Nico had an opportunity to play in an exhibition amputee soccer match in Times Square today. I had hoped to make a day trip to watch him play but decided the 8-hour round trip was more than I was up for. Fortunately, Nico was not without family in attendance. My cousins Anita and Jackie who live in the area were on hand for the match. Other than this photo, Nico has shared no details of the experience which I am champing at the bit to hear about. I am hoping someone captured video and will share it so that I may post it here.

Instead of a very long drive, I spent the better part of the day on my hands and knees laying a new cork floor in the entryway of our Road House. The effort was doubled because there is not a single right angle in the room. That combined with the need to trim around 5 doors made it quite an exercise in geometry. Fortunately, I can say the effort was worth it. I am very pleased with the result and owe a debt of gratitude to one of my soccer teammates who gave me the cork for free when his home renovation required less than he ordered. There is still enough left over to do the bathroom in Maya’s tiny house.

Growing up in Schenectady, NY, I was very much the introvert that I am today. I was a good student and good athlete but had few people I would consider real friends. Dan Neville was one of them. We attended Mont Pleasant High School together where we both were in the concert band, marching band, and cross country team. He was a gifted musician who could make a tenor sax sing like no one else. We shared many classes together and he was a brilliant student, the only classmate that I ever looked up to intellectually. He was also a kind and gentle soul.

By our senior year, we were spending less time together. I had dropped out of the band, was all consumed with wrestling, and spent many nights taking evening division engineering courses at Union College (nerd with a capital N). I was also dating my first real girlfriend and spent most of my remaining free time with her. After graduation, I lost track of Dan. Every couple of years since the internet became a thing, I have attempted to locate him with the hopes of reconnecting. This evening, I finally found him. Sadly, I am 13 years too late.

Dan died in 2009 of cancer and it was his obituary that led me to him. He lived in Chandler, Arizona, was a teacher, and is survived by a wife and son. The memories and condolences shared on that website paint a picture of the man I knew he would become. It is odd that I should feel so grief-stricken after so much time has passed. We only knew each other for a few years and yet I have carried the memory of that friendship with me for almost half a century. Dan, I have missed you but will continue to keep you in my heart.

Today, I had the occasion to search YouTube for content that would help with fundraising for the American Amputee Soccer Association. I came across a video I had never seen before of an international friendly with Costa Rica. It is possibly the only international competition I have not attended since Nico started playing amputee soccer. I was thrilled to have a chance to see what I missed. By my count, Nico scores 6 goals in two matches.

I also found a video of two of the best teams in the world, Turkey and England playing at the recent European Finals. I only wish US fans had the same passion for soccer. In any event, it is a great preview of what is in store at the World Cup which starts at the end of this month.

Renowned architect Steve Baczek posts a lot of great content on social media sharing his expertise in building science. When I saw the post linked below, I could not help but smile. He provides a very entertaining tour of our new homes future foundation walls.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CiJTRC2Drrm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Don’t forget to enable audio for the full impact.

The rain that started yesterday continued through the evening and much of today thwarting our plans to pour the concrete basement walls. Unfortunately, we will have to wait an entire week before the necessary people and resources can be rescheduled. This is very disappointing but I made the best of an otherwise unscheduled day to complete preliminary plans for the electrical wiring of the house. Above is the drawing for the first floor.

Jeanine shared this photo taken by her friend Aliza while out on an extended bike ride this past weekend. Unfortunately, the beautiful weather has given way to all-day rain. While much needed to break the drought we have been experiencing, it does not bode well for the concrete work we have scheduled for tomorrow.

It has been several weeks since we managed to assemble the whole crew for a meal. Nicolai has been all over the country practicing with his team for the World Cup (just 3 weeks away now), Maya was in quarantine recovering from her second bout of Covid and Kyle was in Las Vegas for a work function. As a bonus, we were joined by Sarinnagh, who is like another member of the family. We were all in Somerville to see Maya’s new apartment, located a few steps away from Union Square. She is sharing the third-floor flat with three friends (two from high school) and is now a short walk away from work. After moving to and from three different states for internships, in and out of her dorm at Olin every year, back and forth to Amsterdam for a term abroad, and in with us while waiting for her lease to start, Maya is really looking forward to settling down for a while. We are thrilled that she choose to remain in Boston.

We learned that Nicolai will be playing an exhibition soccer match in the center of Times Square next Saturday. Other obligations permitting, I may make the drive down with Maya. Meanwhile, Kyle is headed to Cabo, Mexico for another work function next week.

