the morning on an organized walking tour of the capital with a small group of my teammates and captured many new sights.

During my last visit to Iceland I had to rush around the Snæfellsnes peninsula because I was running short on time.  Today, I revisited all of my favorite locations giving myself plenty of time to explore. These types of images do not lend themselves to viewing in small format.  Clicking on them should bring up a larger, higher resolution version.  I had originally planned a third night of camping but opted to travel on to Reykjavik when it began to rain.

I shot mostly landscapes today but I couldn’t resist these little ducklings.

It is important to have a full tank of gas and carry your own food and water in the Westfjords as you can drive for hours before encountering any services. So provisioned, I set out to explore, beginning with the western most point of the the country, the cliffs at Látrabjarg.  On the way I stopped frequently, as photo opportunities popped up at every turn including some rather unlikely subjects.

Most of the roads in this area are made of gravel.  Frequent rock slides and ever enlarging potholes make constant work for maintenance crews.  Because the roads are very narrow, you simply have to queue up and wait until the work is completed before driving on.

Látrabjarg is home to hundreds of thousands of cliff dwelling birds (it has the largest colony in all of Europe) including the ever so cute puffin.  I arrived at noon when most birds are off at sea fishing but I did manage to find some nice subjects to shoot. I followed posted advice to lay flat on my belly when taking photographs from the cliff edge. Extremely high wind gusts have carried many a visitor over the edge (check out the person in the photo below for a sense of scale and to gauge the probability of surviving a fall). Had it not started to rain, I could have spent hours here.

The beach at Rauðasandur (red sands) is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen and not a single footprint on it. Aside from being extremely remote, I would venture to guess that few humans would find the water temperature to their liking. The seals, however, seemed to like it just fine.

By late afternoon I was ready to make my way towards Grundarfjörður on the Snæfellsnes peninsula. I plan to camp there near Kirkjufell Mountain which I hope to photograph tomorrow morning. In total I spent another 6 hours driving today and welcomed all the stops I made to take photographs along the way.

I have never been able to sleep on a red-eye and such was the case last night. My excitement at being back in Iceland, however, was enough to keep me awake as I made the 6 hour drive to Dynjandi located in the Westfjords, the only region of the country that I did not reach on my prior visit. Fewer than 15% of visitors to Iceland ever set foot in the Westfjords and a surprisingly large number of Icelanders have never been here either.  It is by far the most pristine and some would say the most authentic experience of the country since the massive increase in tourism over the past few years.

Dynjandi is a series of waterfalls with a cumulative drop of 330 feet. The way the water fans out so uniformly makes it one of the most photogenic I have captured.

I made few stops en route to Dynjandi but paused for the ones shown below. A loyal follower of this blog requested more photos of bridges so I was on the lookout for good examples. I would say that 90% of the bridges in the country are one-lane affairs.

When the sun finally set at about 10:30PM, sleep came easily. I pitched my tent at the base of the falls where the thundering sound of falling water ushered in the best night’s sleep I have had in some time.

Jeanine spent the weekend in Stony Brook visiting Maya who is interning at the Brookhaven National Labs. Her visit was timed to overlap with the BNL Atom Smashing Fun Day during which members of the public get a behind-the-scenes tour of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and learn about the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle.

I bid farewell to Costa Rica departing my hotel at3:30 amm, flew to Miami and then Boston where Jeanine met me for a short time. She delivered a replacement camera I ordered earlier in the week and we caught up on the prior 10 days before I boarded a red-eye for Iceland where I will spend the next week.

By a margin of 6-0, the US defeated Costa Rica to secure third place at the 2016 Copa International Futbol Amputados, the teams highest ever tournament finish. There were a lot of hugs going around. Head Coach Lambert embraces Nico after his second of three goals in the match, a beautiful direct kick which he bent around the wall and placed in the upper corner. Nico kisses teammate, Foday, after he scores his first goal of the tournament.  I hoist the US team MVP with a total of 5 goals and 4 assists while he hoists the team’s third place trophy.

Professional television coverage of the game can be viewed at the following link.

USA vs. Costa Rica Television Coverage

The US fell to Mexico 2-0 this afternoon in a disappointing semi-finals loss. Mexico went up 1-0 on an own goal (one of our defenders tried to head a corner kick out of the box but only managed to deflect it past our keeper).  When one of our top players was ejected early in the second  half on a call that was universally viewed as incorrect, the US, playing a man short, had little chance of holding back Mexico. With only 6 field players, losing one is a major disadvantage.

Nicolai played well, as did the entire squad. He finished the game entirely spent and with an injured ankle. His availability for tomorrow’s consolation finals remains in question.

Although I arrived early for some photography, my main purpose for visiting Costa Rica was to watch Nicolai compete for the US National Amputee Soccer Team in a 6 team mini-Copa Americas Cup tournament.  The teams opening match was against Costa Rica.  Nico scored two goals and had one assist in the 3-0 US victory. The match was streamed live and Jeanine had a virtual viewing party with several relatives and friends.  Earlier in the day the team was treated to a tour of the brand new Stadium Nationale where I took this photo of him with Karuna. I have given the couple their celebrity nikname of Nicuna. Nicolai offered Karico as another option. We will have to see which one sticks. Without my good cameras, stolen earlier in the week, it was impossible to get decent photos of the evening game played under the lights. Tomorrow the team faces a very strong Mexican squad during the day and I hope to get some action shots with my back up camera.