The Concord Bridge, our local newspaper, featured a new section in this week’s edition. It is called “My Concord” and includes a photo essay and story about town residents sharing what it means for them to call Concord home. It has been something like a year since we submitted our narrative and images, and we had all but forgotten doing so. It was a nice surprise to learn that our family had been featured in the inaugural installment.
Jeanine had a play date with her friend Barbara today. The two could be heard laughing in the kitchen while baking an exotic holiday treat. The Kransekake (Norwegian) or Kransekage (Danish) is a traditional Scandinavian “wreath cake” or “tower cake” consisting of a stack of eighteen or more concentric almond cookie rings.
Meanwhile, I spent a good portion of the day in my shop building a bed frame. Given the simplicity of the design, I completed the fabrication work in a few hours, and now all that remains is to varnish the pieces before assembling them. Once moved to our bedroom, I will install the mattress support slats that will provide ventilation and a measure of suspension for the mattress.
Today, I completed the final component of Jeanine’s office furniture. The set now includes an 80″ x 28″ desktop supported by a three-drawer cabinet on the left side and a two-shelf under-desk storage area on the right. A six-drawer filing cabinet creates an L-shaped return, and a 90″ wide, 18″ deep horizontal bookcase completes the ensemble. In total, the contiguous work surface area exceeds 30 square feet, something Jeanine wanted a lot of.
Jeanine’s office will double as her sanctuary, with almost half the floor space devoted to a carpeted lounge area that will include a queen-size sofa sleeper and a comfy swivel chair for reading. The sofa creates a nice delineation between the spaces and offers a great view of the river.
I am very pleased with the way the furniture turned out and happy that Jeanine no longer has to deal with a temporary office setup. Next, I plan to tackle a new bedroom suite.
Much of western and northern Massachusetts received the first snowfall of the season this evening. Here in Concord, we are right on the snow-rain line with the temperature hovering right around 32°F. Even though the forecast indicates that precipitation will continue through the night, it is anyone’s guess what form it will take. I decided to clear the inch of accumulated icy slush at 10 pm as a hedge against it turning into a frozen mess by morning. I have learned from experience that snow blowers work well on fluffy snow, passably with slush, and are of no use against ice. If the temperature remains above freezing throughout the night, then my work will have been for naught. If it dips below, I will be happy for the preemptive effort.
Followers of this blog are aware that I am a big fan of Chipotle and that I have lunch there most days of the week. While the food is generally considered healthy, it is high in sodium, and the serving sizes are generous to a fault. In order to help me reduce my blood pressure, per my doctor’s advice, Jeanine reverse-engineered the Chipotle recipe to prepare a version that is low in sodium and packaged in calorie-appropriate servings. I call this food Jepotle in honor of the chef. The plan is to prepare a sufficient amount at a time to last for the week. I am enjoying such a meal as I type, and I am filled with gratitude for a partner who cares for me in such a meaningful way.
Jeanine and I drove into Somerville late this morning to join the kids, and Nico’s girlfriend Teddy, at Parlor Sports to watch the Chelsea-Arsenal soccer match. This “pocket-sized” sports bar claims a capacity of 45, but I counted close to a hundred patrons who were packed in like sardines, most of them standing. Fortunately, Maya secured a table for us well before the game started and warded off all would-be chair thieves until we arrived.
Jeanine ordered the final piece of furniture to complete her office. Over the last week, she has purchased a queen-size sofa sleeper, a comfy reading chair with a matching ottoman, and an area rug. Motorized blinds should arrive mid-December, and the furnishings by March.
Building a desk for Jeanine has had an enormous ripple effect throughout the house. The standalone filing cabinets that she was using previously have now made their way to my electronics shop in the mechanical room. Placing them under the workbench located there required me to build shelving above to accommodate the items I had stored below. This freed up enough space to give my test equipment (oscilloscope, waveform generator, programmable power supply, and digital multimeter), as well as my soldering station, a permanent home on the bench top. When all was said and done, I could not justify keeping two Hewlett-Packard instruments that I have had since my early twenties. One is a triple-output power supply, and the other is a function generator. I haven’t used either in over a decade, and I am determined to find them an owner who will put them to good use.
The hunt for a Christmas tree was the order of business this morning. Maya, having forgone all manner of warm clothing, was quick to identify a candidate. Kyle deemed it too skinny and continued the search. Just about the time Jeanine joined us after her workout at the gym, Kyle declared victory, and all parties concurred with his choice. It proved to be the perfect height and width for our space, as confirmed once in situ.
