Nicolai has been named to the US National Amputee Soccer Team (USNAST) that will represent the United States at the 2018 World Cup tournament to be held in Guadalajara, Mexico later this year. Selections were made by Eric Lamberg, head coach for the US team, after watching players compete at a training camp in Chicago last weekend. This is the third time Nicolai has been named to the US national team and he is training hard for the competition which will start in late October. The US finished 12th at the 2016 World Cup and the squad is hoping to improve on that record this time around.

Link to Concord Journal coverage.

Jeanine and I made a quick run over to Great Meadows for an after-dinner stroll. There she recommended I take this photo which proved to be a wonderful suggestion. There was the slightest hint of autumn in the air and although brief, our walk was pleasantly invigorating.

While on the last 100 yards of my commute this evening I spotted this red tailed hawk and an even more magnificent owl perched on the fence of the horse farm across the street from us. They were competing over a dead carcass in the field. I raced home to grab my telephoto lens and returned only to find the owl no longer there. As much as I had hoped for an image of the owl it is hard to be unhappy with the shot I managed of the hawk. Click for a larger image and check out the talons.

My soccer team participated in a charity tournament this weekend. With the fall season set to begin next weekend, I thought it best to save my knees by sitting this one out.  Last night, however, a call went out for more players to make up for those injured yesterday or unable to make the matches today.  I was able to join the team for the finals match and got enough minutes to confirm how out of shape I am. Fortunately my knees held out and I made a few nice defensive plays to help my team secure a 1-1 tie which was good enough to win the tournament on points.

Later in the afternoon, Maya, Jeanine, and I attended a summer party for Olin students hosted by the same family which has generously allowed Maya to store her tiny house on their property. Maya enjoyed giving tours of her construction project to her classmates.

I found this little (could fit entirely on the head of a quarter) fellow struggling to traverse the carpet in our living room. How he got inside the house is something of a mystery although at least one house member confessed to have possibly left a door open for an extended period of time.  He was extremely dehydrated and so entangled in dog hair that he could barely move. I placed him in a glass, added some water, and carefully used tweezers to remove strand after strand of hair. The procedure took 15 minutes after which I released him on our rear deck. He seemed infinitely happier and was kind enough to pose for me before hopping away.

It is hard enough to find true love once in a lifetime. It is a rare gift to find it twice.  Our friends Bill and Karen both lost their first spouses to lengthy illness having endured the “for worse” half of the “for better or worse” marriage covenant.  Widowed late in life they probably could not have imagined finding love again, but they did. Jeanine and I had the honor of witnessing their marriage this evening on the grounds of the Fruitland Museum.

Featured prominently in the ceremony and at the reception was Bill’s dog Beau.

When I returned home from work with a pint of ice cream in hand, Jeanine shamed me into getting some exercise to offset the caloric damage. I completed a four-mile walk along our new (although technically still not open) rail trail.  I pause for some drone photography of the adjacent wetlands.  When we moved to Concord some 15 years ago, this was a field.  Amazing how a couple of beavers can transform the landscape.

My stroll took me past White Pond where the kids used to swim as youngsters.

Today at work I conducted a half-day Engineering Leadership Team meeting. We spent the first 2 hours doing a design and construction competition. I am very found of these kinds of projects because they allow me to gauge how well my teams works together and to spot behaviors that are unproductive. They are also a ton of fun. The second half of the morning was devoted to a series of exercises design to help clearly define roles and responsibilities.  I recently added two new Directors to the engineering leadership team and experience has taught me the value of spending time early on to delineate boundaries and clarify accountability.

At the end of the business day we regrouped to see which team constructed the stronger bridge.  The prize?  Bragging rights for the coming year.  The team with less mechanical engineering education won so there will be a lot of crow to eat.

By the time I got my camera out and adjusted the shutter speed to my liking, the torrential downpour I was trying to photograph had already subsided.  I had a meeting at our contract manufacturer in Westford this morning and spent the balance of the day working from home.  I am preparing to facilitate my first team-building event at Superpedestrian tomorrow and worked well into the evening to fine-tune the exercise and presentation materials I will be using. 

Nico recently posted a couple of images from a long hike he did with Karuna and their dog Kubo.  I am unclear on all the details but I believe they covered 8 miles.

Even more painful than putting our piano up for sale was listing this 8″ jointer from my shop.  It has served me incredibly well over the years but must find a new home.  After an hour of cleaning it looks as new as the day I purchased it some 20 years ago.  Delta has since exited the jointer market so it may even have some incremental value for the right collector.

In 1995 we purchased a grand piano hoping it would encourage our children to play and as the centerpiece for a rather large living room.  All three kids took lessons and developed a reasonable degree of proficiency.  Nicolai went on to become very accomplished and now plays the keyboard for a jazz band in Colorado for fun. On visits back to Concord he will spend hours every day tickling the keys to the pleasure of anyone in the house. For that reason, it was with great regret that I listed it for sale today.  At nearly 7 feet in length, the piano effectively requires a room of its own which is incompatible with our future plans to downsize.

Jeanine enlisted my photographic services to shoot the image that will be used for their annual appeal marketing materials.  The concept (“Help Fill the Truck”) was developed by the Open Table team and my job was to execute it.  In the background is Open Table’s new refrigerated truck that is used to collect and transport food. In the foreground is one of Open Table’s youngest volunteers. This was my first time using such a large prop and young model.  I had to position the truck in the shade and at an angle to manage the reflections from the windshield and truck side. I lit our tiny model and the wagon full of food independently and shot from a very low angle to increase the relative size of the girl to the massive truck. Even though I can think of ten ways to have made this an even better image, I am pleased with the outcome given I had to work very quickly and was limited to roughly twenty exposures.

Jeanine believes it is her responsibility to ensure our local hummingbirds are properly nourished.  She makes her own hummingbird food recipe which they seem very fond of.  During the early morning and late afternoon hours, there is usually a parade of visitors with occasional jousting over who will visit the feeder first.