Having used the credenza I originally built for my office to complete the return section of Jeanine’s new desk, I am now working on a replacement. It is about 1/3 larger than the original, and I think the proportions work much better as a standalone piece of furniture. I hope to have the full carcass assembled and finished before tomorrow, so I can take advantage of the extra hands that will be available to help me move it into my office. I enjoy building things out of bamboo because I love the appearance and the fact that it can grow back so quickly. A new shoot can reach its full height in about two to three months, and some can grow up to 35 inches a day under ideal conditions. Not only is it renewable, but it is also extremely durable. No building material is perfect, however, and the disadvantage of building with bamboo is how heavy it is and how quickly it dulls even the toughest carbide blades. I estimate the finished credenza will weigh in excess of 200 pounds. It is both a relief and sobering to realize that it will never be moved again in my lifetime.

For the second time in a week, we have enjoyed a spectacular sunrise over the river. Such scenes are not uncommon but extremely fleeting. The color lasts for less than 5 minutes, with peak intensity lasting for less than a minute. I ran for my camera and outside to the riverbank the second I saw the sky lighting up. Jeanine followed me from the bedroom but opted to photograph from inside the house using me in my bathrobe and slippers as a foreground object. I think her image may be the better of the two.

Last week, I shot a very similar image but managed to reformat my memory card before downloading it to my computer. I then spent more than an hour with a file recovery program to no avail. I am grateful for being given a second chance.

After a heavy rain, the river rises only to fall several hours later. If this coincides with an overnight drop in temperature, it is possible to wake up to “ice petals”. These frozen structures suspended just above the water are supported by plant stalks or tree trunks. They can range in size from a few inches to nearly a foot, depending on the diameter of the scaffolding.

Also of interest on the river this morning was a cormorant perched just above the water. I under-exposed to capture a silhouette, and I really like the composition.

This afternoon, my soccer team, the Concord United Dragons, secured the Division 1 Championship for our over-62 age group, soundly defeating our arch rivals from Everett by a score of 5-0. We have never beaten them so overwhelmingly, and it felt good to do so. Several members of their team play extremely dirty soccer, happy to injure one of us rather than let us score. Last season, when we faced them in the finals, the game ended after 8 minutes when one of their players had a heart attack. He was revived by a doctor who plays for our team, and we agreed to end the game and declare both teams co-champions. You might assume that saving the life of their teammate would have earned some goodwill, but that was not the case. The rehab work I have been doing on my hip has paid off, and I was able to play pain-free for the first time in months. My goal now is to drop some weight so I can return to the pitch in the spring with less baggage to carry around.

It would be fair to say that our attempt at furnishing our living room has been fraught with missteps. First, we had to replace a brand new couch at the urgent behest of our children, who summarily rejected our choice because it was unsuitable for sprawling out. Today, we said farewell to the coffee table I fashioned from an oval glass top and a bamboo base. It was notorious for bruising the shins of many a guest who failed to see the transparent surface. Today, we replaced it with “the pebble,” a design that complements the other organic shapes in the room. With any luck, there will be no further changes to this space.

On an unrelated furnishing note, Jeanine and I went on a shopping excursion in search of a sofa sleeper for her office. She wants to create a cozy space where she can sit with friends and provide a comfortable bed for a third pair of house guests as the need arises. We found a model that we both like and are down to the fabric selection process.

We woke up this morning to sublime light on the river and the season’s first frost. One of the things I love most about living in New England is the changing seasons. Fall is by far my favorite, with winter and spring tied for second place. It is not that I dislike summer, but I find it to be the most boring. Perhaps this is the photographer in me speaking rather than the warm-weather-loving homosapien. I have lived in California twice in my life, and despite the consistently lovely weather, I always found myself missing the changing seasons. Today feels like winter is on the way, and I am looking forward to the river freezing and the occasional blankets of pure white snow.

When Maya’s friend Grace asked if I would take a corporate-style headshot of her, I was more than happy to do so. I have known her since she was a wee-bitty high schooler, and I consider her one of my honorary daughters. She is an environmental engineer and will leave shortly for several months at sea aboard a research vessel. It was fun being back in my photo studio again, and I really enjoyed our session together.

I started the fabrication of 9 additional drawers to add to the 105 I have already built for various cabinets throughout the house. They are, without a doubt, the least satisfying objects to construct, demanding high precision and mindless repetition. Each box requires 6 perfectly-sized parts, a left and right side, the front, and back, made from 5/8″ 11-ply Baltic birch plywood, a bottom made from 3/8″ Baltic birch, and a 3/4″ bamboo drawer face. The box is joined with lock miter joints, which are very strong, easy to assemble, but very sensitive to even small machining errors. Tomorrow, I hope to enlist Jeanine’s assistance to glue up all of the joints. Because the joint profile is so convoluted, it takes time to apply glue to each surface, and all four corners must be mated at the same time. Having a glue buddy makes the process go twice as fast, which is important since the glue starts to set as soon as it is exposed to the air.