Later in the day, Jeanine and I went hunting for a far more elusive item—the perfect reading chair for her office. Her fanny sampled dozens of options in three different stores. She has narrowed the possibilities to a handful and will return to her favorites tomorrow to evaluate fabric options.
Despite the chilly weather, I was able to coax an outdoor family portrait with the full crew during a break from food preparation. In a departure from tradition, we ordered a boneless turkey breast rather than the whole bird. Even more unusual, I was charged with cooking it, possibly due to my knowledge of the steam-cooking options on our oven. It should be noted that I have never in the course of my life cooked a turkey, or chicken, or pigeon, for that matter. Undaunted by my assignment and aided by temperature monitoring probes and several YouTube tutorials, I will give myself a B+ for the effort.
Joining us for our Thanksgiving Day meal were our friends Barbara and her mother, Cathy. Everyone contributed to the meal in one way or another, and we were grateful to enjoy it together. I am thankful for my family, our good health, and the fact that my diet starts tomorrow.
Having used the credenza I originally built for my office to complete the return section of Jeanine’s new desk, I am now working on a replacement. It is about 1/3 larger than the original, and I think the proportions work much better as a standalone piece of furniture. I hope to have the full carcass assembled and finished before tomorrow, so I can take advantage of the extra hands that will be available to help me move it into my office. I enjoy building things out of bamboo because I love the appearance and the fact that it can grow back so quickly. A new shoot can reach its full height in about two to three months, and some can grow up to 35 inches a day under ideal conditions. Not only is it renewable, but it is also extremely durable. No building material is perfect, however, and the disadvantage of building with bamboo is how heavy it is and how quickly it dulls even the toughest carbide blades. I estimate the finished credenza will weigh in excess of 200 pounds. It is both a relief and sobering to realize that it will never be moved again in my lifetime.
For the second time in a week, we have enjoyed a spectacular sunrise over the river. Such scenes are not uncommon but extremely fleeting. The color lasts for less than 5 minutes, with peak intensity lasting for less than a minute. I ran for my camera and outside to the riverbank the second I saw the sky lighting up. Jeanine followed me from the bedroom but opted to photograph from inside the house using me in my bathrobe and slippers as a foreground object. I think her image may be the better of the two.
Last week, I shot a very similar image but managed to reformat my memory card before downloading it to my computer. I then spent more than an hour with a file recovery program to no avail. I am grateful for being given a second chance.
After a heavy rain, the river rises only to fall several hours later. If this coincides with an overnight drop in temperature, it is possible to wake up to “ice petals”. These frozen structures suspended just above the water are supported by plant stalks or tree trunks. They can range in size from a few inches to nearly a foot, depending on the diameter of the scaffolding.
Also of interest on the river this morning was a cormorant perched just above the water. I under-exposed to capture a silhouette, and I really like the composition.
This afternoon, my soccer team, the Concord United Dragons, secured the Division 1 Championship for our over-62 age group, soundly defeating our arch rivals from Everett by a score of 5-0. We have never beaten them so overwhelmingly, and it felt good to do so. Several members of their team play extremely dirty soccer, happy to injure one of us rather than let us score. Last season, when we faced them in the finals, the game ended after 8 minutes when one of their players had a heart attack. He was revived by a doctor who plays for our team, and we agreed to end the game and declare both teams co-champions. You might assume that saving the life of their teammate would have earned some goodwill, but that was not the case. The rehab work I have been doing on my hip has paid off, and I was able to play pain-free for the first time in months. My goal now is to drop some weight so I can return to the pitch in the spring with less baggage to carry around.
It would be fair to say that our attempt at furnishing our living room has been fraught with missteps. First, we had to replace a brand new couch at the urgent behest of our children, who summarily rejected our choice because it was unsuitable for sprawling out. Today, we said farewell to the coffee table I fashioned from an oval glass top and a bamboo base. It was notorious for bruising the shins of many a guest who failed to see the transparent surface. Today, we replaced it with “the pebble,” a design that complements the other organic shapes in the room. With any luck, there will be no further changes to this space.
On an unrelated furnishing note, Jeanine and I went on a shopping excursion in search of a sofa sleeper for her office. She wants to create a cozy space where she can sit with friends and provide a comfortable bed for a third pair of house guests as the need arises. We found a model that we both like and are down to the fabric selection process.