My cousin Heather and her husband Burton celebrate the gradation of their daughter Toni from Wesleyan University. Toni is now off to dance for 6 weeks at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. She plans to dance and choreograph as much as she can during the next few years and then go on to graduate studies.
Maya has become quite proficient and fearless about extracting her own teeth when the time comes. We spent some time examining her molar and it appears that she clenches her teeth at night (like her father) so a night guard is probably in her future.
This evening, I worked late and had dinner in Harvard Square, where I took this photo. Jeanine returned from Indianapolis near midnight, so I opted to stay downtown rather than make the trip twice in one day.
While we hold down the fort in Concord, Jeanine attends a celebration for her nephew Luke to commemorate his graduation from North Central High School in Indianapolis. Luke plans to attend the Heron Art School in the fall and his girlfriend Audrey will go on to the Pratt School of Design in New York City.
Playing soccer on crutches can’t be easy but then again, Nico is able to make shots others cannot. Here he rises up to make a perfect pass over the defense and onto the foot of a waiting forward. For what he lacks in speed he more than makes up for with deadly accuracy and thoughtful distribution. After his game we checked in with Maya who was on her way to soccer practice and then left for Lancaster to watch Kyle play in his second match of the day in the State Cup tournament. Twenty five minutes into the trip it was raining so hard that we decided to return to Concord. We were both in the mood for cow (as Nicolai describes his carnivorous craving) and satisfied that craving with a nice dinner at a local pub.
Today the family had a mere 4 soccer games and one soccer practice. Although Nico’s team lost he had a very nice assist and won several headers. I was back on the pitch for the first time in several weeks having nursed my injured knee back into service. I was only able to play at about 85% intensity and am still unable to take a shot with my right leg. Still, I was able to contribute to the team. Even though we lost, I was happy to be back in the game and to have emerged without a relapse.
Kyle played in the first round of the Massachusetts State Cup Soccer Tournament and his team came away with a decisive 6-0 win. Kyle spent several hours doing landscape work before the game so I think it was fortunate the competition was relatively weak. Tomorrow he has two more games to finish the first round and the opponents are some of the top teams in the state.
Nico refereeed two games today. Fortuanately, one of them was Maya’s which allowed me to combine one trip. During halftime he entertains himself at center field.
Maya fends off a larger defender as she carries the ball down the field. Maya made several forceful attacking runs and helped her team to an exciting 2-1 victory. Jeanine left for Indianapolis yesterday where she is celebrating with her sisters the high school graduation of her nephew Luke. I am left alone to run the Calabria taxi service.
Although I miss the natural beauty of my commute route to Avid, my Sonos commute is not without interest. This sculpture, titled On The Bri-n-ck, was designed by students in Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. It was constructed robotically from uniform 2×4 pine wood blocks and glue. The setting does not lend itself to photography but I will return again with an ultra-wide angle lens and see if I can capture an image which better portrays the unique work of art.
Occasionally Jeanine will wake up before I do and can either be found at her computer writing or on the sun porch recovering from writing.
Yesterday I received a call from the father of Kyle’s (pictured on the left at age 8) childhood best friend. Tucker, now a strapping 180 pound, six foot tall, multi-sport athlete (but not wrestling) recently took on the heavy weight wrestler from his school’s team and pinned him three times in as many minutes. He told his father that I would be proud of him given I shared some of my techniques with him when he was a youngster. His dad called me to pass along the message and it reminded me of this sumo wrestling photo I took of the boys when we lived in Indianapolis.
It occurred to me today that I did not include any photos of the ocean from our Ferry Beach excursion last weekend. Pictured here are the dunes which have been recently seeded with local grasses to help minimize further erosion.
Another Ferry Beach weekend comes to a close and we leave for home with fond memories and nourished souls.