We woke up this morning to sublime light on the river and the season’s first frost. One of the things I love most about living in New England is the changing seasons. Fall is by far my favorite, with winter and spring tied for second place. It is not that I dislike summer, but I find it to be the most boring. Perhaps this is the photographer in me speaking rather than the warm-weather-loving homosapien. I have lived in California twice in my life, and despite the consistently lovely weather, I always found myself missing the changing seasons. Today feels like winter is on the way, and I am looking forward to the river freezing and the occasional blankets of pure white snow.

When Maya’s friend Grace asked if I would take a corporate-style headshot of her, I was more than happy to do so. I have known her since she was a wee-bitty high schooler, and I consider her one of my honorary daughters. She is an environmental engineer and will leave shortly for several months at sea aboard a research vessel. It was fun being back in my photo studio again, and I really enjoyed our session together.

I started the fabrication of 9 additional drawers to add to the 105 I have already built for various cabinets throughout the house. They are, without a doubt, the least satisfying objects to construct, demanding high precision and mindless repetition. Each box requires 6 perfectly-sized parts, a left and right side, the front, and back, made from 5/8″ 11-ply Baltic birch plywood, a bottom made from 3/8″ Baltic birch, and a 3/4″ bamboo drawer face. The box is joined with lock miter joints, which are very strong, easy to assemble, but very sensitive to even small machining errors. Tomorrow, I hope to enlist Jeanine’s assistance to glue up all of the joints. Because the joint profile is so convoluted, it takes time to apply glue to each surface, and all four corners must be mated at the same time. Having a glue buddy makes the process go twice as fast, which is important since the glue starts to set as soon as it is exposed to the air.

Two years ago, my cousin Gina and her husband Vincent were gifted with a subscription to “Storyworth” – a company that helps you to write a memoir for the benefit of future generations. Today, she shared their stories with close family. In addition to learning much that I did not know, especially about their early years and family roots, I enjoyed seeing photos of relatives I had not seen before. Pictured above is my paternal grandfather, whom we affectionately called Poppy. He was a professional sculptor with a kind and gentle soul. Below is my father, on the right, with his siblings, Ernest (Ernie), Antoinette (Bieg), and Gina’s mother, Jacqueline (Jackie).

While I have done a pretty thorough job of documenting my life for the last 20 years by way of this blog, it occurs to me that my kids and possibly Jeanine know little of my childhood. Perhaps, one day, I will try and document some of my early memories, and if I am feeling very ambitious, try to summarize nearly 10,000 blog entries into a somewhat more digestible form.

So much for my plan to surprise Jeanine with the new office desk she has been patiently waiting for. Nico helped me apply the finish last night after I worked feverishly over the weekend to complete it before her return from Martha’s Vineyard. First, it took over six hours to lure her to the second floor. I told her I had captured a field mouse and placed it in a cage in her office after earlier ploys did not work. This was very believable because I had, in fact, captured six mice earlier in the day. They had made a nest in the electric meter pedestal next to our driveway. More on this later. When she finally entered her office, looking for a mouse in a cage, she failed to notice the desk entirely. To be fair, I had constructed a mock-up that was the same size and shape to verify that she would be comfortable with the design. When it became apparent that she was not going to notice the new desk while still focused on the search for a mouse in a cage, Nico offered up a clue that leveraged her keen sense of smell to open her eyes (“Do you smell varnish?”). So much for my grand gesture.

Now to the mice. For the last week or so, our driveway sensor has been giving false notifications. The infrared sensor is located on the pedestal, which supports our electric power meter and a pair of security cameras. I decided to pull the cap off to examine the wiring for possible issues. What I discovered was a mouse hotel. Two guests made a sprint for the forest while a half dozen remained in their cozy quarters. I pushed the woolly mass into a deep 5-gallon bucket, where they now remain under house arrest while I figure out what to do with them.

Further investigation revealed that the wiring for the driveway sensor was fine, which led me to look into the sensor itself. I discovered that the enclosure was full of water, which was the root cause of the problem.

My soccer team will move on to the championship finals next week after defeating Lexington in the semi-finals this morning. We gave up a penalty kick in the 3-1 win and dominated possession for most of the match. Having failed to do so earlier in the season, I took an official team photo after the game.

Jeanine is enjoying herself on Martha’s Vineyard, and Nico just returned from Idaho. Wrestling practice starts tomorrow at Concord Academy, and he will be presenting at Sudbury High School for the Bionic Project, so he will be spending the night here to shorten his commute.

Jeanine is visiting a friend on Martha’s Vineyard for the weekend. I am hoping to surprise her with a completed desk for her office when she returns on Monday. It is an ambitious goal that may be thwarted by the late delivery of drawer hardware. Nonetheless, I set out in earnest this morning. Pictured here is the primary desktop under construction. An “L” shaped return will be provided by a double-wide filing cabinet. Initially, I had planned to make the desk a “built-in” by attaching it to the wall. This would have saved a bit of the very expensive bamboo plywood at the cost of future flexibility and ease of installation. In addition to the top, I completed the three-drawer cabinet that will support the left side of the desk. Tomorrow, I plan to tackle the bookshelf that will support the right side and also apply the finish.

