It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. A more apt version of this truth when applied to me and my desire to play soccer would be “stupidity is the son of insanity”. Pictured here is the splint I made of duct tape and a cotton ball to isolate my injured and now very purple pinky toe so that I could play our semi-final playoff match this morning. We gave up an early goal and trailed well into the second half when we equalized with 20 minutes to play. With 3 minutes remaining I chased down a through ball from midfield to the end line and sliced it back to the penalty spot to a teammate who knocked it in for the win. It would be fair to say that this duct tape splint saved the day for without it I would have been incapable of playing at all.

After the game I raced back home for Maya’s soccer team end of the season party. The coaches reviewed the season accomplishments and recognized the girls for their effort, attitude and skill. Later we watched a slideshow of photos from the season and then by popular demand a video of Maya as she was first exposed to soccer (link here: Maya Goalie Practice)

Not to be outdone by her father, Maya and her soccer team also secured a first place finish in their division with their last game of the season this morning. We are looking forward to the official celebration party that will take place at our home tomorrow afternoon. I tried taking it easy today in the hopes my injured pinky toe would heal in time for my match tomorrow. No such luck but I did discover a work around. If I splint the toe in an arched position it does not hurt at all. I experimented with cotton balls and tape and think I may be able to immobilize the toe for the game. The question remains if I can fit this contraption in my soccer shoe and still run. Time will tell.

With all the rain we received this week rivers and streams are swollen everywhere. Also swollen is my right pinky toe which is causing a disproportionate amount of pain for the relative size of the digit. Hopes for a recovery in time for my playoff match on Sunday seem remote. I took advantage of the working holiday to make further progress on the fireplace renovation I started last week completing the tile setting for the base.

Occasionally the planets align for a brief moment and something exceptional happens. This evening, under the lights and a relentless cold rain, my soccer team faced Needham in a rescheduled match to determine first place in our division and promotion next season. Both teams were undefeated on the season and our last head-to-head match resulted in a 0-0 tie. I stepped on the pitch fully recovered from the string of injuries that have plagued me this year and played one the best games of my career in the most important match of the season. In the opening minutes, I stripped a defender of the ball and drew two others to the end line before splitting them with a perfect pass to a forward at the top of the box who touched once and easily beat the keeper to gain the early lead and momentum.

Shortly before the end of the first half I volleyed a rocket past the keeper off a rebound. The ball found the back of the net before I hit the ground after the goalie took my legs out. In the second half I scored again off a rebound, this time with my first header of the season. Beyond the goals and the assist, I played with an unprecedented level of intensity and feel like this set the tone for the entire team. We celebrated this pivotal victory afterwards at Serafina’s by which time the adrenaline had worn off and I discovered an excruciatingly painful injury to my right pinky toe. It remains to be seen if I will be able to compete in either of the two playoff matches (north vs. south divisions) the first of which is scheduled for Sunday.

This squirrel was literally cooked from the inside out when it shorted out the high tension lines that service iRobot. Shortly after 3:30PM power to the entire facility was knocked out. It was not difficult to determine the cause as the aroma of cooked meet could be traced to the base of the pole which carries the electrical wires which service the building.

With an estimated repair time of 2 hours, employees were advised to leave early for the day. Given the continued perfect fall weather this was a most welcomed gift. I am only sorry that it came at the expense of an innocent life.

A more perfect autumn day one could not wish for. The air was crisp and the sun was warm as I took advantage of my lunch hour to enjoy a long walk and being outside. I have a favorite circuit which takes me past this building but I have never really paused to admire its beauty. Perhaps it was the color of the sky or the fall colors but I found myself compelled to photograph it today.

Town governance in Massachusetts is at the same time an exercise in futility and a spectacle of democracy in action. This evening Jeanine and I attended Town Meeting where the major ballot vote was to approve a new $92M high school to replace the dilapidated CCHS facility. After contributions from the state, taxpayers in Concord and Carlisle will pick up the tax burden for $64.5M. Mercifully the question was called after an hour of debate (amazing what happens when you offer a microphone to anyone with an opinion and half the town a captive audience). Registered residents raise their ballots to indicate their vote and in the event the outcome is less than obvious they are collected and counted. Pictured here is one of three venues filled to overflow capacity and linked by remote video monitors as the measure was overwhelmingly approved.

