Recent snow, freezing rain, and sleet have left most driveways in our neighborhood covered in thick, bumpy ice. I am pleased to report that our drive is in excellent shape and to share the reason why. Our most recent precipitation event took the form of 4″ of dry snow followed by an inch or so of sleet and freezing rain. The trick was to snow-blow the snow the moment it started switching to sleet (4 AM) and then to snow-blow and shovel again when the sleet stopped and before temperatures dropped below freezing (8 AM).
I have spent the better part of the last three days editing over 3000 individual posts on this blog to remove advertising content that was inserted by a malicious attack. Ice-covered streets and sub-zero wind chill temperatures have made it easy to focus on the task. The last repaired entry included the image shown here which I thought I would repost. Has there ever been a more angelic child?
Left to my own devices, I buy over-salted soup in a can. Fortunately, I had the good sense to marry Jeanine, who creates masterpieces from healthy ingredients. Yummy.
Occasionally, it is fun to look back in time. Today, we venture to February 2005, when the family was on vacation in Florida. As I recall, I had to twist a few arms to convince the kids they would enjoy a visit to the Kennedy Space Center, given their strong preference to remain at Disney World for an extra day. When we see the kids (Maya and Nico; Kyle is still in South America) next weekend, I will inquire as to what they remember of the visit.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, I treated the love of my life to breakfast in bed. The menu included a red pepper, onion, cheddar cheese omelet, sourdough toast, orange slices, and coffee with frothed whole milk. Later in the morning, we drove to Gloucester, where we had lunch at George’s. I ordered a Reuben sandwich, the best one I have ever had in my life. Thus fortified, we continued to Niles Beach, where we started a walk to the Eastern Point Lighthouse. Although the air temperature was in the low 30s, the high winds made for a very chilly outing. We continued our adventure with a stop in Rockport before returning home.
In mid-July, we will be traveling to Galway, Ireland, to attend the wedding of Brooke and my nephew, Mario. He is the first of his generation of Calabria’s to get married, and we are thrilled for him. Brooke is the nicest person you will ever meet, and we are delighted she will join our family. Mario is the son of my brother Mark, who also got married in Galway. Our entire family plans to attend the wedding, although Nico may have a schedule conflict with the World Cup qualifier tournament.
Concord is well known for its poor cell phone coverage/reception. This is due to the community’s disdain for cell phone towers and the consequent lack thereof. Finally, however, approval has been granted for a new tower to be constructed on the town’s retired landfill site. I am hopeful, that this will improved service at our house which is less than 1-1/2 miles away. What remains to be seen is how the ~175 foot hill that lies between us and the antenna will impact coverage.
Until today, we have not seen icicles hanging from our roof, something that was a frequent occurrence at our prior homes. The pictured icicles looked like a frozen crashing wave and were only present on our garage, which is unheated and uninsulated. In the winter, the air temperature in the garage is always higher than the outside air due to three sources of heating; (1) solar heating of the outside walls, (2) thermal bleed from the wall shared with the house, and (3) the heat thrown off by the electric cars after being driven. It is easy to imagine a scenario where the garage roof becomes warm enough to melt snow while the outside air temperature is below freezing. By contrast, the roof over our living areas are highly insulated and made from light-colored aluminum which reflects solar radiation. The surface is much less likely to ever become warm enough to melt snow while outside temperatures are cold enough to make icicles.
While on a walk in the neighborhood today, Jeanine and I came across this shoveled-off area of ice in the woods. Jeanine postulated that the unshoveled area in the center was formed in the shape of a football and that this was a tribute of some kind to the Super Bowl. I theorized that this small patch of ice was cleared to form a mini ice rink, although there were no carved tracks to support this idea. For now, this sighting will remain a mystery.
Last night, we received only 4″ of the forecasted 5-8″ of snow for our area. This was just fine by me, as it is my job to clear the drive and walkway. This photo is courtesy of our surveillance system, which e-mails me photos of anyone entering or leaving our driveway. Our snowblower is battery-powered and thus far has managed to clear everything on a single set of fully charged batteries. I always have a second set on trickle charge, should they be required for deeper or wetter snow.
Jeanine and I took advantage of the perfect winter day for a half-day road trip to Boston’s south shore. Our first destination was the Scituate Lighthouse, which we reached by way of a 3-mile walk around the Scituate Harbor. We rewarded our effort with lunch at the Lucky Finn Cafe, which lived up to its reputation.
Our next stop was the Lawson Tower. Described as the most beautiful, most photographed, and most expensive water tower in the world, it is said that Lawson’s wife Jeannie was thrilled with her new home until, in 1901, the Scituate Water Co. decided to build a 276,000 gallon, 153’ high steel water tank in the town center. Mrs. Lawson saw this massive standpipe as a monstrosity and urged her husband to do something about it. Having made a fortune in the stock market, he was happy to oblige her wish.
Our stop at Cohasset Cove was the first place we observed sea ice. The cove is fed by a brook whose fresh water mixes with the salt water, resulting in a brine that freezes at higher temperatures.
Glastonbury Abbey in Hingham, was founded in 1954, and is part of the Swiss-American Benedictine Congregation. This property was previously the summer estate of William Skilton, a wool merchant who had died in the early 1930s. After Skilton’s death, the estate served various purposes, including being used as an inn, dance parlor, bachelor officers’ quarters during World War II, and a day camp. Pictured below is the observation tower.
We ended the day beach-combing on Nantasket Beach where we collected several lovely shells and completed Jeanine’s 10,000 steps for the day.
Kyle has moved on from Santa Marta to Medellin, which he describes as his favorite city in Columbia so far. I have little doubt that this has something to do with the food he is enjoying. When I last spoke to him, he was considering extending his travel to either Ecuador or Peru.
When designing our house, we hired a close friend to help design some of our interior spaces. Her plan for the first-floor half bath included four square framed black and white photos taken from a single image. Jeanine and I both loved the idea, but finding the right photo has taken some time. Pictured above is our choice. It captures the river theme of our home, and the North Bridge is arguably the most iconic landmark in Concord. Jeanine would have preferred a non-winter version (of which I have many), but I believe the snow adds significant drama in a black and white rendering. In the final installation, the frames will be separated by an inch or two.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
