Jeanine took this photo of her sister Susan over the long weekend while visiting with her in Burlington, VT. The two spent a lot of time indoors playing Dominos with friend Jean Cass because of inclement weather but did manage an outing to Lake Champlain during a break in the rain.
Each 4th of July, the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”), the world’s oldest ship of any type still afloat, sails 1 nautical mile from the Charlestown Navy Yard to Castle Island and fires a 21-gun salute. She is often incorrectly described as the oldest commissioned warship. That honor, however, belongs to the HMS Victory, but she has been in dry dock since 1922. This morning, I drove down to Fort Independence to experience the 21 cannon salute in person. It was quite thrilling and definitely worth the effort. I hope one day to photograph her with more than one tiny sail deployed.
On my way home, I stopped at the Mount Auburn Cemetery and climbed Washington Tower for a view of downtown Boston. I contemplate returning in the evening to photograph the fireworks from this vantage but learned that the cemetery closes at 8 pm.
Jeanine is spending the long weekend with her sister in Burlington, VT. I spent most of the day at Kyle’s new house where I helped him to deconstruct part of the basement. When he purchased the house, he did so with an eye to renovating and then renting out this space. We spent a little more than 4 hours removing walls, drywall, ceiling tiles, and paneling. Nicolai arrived at noon with burritos which we enjoyed while watching the Denmark vs. Czech Republic UEFA/Euro 2020 quarterfinal soccer match. We put in another hour of work before relaxing to the England vs. Ukraine match. Although my back continues to bother me, Kyle did all of the heavy lifting and I otherwise thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with my boys.
My semi-retirement is off to a good start. I picked up two additional technical consulting clients this week and have a line of sight on two more. My goal is to work no more than half-time in aggregate and only on projects that are really fun. Speaking of fun, my soccer team had our end-of-season dinner in the Seaport District at Davio’s, a northern Italian steakhouse. The food was phenomenal, as was the company. With each season, the tales of past glory seem to grow ever more impressive.
I had a meeting in Cambridge this afternoon with a venture capital/startup incubator that is looking for an engineering executive to help out with some of their portfolio companies. It sounds like a very interesting opportunity and one that is compatible with my desire to transition to part-time work only. While I was in the neighborhood, I decided to stop in at Superpedestrian to visit with my old colleagues. The guys have done a tremendous job with the business which has grown from 20 employees to roughly 200 by way of a strategic acquisition. When I left, we had just completed our first electric scooter prototypes. Now the company has some 35,000 deployed around the world. Bravo! On my drive home, my car registered an outside temperature of 103°F while passing the Alewife T Station. Boston reached 97°F, the highest temperature ever measured for this date since records have been kept.
There are two very large trees on our property that are a threat to the house. Earlier this year, we received permission from the Concord Natural Resource Commission to have them removed. To offset their loss, we were asked to plant four bushes from a list of native species. We choose Spartan High Bush Blueberries. Thus far, they seem to be very happy along the river bank and have been undisturbed by the local critters. This cultivar produces berries that are quarter-sized and very delicious. Hopefully, we will get to taste them in a few weeks.
In recent days, the number of geese swimming past the house has increased dramatically. The collective noun for a group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; when in flight, they are called a skein, a team, or a wedge; when flying or swimming close together, they are called a plump. Fortunately, they seem very content in the river and have not visited our shores, a big relief to us.
Jeanine and I joined Kyle and Nico for a burrito diner in Davis Square this evening. It was our first chance to see Nicolai’s new apartment which overlooks the Somerville Community Path and the Bikeway Community Garden. The short walk to Davis Square takes you past some really fun outdoor sculptures.
Earlier in the day, my soccer team played our last match of the spring season in the Division 1 finals. We battled in the sweltering heat to a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation absent our starting sweeper (badly injured in an accident earlier this week) and our 2nd leading scorer who was not able to play the entire game due to a lingering injury. Unfortunately, our penalty takers were unable to deliver the victory and we had to settle for a second-place finish. I played one of my better games but failed to put two header opportunities on frame among many chances our team had to score. After the loss, no one was in the mood for a team photo but I did get one from the start of the match.
Rarely encountered indoors, I found this Golden Rod Crab Spider on the moulding of the door that leads to our basement. Thinking ahead to Jeanine’s response to my discovery, I relocated it outside to continue my photoshoot. This is one of the few spiders in North America that are capable of actively changing their body color from yellow to white, or vice versa, depending on the flower they are perched on. They do this by transferring a liquid pigmented material to the cuticle. The color change can take anywhere from one to twenty days to complete. I am certain this is a female which are 3 to 4 times larger than males. She will only produce one brood in her lifetime and my hope is that she does so outdoors.
When it comes time to demolish our house, it will be done with a massive excavator, probably in a day or two. Once the above-grade structure has been removed, the excavator will be fitted with a massive jackhammer to break up the 4″ thick foundation before removing it. The water main for our house enters through the foundation in the corner of the basement. To prevent it from being damaged by the heavy equipment, I carefully removed a section of the slab around the pipe so that it is completely free of the structure. I did this with a hammer drill (baby jackhammer) taking a surgical approach to the task. One false move and I could have ruptured the pipe resulting in a very expensive call to the water company. Patience and the right tools allowed me to complete the task in under two hours with not so much as a scratch on the pipe.
I had to drive to Northborough to pick up our revised site plan drawings for delivery to the Concord Natural Resources Commission before tomorrow. On the way back, I decided to detour through the quaint little town of Groton. Once there, I decided to photograph the First Parish UU Church, a local farm, and the Shirdi Sai Temple. My return home may or may not have included a brief stop at Kimbal’s where I may or may not have enjoyed a small cup of Chocolate Almond ice cream.
I took advantage of ideal weather for a late afternoon 4-mile walk and brought my drone with me. Less than 2% of the state’s river miles are designated wild and scenic and today’s photo provides a definition of that label. It has been more than 6 months now that we have been living in our new home and there isn’t a day that goes by when we do not wake up and admire the beauty of the river. We are situated (see the red dot on the map) just south of where the Sudbury and Assabet Rivers meet to form the Concord River. It is possible with two short portages and a small section of class III and IV white water rapids to reach the Merrimac River which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. I should rather like to attempt that journey over a weekend once our house building project is complete.
This little fellow is a regular visitor at the feeder that Jeanine set up just outside one of our windows. It rained for a good part of the day and I spent most of it indoors working on the house design. When I needed a break, I thought it would be fun to capture some hovering hummingbird photos. The light was terrible and I did not want to set up a strobe out in the rain. The resulting images are very grainy but good enough to remind me how magnificent these little creatures are. When the weather improves, you can expect to find a future post with improved lighting.
Last week I shared some images of dragonflies. Today, on my morning walk, I noticed some lovely damselflies. Damselflies are smaller than dragonflies, with bodies that typically range between 1 1/2 inches and 2 inches, while dragonfly bodies are typically longer than 2 inches. Dragonflies have much larger eyes that take up most of the insect’s head. Damselflies also have large eyes, but they are smaller than a dragonfly’s and there is always a space between them. Both dragonflies and damselflies have two sets of wings. When not in flight, a dragonfly’s wings stick straight out, perpendicular to their body like an airplane’s wings. A damselfly’s wings fold back so they are in line with their body, giving them a more sleek, slender appearance at rest.