Nicolai turned in a very respectable set of grades for the semester and with the term and soccer season now over, he had some time this weekend to just hang out. I photographed him before leaving for my soccer match while he was texting a friend and watching TV at the same time.

I played reasonably well with an assist on our only goal which was good enough to secure a 1-1 tie and retain our hold on first place going into our final match of regulation play on Thursday night. My right quad is returning to full strength and the numbness in that leg is ever so slowly diminishing. While I am sure this is a good thing, I must admit that it has been very liberating to play without any sensation of pain since the numbness set in.

When we first moved into our Concord home, Jeanine and I both disliked the casual brick hearth and surround decorating our living room fireplace. This morning I started a renovation project and made good progress between outings to buy materials, and shuttling Maya to her soccer game, guitar lesson, and a birthday party. My first task was to correct an installation error on the flue. Indoor air was able to flow freely around the closed flue because a large gap had not been filled. I built a frame from wood and poured in a batch of concrete which did the trick nicely. Next I removed the top course of bricks from the fireplace arch since they stood proud of the face by about an inch. Finally I used thinset to adhere cement backing board to the facade and hearth covering the existing brick. This will provide a nice flat surface to which the new stone will be applied. A sample tile of the marble is shown in the lower left corner of the after photo. I plan to complete the stone work over the next few weeks.

Clad in my slippers and bath robe, I wandered into Jeanine’s garden this morning searching for signs of the changing seasons. I am not sure what I photographed (although I am sure Jeanine will help me with the identification) but I liked the patterns and composition. Work was unusually hectic for a Friday which meant that the day was over before I blinked twice. Maya was invited by a friend this evening to attend the Boston Ballet’s production of Romeo and Juliet which she enjoyed immensely.

I recently built a very simple adapter that allows me to attach my point and shoot camera to our spotting scope. Some further refinements are needed but this morning I was able to photograph a rafter (yes, that is what a group is called) of turkeys who were gathered in our back yard. Nala was going out of her mind as we observed the intruders and I had half a notion to let her retrieve our Thanksgiving dinner. Fortunately, the memory of several recent jail breaks (traversal of the electric containment fence) informed my decision to keep her inside.

Last weekend Jeanine was in Lebanon, Indiana for her thirtieth high school reunion. Today I downloaded photos from her camera and found this one of her posing with the school mascot and yearbook. She reported having an absolutely wonderful time and has reconnected with many long lost friends. She also had an opportunity to visit with Bradley, her nephews son and her great friend Monica. I think after taking stock, Jeanine concluded that her life has turned out pretty well since high school. The other photos which included her classmates turned out too blurry to post but were clear enough for me to conclude that Jeanine is still the hottest girl in her class.

If I have an addiction, it is the constant pursuit of finding the right tool for the job. My tripod collection (to which I made an addition from Craig’s list this evening) is a case in point. Each one of these carbon fiber tripods is designed and optimized for a specific application. The ideal tripod would be weightless, infinitely adjustable and able to support the heaviest telephoto lens/camera combination. In the real world one must trade each of these attributes for another and hence the array of sizes, shapes and weights.My work horse is the second tallest but there is no way I was going to drag it to the top of Kilimanjaro (that application was better served by the second shortest). If I go more than a few months without using one of these then it winds up on eBay or Craig’s list. My passion for tools is in their use rather than their collection.

Incidentally this photo does not include the stand on which I mounted my camera to make this photo. Although technically not a tripod it is yet another tool in the camera support family. Speaking of families, I wonder if I could have saved money by buying the two big tripods first and leaving them alone in a candle lit room with some nice wine and mood music.

This may be the first Halloween I can remember with snow. As a result, we had less than a dozen trick-or-treaters and a massive oversupply of candy which I was very tempted to personally rectify. Instead, I decided to bring all the excess to work and distribute there in a reverse trick-or-treat scenario. Pictured here is the horse farm across the street. I liked the punctuation of the orange pumpkin within the otherwise gray-scale scene.