When I was a young man, I could easily carry a 3/4 inch 4×8 foot piece of plywood unassisted. Those days are long gone. Over the winter, I will be building a new desk with drawers for Jeanine’s office and a new bed with integrated nightstands, headboard, and shelving. Moving 12 sheets of bamboo plywood, each weighing ~90 pounds, from the garage to my workshop proved to be quite a demanding job. I used the pictured contraption to move one sheet at a time. The task took the better part of two hours and will take the place of today’s visit to the gym.

Yesterday, I learned that another one of my high school classmates passed away. That makes 8 over the last three years. I feel fortunate that I am still able to do the things I do and am reminded to make the most of every day. In discussing this with a friend, I had occasion to retrieve a photo from ten years ago that I did not publish on the blog and I thought I would celebrate that memory today.

I have my parents to thank for the many positive traits I inherited. Flat feet are not one of them. For years, I purchased shoes with arched insoles, assuming this would help address my skeletal-muscular defect. I finally learned that the only way I could be comfortable was in shoes with dead flat insoles. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to find such footwear that also meets my other criteria for function and style. When I do stumble upon a shoe that works for me, I have learned to buy three pairs. Pictured above is my collection of lightweight trail shoes. After much wear and tear, the pair on the left is now relegated to yard work. I wear the pair in the middle almost every day. The pair on the right are brand new, and I will not start using them until my everyday shoes get demoted to yard work and my yard work shoes wind up in the trash.

This set of shoes is likely to last me 6-8 years. The reason I buy them all at once is that most companies revise their product lines every couple of years, and I want to avoid the lengthy process of finding another set that meets all of my criteria. To me, this seems like a logical solution. To others, a reason to question my sanity and/or intelligence.

A few weeks ago, I had an ultrasound, which revealed a couple of 3mm kidney stones and an 8mm bladder stone that I had to look forward to. Today, I passed the bladder stone. Mercifully, the 8.4mm long stone was only 4mm in width.

Jeanine attended the School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT, where she obtained her Master’s Degree in Intercultural Management. Last night we hosted a dinner party for a few of her former classmates. Phil, on the left, is a lawyer who now lives in Sydney, Australia, and will be staying with us for two nights. Dan lives nearby in Groton and does small construction projects while he is not building custom “catios” (outdoor, multi-level, open-air enclosures for cats), which are apparently in high demand. Jeanine prepared a delicious mushroom-based stroganoff that was out of this world. Lively conversation took as well past 11 pm, and I was amazed that Jeanine, who usually falls asleep by 8 pm, was still going strong.

Yesterday, the pair of GMRS radios I ordered arrived. They allow me to receive FM radio stations, NOAA weather forecasts, police, fire, and medical, as well as air traffic control and ham radio transmissions. I can receive all of these, but can only transmit on a specific set of channels. This type of radio requires a license to operate, but it is very easy to obtain and covers all members of the family. In essence, these are short-range walkie-talkies that also allow you to simultaneously monitor two different frequencies and cover a huge band of the radio spectrum.

I set one radio up to monitor Concord Police and Fire Dispatch. The other one is set to monitor air traffic control at nearby Hanscom Airfield. Because Concord is a sleepy little town, I did not imagine there would be that much action on the radio. The Fire Department responded to three false alarms, including the new Chipotle in town, the Concord Academy Science Building, and the Concord Children’s Center. All three were false alarms. I was very impressed by the speed of response. Each time I arrived, the firefighters were already heading out. The first call came when I was at home, so I decided to head over to Chipotle for an early lunch. The second two came while I was driving in town, allowing me to quickly divert to the scene. I was very impressed.

UPDATE: Later in the evening, I heard another call for a return visit to Chipotle. Four false alarms in one day.

I finally got around to setting up a proper photo studio in the basement today. Most of my time was spent suspending three rolls (grey, while, and black) of background paper from the ceiling. Each roll is 9 feet wide and can be individually raised or lowered with pull chains for quick background color changes. These will be used for portraiture and large product photography. I also mounted a 4’x4′ light tent on a mobility base. In the foreground is my camera stand, which allows me to rapidly position my camera almost anywhere in the studio. Think tripod on a mobile base with an arm that can reach out over things. Two battery-powered strobes with soft boxes complete the all-wireless setup. Slightly more compact than my studio in our last home, it is more than adequate for the type of photography I expect to be doing going forward.

Behold the tiny White-Brested Nuthatch. These birds are known for their ability to climb down trees headfirst, a behavior that distinguishes them from other birds like woodpeckers. Their diet consists of insects, seeds, and nuts, and they are found throughout North America in deciduous and mixed forests. They get their name “nuthatch” from their habit of wedging large seeds or nuts into tree crevices and then “hatching” them open with their bills. I spotted this one after waking from a long post-soccer-match nap. We finished our season with a 5-0 win and are now on to the postseason playoffs, which will start next weekend. I had a very nice pass to one of our best players for an open shot on net, but he failed to finish and deprived me of the assist. On a positive note, the combination of rolling out my leg muscles and a healthy dose of Ibuprofen allowed me to play free of hip pain.

For the first time in our 35-year marriage, Jeanine spent the entire day in her pajamas. I spent much of it experimenting with a new flash for my camera, using her as an unaware subject. The photo above appears straightforward, but it is actually quite challenging to balance the bright outdoor scene with the darker interior. Jeanine and I are relatively active, but something about the weather, the phase of the moon, or the prior week of gym workouts left us quite content just lounging about for the day.