Two years ago, my cousin Gina and her husband Vincent were gifted with a subscription to “Storyworth” – a company that helps you to write a memoir for the benefit of future generations. Today, she shared their stories with close family. In addition to learning much that I did not know, especially about their early years and family roots, I enjoyed seeing photos of relatives I had not seen before. Pictured above is my paternal grandfather, whom we affectionately called Poppy. He was a professional sculptor with a kind and gentle soul. Below is my father, on the right, with his siblings, Ernest (Ernie), Antoinette (Bieg), and Gina’s mother, Jacqueline (Jackie).

While I have done a pretty thorough job of documenting my life for the last 20 years by way of this blog, it occurs to me that my kids and possibly Jeanine know little of my childhood. Perhaps, one day, I will try and document some of my early memories, and if I am feeling very ambitious, try to summarize nearly 10,000 blog entries into a somewhat more digestible form.

So much for my plan to surprise Jeanine with the new office desk she has been patiently waiting for. Nico helped me apply the finish last night after I worked feverishly over the weekend to complete it before her return from Martha’s Vineyard. First, it took over six hours to lure her to the second floor. I told her I had captured a field mouse and placed it in a cage in her office after earlier ploys did not work. This was very believable because I had, in fact, captured six mice earlier in the day. They had made a nest in the electric meter pedestal next to our driveway. More on this later. When she finally entered her office, looking for a mouse in a cage, she failed to notice the desk entirely. To be fair, I had constructed a mock-up that was the same size and shape to verify that she would be comfortable with the design. When it became apparent that she was not going to notice the new desk while still focused on the search for a mouse in a cage, Nico offered up a clue that leveraged her keen sense of smell to open her eyes (“Do you smell varnish?”). So much for my grand gesture.

Now to the mice. For the last week or so, our driveway sensor has been giving false notifications. The infrared sensor is located on the pedestal, which supports our electric power meter and a pair of security cameras. I decided to pull the cap off to examine the wiring for possible issues. What I discovered was a mouse hotel. Two guests made a sprint for the forest while a half dozen remained in their cozy quarters. I pushed the woolly mass into a deep 5-gallon bucket, where they now remain under house arrest while I figure out what to do with them.

Further investigation revealed that the wiring for the driveway sensor was fine, which led me to look into the sensor itself. I discovered that the enclosure was full of water, which was the root cause of the problem.

My soccer team will move on to the championship finals next week after defeating Lexington in the semi-finals this morning. We gave up a penalty kick in the 3-1 win and dominated possession for most of the match. Having failed to do so earlier in the season, I took an official team photo after the game.

Jeanine is enjoying herself on Martha’s Vineyard, and Nico just returned from Idaho. Wrestling practice starts tomorrow at Concord Academy, and he will be presenting at Sudbury High School for the Bionic Project, so he will be spending the night here to shorten his commute.

Jeanine is visiting a friend on Martha’s Vineyard for the weekend. I am hoping to surprise her with a completed desk for her office when she returns on Monday. It is an ambitious goal that may be thwarted by the late delivery of drawer hardware. Nonetheless, I set out in earnest this morning. Pictured here is the primary desktop under construction. An “L” shaped return will be provided by a double-wide filing cabinet. Initially, I had planned to make the desk a “built-in” by attaching it to the wall. This would have saved a bit of the very expensive bamboo plywood at the cost of future flexibility and ease of installation. In addition to the top, I completed the three-drawer cabinet that will support the left side of the desk. Tomorrow, I plan to tackle the bookshelf that will support the right side and also apply the finish.

When I was a young man, I could easily carry a 3/4 inch 4×8 foot piece of plywood unassisted. Those days are long gone. Over the winter, I will be building a new desk with drawers for Jeanine’s office and a new bed with integrated nightstands, headboard, and shelving. Moving 12 sheets of bamboo plywood, each weighing ~90 pounds, from the garage to my workshop proved to be quite a demanding job. I used the pictured contraption to move one sheet at a time. The task took the better part of two hours and will take the place of today’s visit to the gym.

Yesterday, I learned that another one of my high school classmates passed away. That makes 8 over the last three years. I feel fortunate that I am still able to do the things I do and am reminded to make the most of every day. In discussing this with a friend, I had occasion to retrieve a photo from ten years ago that I did not publish on the blog and I thought I would celebrate that memory today.

I have my parents to thank for the many positive traits I inherited. Flat feet are not one of them. For years, I purchased shoes with arched insoles, assuming this would help address my skeletal-muscular defect. I finally learned that the only way I could be comfortable was in shoes with dead flat insoles. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to find such footwear that also meets my other criteria for function and style. When I do stumble upon a shoe that works for me, I have learned to buy three pairs. Pictured above is my collection of lightweight trail shoes. After much wear and tear, the pair on the left is now relegated to yard work. I wear the pair in the middle almost every day. The pair on the right are brand new, and I will not start using them until my everyday shoes get demoted to yard work and my yard work shoes wind up in the trash.

This set of shoes is likely to last me 6-8 years. The reason I buy them all at once is that most companies revise their product lines every couple of years, and I want to avoid the lengthy process of finding another set that meets all of my criteria. To me, this seems like a logical solution. To others, a reason to question my sanity and/or intelligence.

A few weeks ago, I had an ultrasound, which revealed a couple of 3mm kidney stones and an 8mm bladder stone that I had to look forward to. Today, I passed the bladder stone. Mercifully, the 8.4mm long stone was only 4mm in width.