For years, Jeanine has saved the cutoff pant legs from Nico’s trousers. Now she has decided to make a quilt out of the them. Clearly a labor of love, I am looking forward to photographing the final result. Whether she will keep it for herself or, at some point, gift it to Nicolai remains to be seen.
I spent a good portion of the day scanning old photographs I located while cleaning out the attic. Pictured here is my future bride who is still just as cute and lovable today.
Part of our downsizing effort includes digitizing all paper documents and artwork for more compact digital storage. I came across this long-forgotten invitation I received to attend the 1976 Olympic Training Camp. It arrived after I won the NY state freestyle wrestling championship during the summer after I graduated high school. I chose to take a job with Bell Labs in the fall rather than training for the Olympics. Looking back, I realize what a critical fork in the road that decision represented. I am left to wonder how my life would be different today had I taken the other path.
Maya has been offered a summer internship at the prestigious Brookhaven National Labs located in Upton, NY on Long Island. She will be working for physicist Dr. Lijuan Ruan who is studying the fundamental properties of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The RHIC, one of two in the world, has accelerated gold ions to 99.995% the speed of light and achieved temperatures of 7 trillion degrees Fahrenheit when they are crashed into each other. Ryan has built a new detector to measure muons, heavier counterparts of electrons. By comparing muon-muon to electron-muon pairs, she is hoping to separate the production of different kinds of quarks (known by the whimsical names of “charm” and “beauty”) from the “shine” of this early-universe matter, known as Quark Gluon Plasma.
Maya will be assisting with analysis of the experimental data. The trick now will be to find her a place to live over the summer within commuting distance of the lab.
Our local great blue herons have established a new rookery near the Old North Bridge. I spotted about a dozen nests and it appears that at least three are active. Unfortunately, I do not think I will be able to get any closer than I did for the shot above which means image quality is not going to be optimal. Still, I will probably visit often to see if I can capture some pictures of the babies when they hatch.
My sister-in-law, Marie, and Jeanine left this afternoon for a yoga workshop in the Berkshires. Jeanine seemed very excited about the getaway until she learned that guests are encouraged not to talk during their visit. Can’t wait to hear the report when they return on Sunday.
While the boys attended the Orchard School in Indianapolis they became totally absorbed in the game of chess and were members of the school’s nationally ranked chess team. Many of the trophies that I photographed yesterday were from chess tournaments. Kyle was the Indiana state champion as a third grader and Nico placed second in the nation amoung kindergardeners (he is pictured below with the ninth place trophy from Super Nationals). Maya never developed an interest in the game but was happy to collect hardware on behalf of her brothers.
What does one do with a lifetime accumulation of family trophies when preparing to downsize? We could dole them out to each of the kids and I could hang on to the few I earned but where would we store all this hardware? Simply throwing them out seems criminal given that each one represent a tremendous effort and significant accomplishment (none of these are participation trophies). I decided to photograph each and every one so that they can be shared digitally into the indefinite future with no need for packing and storage. I then arranged the nicer ones on a table and took this “group” photo. I jumped into the final photo to lend a sense of scale. I may save one or two for each kid but will disassemble the rest and donate to a trophy recycler (yes, there is such a thing).
Jeanine and I tackled our walk in closet today as part of our spring cleaning week. I occupy about 1/5th of the available space. Pictured above is the top half of my area. Jeanine stood over me as I reviewed my collection of clothing providing stern guidance as to which articles needed to go into the donation pile. In the end, I parted with half my wardrobe and footwear. I then consolidated all of the family camping gear into the upper shelving areas. 3 sleeping bags, 3 tents, 7 backpacks, 7 ground pads/mattresses, 3 pairs of trekking poles, 2 stoves, and a number of other camping items.
I also continued to add to my Craig’s List postings with a kayak deck bag and youth sized PFD.
Today was the beginning of what will likely be an entire week of spring cleaning. Jeanine and I are systematically going through the house and selling off or donating items which we no longer use. When Maya leaves for college in the fall of 2017 we are planning to downsize and are giving ourselves a big head start. Furniture and electronics get photographed for posting on Craig’s List. Clothing and smaller items will be donated. Ideally nothing winds up in the trash.
Getting together with my teammates for a post match barbecue is always more enjoyable when we win. Despite giving up a goal in the final minute of our game, we secured a decisive 2-1 win this morning. I have lost my starting position to our new recruits (mere 50 year olds) but still play about 45 minutes each match. Our host this afternoon had an outdoor wood-fired pizza oven which we put to good use.
It has been 13 years since we moved to our home in Concord. While it can be seen in many photos I have taken over the years, the field which is an extension of our back yard has never been the sole subject of one of my photographs until this evening. Jeanine and I went for a late afternoon walk during which we enjoyed all the early signs of spring. I spent the bulk of the day doing household repairs including the replacement of our garbage disposal which finally bit the dust.
A few additional photos from the trip Maya and I made to California.
Maya and I arrived in Boston at 1:30AM this morning. As such I am deeming photos made during this trip eligible for posting today even though they were actually taken yesterday.
After another incredible breakfast, Maya and I started making our way to the airport for our return flight to Boston. We did so by way of Highway 1 with frequent stops along the coast including the lighthouse station at Pigeon Point and the beaches of Half Moon Bay.