The formwork for the basement walls of the River House was completed this afternoon. Weather permitting, the concrete will be pumped in on Tuesday. I spent the day working with Kyle on his basement renovation, which is really starting to take shape. Jeanine helped Maya move into her new apartment in Sommerville which she will share with three friends. A nicer day you could not wish for. Jeanine and I enjoyed the last rays of the sun at the worksite and relaxing on an old bench with a commanding view of the river.

Passing kidney stones has a hard part (kidney to the bladder) and an easy part (bladder to the free world). For me, the first part usually lasts for a few days and is no fun at all. The second part can be delayed by weeks or months and is often triggered by airplane travel. This morning, I welcomed this fine collection of stones including one in the shape of a heart (if you are a lover) or an arrowhead (if you are a fighter). The long dimension of the triangle is about 3.5mm. I am now something of an expert on kidney stones but still have no idea why they always seem to arrive in large groups. Perhaps the big one makes a way for the little ones. I would rather pass a hundred small stones than one big one, much less a big one with sharp angles.

The side door entryway to our Road House is something of an oddity. It features five doors. One to the outside, one to the garage, one to the kitchen, one to my office, and one to the mudroom. It is something of a major traffic intersection and the floor has taken a beating over the years. This morning, I started a project to install cork flooring in this space. Step one was to lay down a substrate, in this case, 3/4 inch Advantech (we will be using the 1-1/8″ version for the River House sub-flooring). I used glue and screws to secure it. Next, I need to fill the screw holes and board seems. Cork will telegraph the slightest imperfections from below, so I will take my time to ensure this gets done right. I hope to install and seal the cork over the long weekend.

I have spent a considerable amount of time evaluating different options for lighting and lighting control for the River House. I have settled on Leviton Decora Smart Wi-Fi Motion Sensing Dimmers for control. 36 of the 38 lighting circuits in the house will be fitted with this switch. The device is highly programmable and can be configured as a regular dimmer switch, an occupancy dimmer, or a vacancy dimmer. Every light will be controllable from my phone, the internet, or any of the voice assistants (Siri, in our case). The switches can communicate with each other as well (motion at the top of the stairs turns on lights at the bottom of the stairs). 36 motion sensors spread throughout the house also make for one hell of a security system. I also spent several days evaluating recessed LED lighting fixtures and have selected the 4″ Halo HLB4069FS1EMWR which will be used in 76 places. I down selected from over a dozen units based on the following characteristics: cost, appearance, total lumens, lumens/watt, color temperature, ability to dim, color rendition index, beam angle, ability to use in showers, ability to use in contact with insulation, size of the connection box, style of connectors, ability to daisy-chain, built-in wire clamps. I then ordered one of each of the top three choices. I then wired them up to my chosen dimmer switch and tested them for: flicker, acoustic anomalies (hum or buzz at all lighting levels), ability to dim to near zero, ability to mount directly under a ceiling joist, spring tension to hold fast to ceiling, quality of diffused light (analyzed the shadows, looked for hot spots), mounted on the ceiling and observed light spread to determine optimal spacing.

Some people (including close family members) think I am insane for investing this kind of effort for something as mundane as lights and switches. The fact is, I enjoy doing this type of research and investigation. Moreover, the investment in time now will pay dividends in the future. I will be happy every time a light in an unoccupied room turns itself off and when I tell Siri to turn off all the lights in the house when going to bed or to set the lighting scene for a dinner party with one command.

One of the projects I am working on for a client involves dispensing a precise amount of powder to be mixed with a solvent. For the moment, I have settled on a vibratory dispenser and spent some time today testing an inexpensive unit I purchased on Amazon. It performed as expected but I learned that vibration frequency was possibly even more important than intensity in determining flow rate. I did my initial experiments with salt (because it was handy) and need to repeat with the actual powders of interest.

On my way home from my soccer match this morning, I noticed this newly completed house which shares some design elements with our new house project. Jeanine and I returned later in the day to check it out more thoroughly. Naturally, the outing ended at Kimball Farms for ice cream.

The soccer team I am playing with this season has many talented individuals but we have not learned to play as a team yet. We faced last year’s league champions in our opening match with many of our players still on vacation. The result was a predictable 0-4 drubbing. I played for 70 minutes and had our only shot on goal, a header off a corner that just skimmed the outside of the post.

Floor framing is generally very straightforward. When you are hell-bent on having zero ductwork or pipes on the ceiling of your basement, it is anything but. Access to the joist bays from the mechanical room has to be very carefully thought out to ensure that supply and return ducts have a path through the labyrinth to the necessary locations. Add in a ventilation system with 32 supply/return tubes and you have a real puzzle on your hands. Happily, I have come up with a plan which should satisfy all the objectives.