I had a doctor’s appointment this morning which is located a couple of blocks from the Audi dealership through which I ordered my e-tron. I stopped in to get a status update on my car which has been sitting at the Davisville port in Rhode Island since June 3. I counted 8 e-trons on the lot, none of them mine which only adds insult to injury given that I know for a fact that my reservation was placed before all of these cars. After receiving exactly zero help from my salesperson, I reached out to a dealer I know in California. He was able to look up my order and discovered that the dealership had placed my name in the “notes” field of the order form rather than the “customer’s name” field which is where it belongs. He believes this explains the hold up. Learning this I was fit to be tied. On a positive note, I have had some very serious nibbles on my i3 which I am selling privately.

Maya, who turned twenty years old today, was treated to dinner by her former boss from Rolls Royce. She interned with RR last summer at their Indianapolis facility which produces jet engines. He wrote Jeanine and I a very thoughtful and complementary letter after her internship ended and was and continues to be a great champion for her. He is in the area on business and we were happy to have a chance to meet him and thank him for being such a great first manager for Maya. We will be celebrating Maya’s birthday as a family this weekend.

This week construction commenced on a new life sciences building located just a few blocks from my office. I spoke with the construction manager who told me it was to be an 11 story building with a 4 story subterranean garage. Scheduled duration for the project is two years. As much as I enjoyed watching the heavy equipment at work, all I could think about was the additional traffic this new facility will bring. City planners here seem inexplicably unconcerned with the traffic challenges that are going to hit like a tidal wave when all of the new office buildings going up in Cambridge and Somerville start operating.

I took my BMW into a windshield repair shop a few blocks from work this morning to address the small chip I picked up last week. After inspecting the dime sized crater, the technician said he would have me in and out in 15 minutes. Half way through the procedure he announced that the entire windshield would need to be replaced and showed me how an 8 inch crack had started to propagate from the original point of impact. Fortunately, it was an easy walk to work and they said my car would be ready by the close of business. When I returned that evening they were just wrapping up the job and I was very pleased with the quality of the workmanship.

For Father’s Day I requested a one hour portrait session with the family. It is a great opportunity to practice my hobby and it produces images that will be cherished forever. This year I purchased a set of tee-shirts that I thought particularly relevant for our family. Absent the usual grousing that accompanies such sessions, it was a ton of fun as the kids really got into character. Earlier in the day, my soccer team won our final soccer match of the season by a score of 3-0. We lost two midfielders to injury and I wound up playing an exhausting 75 minutes. We finished the season in first place for D1 South. Two more wins among the top two teams in D1 South and D1 North will determine the overall league champion. Hopefully my injured teammates will be back in action before then.

Before they had to leave for the airport and return trip to Minnesota, Maya, Jeanine and I joined Mark and Marie for a nice 3 mile walk to Walden Pond and back. Later in the day I assisted Maya as she began to install the flooring in her tiny house. Much progress was made.

Not a week after listing my BMW i3 for sale, I caught a stone this morning which chipped my windshield. I am fairly certain the repair will be covered by insurance (hopefully without a deductible). I have arranged for the work to be done next Monday and do not know yet if a repair or replacement will be required. I feel as though my car is trying to tell me that it does not want to be sold.

My brother and sister in law stopped in today on their return from a vacation in Maine. They will stay with us until their flight back to Minneapolis on Saturday. Maya took charge of creating a veritable feast which satisfied requirements for both the 30 day cleanse we are on and my brother’s list of off limit foods. Mark and Marie used their time in Maine to relax as well as to scope out potential homes/property for vacation and/or future retirement We are highly supportive of any investments that will bring them closer to Boston.

“Q5 is an immersive learning experience leveraging the curiosity, knowledge, and passions of students and faculty to foster complex thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. Q5 complements our academic program and seeks to inspire students and faculty to pursue shared interests and ideas.”

At CCHS, where Nico is teaching, they offer a variety of one week long, end of the school year, elective programs for non-seniors. Nico is staffing the All Things Paddleboarding course in which students spend half the day learning to paddleboard and the other half kayaking. Today they are headed to the Charles River and Nico will be paddling in style using the kayak I built several years ago.

On the day after climbing Mount Fitzroy in Argentina, I noticed blood in my urine, never a good sign. It persisted for a few days and then everything returned to normal. When I got back to the US, I saw my GP and then a urologist who ordered a CAT scan which revealed a number of kidney stones (5mm, 3mm x 2, 2mm). I decided to give them 6 weeks to pass before considering more invasive remedies. The journey from the kidney to the bladder can be excruciatingly painful (renal colic) and totally debilitating. The pain comes in intense waves that last for 30-90 minutes. Once in the bladder, passage out of the body is not as painful. Starting last Thursday, I have been having 2 to 3 episodes per day. Yesterday on the way back from my soccer game (non-driver in a car pool), I had a particularly painful attack. This morning, I produced over a hundred tiny stones, mostly sub millimeter, several 1mm, and a couple of 2mm. I believe that the strenuous activity may have helped break down the 5mm stone into all the remnants pictured above. Time will tell.

This morning we faced the top team from the other flight in our division, the Black Rhinos from Wellesley. We took a 1-0 lead at the thirty minute mark and scored three additional unanswered goals in the second half for a 4-0 result. I had a blistering one touch shot that rang off the cross bar. Obviously, it would have been far nicer if it had gone in but to strike the ball with such power is a nice feeling in and of itself. After the match I lined everyone up for a team photograph and could not be more disappointed with the results. I put the sun to our backs so we would not be squinting and had a fill flash mounted on the camera that was suppose to provide the correct exposure for faces. It did so for the guys standing but not for those on a knee. This is exactly what you would expect if you exceed the camera’s flash sync speed, which I did. When in that situation you turn on the HSS (high speed sync) function to prevent it from happening, which I did. Clearly, something went wrong and I have to figure out the mystery. Because the photo does not meet my standard, I will have to coerce everyone into posing for another one before the season ends. I will no doubt catch a bunch of grief when I request the do over.

Several years ago I tiled over our brick fireplace and hearth. Unfortunately the tiles that were subject to intense heat eventually cracked. Today I removed the damaged tiles and poured a new concrete base in the heat zone and behind the fireplace screen. Other than making a hot mess of the kitchen when I over revved the mixer I was using, the project came out well.

Maya is spending the summer completing work on her tiny house. What remains to be done are the built in cabinets and flooring. After about a week in the design phase she is now working on construction. Pictured here are a number of plywood panels to which she is gluing 1/2 inch solid stock edging. In the background she is doing the same to stretchers that will divide drawer sections. She is using a European style frameless cabinet to maximize space utilization and has opted for push to release closures to eliminate the need for handles. Eliminating handles buys back an inch and a half of extra maneuvering room for occupants of the kitchen.

I ordered a new flash for my camera system earlier this week and it arrived this evening. This unit features a round reflector in contrast to the rectangular system used by most flashes. The result is a much more uniform field of illumination but not the reason I ordered it. Whenever I use flash I make every effort to bounce it off a white ceiling or wall. When used this way the uniformity of light pattern makes little difference. What attracted me to this unit is a much improved user interface and mechanical coupling to the hot shoe. Anytime I update my system I put up the replaced item for sale. Below is one of two flashes that are now up for sale on Craig’s List.