It’s been a while since we have had a good snake sighting. I am pretty sure this little fellow is harmless but I kept a safe distance just in case. I saw him on the way to Kyle’s soccer game. Three shrieking girls made for a pretty good homing beacon.
There are some days when you are better off simply staying in bed. My left foot is still bruised from last week’s game and despite the discoloration I felt it was not going to affect my play. Ten minutes into the game, I managed to roll my left ankle. I decide to play through the pain but ten minutes later was taken out entirely with an injury to my right knee (on a late tackle which earned the other team a yellow card). Left toes, left ankle, right knee. It is starting to get easier to list the part that aren’t injured. With a little luck and rigorous PT I might be back for next week’s game. More than likely I am going to miss a few while I mend. We lost 3-1 and every goal of the game was scored off a penalty call which should give you some idea of the quality of officiating (or lack thereof).
Kyle and I both had a great time and significantly improved our driving skills. The course is not inexpensive but I can honestly say it was worth every penny and was another shared adventure Kyle and I will look back on with fond memories. For the record, which would otherwise be distorted over time, the father performed all events at full speed and did not take out a single cone all day. The son did a very admirable job for a newly minted driver but racked up a small family of dead cones.
Kyle almost lifts his left rear tire on this manuever. After accelerating to 50mph our instructor hits, at the last possible moment, one of two buttons on a box in his lap which illuminates one of two lights above the dash indicating when we may initiate braking and to which side of the obstacle we must steer. This is about as realistic a collision avoidance scenario as I can imagine and I can tell you that it produces an adrenaline rush similar to a high speed near miss.
After a pit stop at home for lunch, Kyle and I completed his indoctrination into the world of driving by attending a 5 hour skid course. To qualify as an instructor for this program you must be a licensed race car driver. Much of our time was spent in car where we practiced emergency braking, high speed slaloms, and collision avoidance. To give you a sense of the intensity of the driving, tires on the cars are replaced every six days.
Kyle passed his driving test this morning and is now a licensed driver in the state of Massachusetts. This is a bittersweet milestone for his parents. On the one hand we are very proud of him and feel he has learned to be a good driver. On the other, we know this brings him one step closer to leaving the nest and we enjoy having him in our nest.
Several months ago I was asked to serve as a mentor in the MIT Gordon Engineering Leadership Program which seeks to help develop the next generation of technical leaders. Meet Nora, the student I have been partnered with. We meet every couple of weeks for an hour or so to discuss the challenges of leadership, her aspirations and goals, and the obstacles in the way. Usually we meet indoors at Starbucks. The weather this evening, however, was so nice that we decided to chat outside.
Late this afternoon Kyle had a tournament match. His ankle is feeling much stronger and it was apparent from the level of intensity of his play. Here he wins a nice header but is ultimately called for jumping over his opponent. Despite missing just about every other call in the match I have to agree that the ref got this one right. Regrettably, after a 1-1 tie in regulation time, the boys came up one goal short in the overtime period despite playing an extremely strong game.
Kyle joined me for lunch today and we did a campus tour of MIT which is about a ten minute walk from my office. Despite his initial trepidation, I think Kyle really had a good time and especially enjoyed learning of the “hacks” perpetrated by MIT students. Perhaps the most notable was the dismantling and reassembly of a MIT police cruiser on the top of the dome pictured here.
Replacing the Burning Bushes will be this Kousa Dogwood. Complicating the excavation/transplantation is the proximity of our water line, power line, telephone line, cable TV line and irrigation system. So far nothing has been damaged.
Landscapers arrived early this morning to begin transplanting a pair of Burning Bushes from the southwest corner of the house to an area adjacent to the garages.
Nicolai is ready to move to Minnesota permanently. He is having a great time with his cousins and really enjoys playing with all the neighborhood kids. This group, apparently, also includes a number of girls who seem to fancy our young basketball player.
Maya was in heaven equally enjoying her younger girl cousins as well as the older boys. She assisted with her first diaper changing and also perfected the invaluable football hold. Rose is a feisty ball of energy and gives no quarter to her older siblings.
This morning, Jeanine, Nicolai, and Maya left for Minneapolis, where they will be visiting my brother Mark and his family for the next several days. Mark and Marie have four children: Mario (14), Rory (12), Sophia (3 – pictured here), and Rose (15 months).
The British, in a little know fact, where not defeated by the Minutemen with their muskets and cannons but rather by Girl Scout Troop 2665 which is honored each year in the parade. The scouts depleted the British war coffers by selling the Red Coats an endless supplies of Thin Mints.
In addition to a twelve musket volley from the Minutemen observers watch the Concord Artillery Company fire a 3 pound projectile brass cannon. It is a sound you are unlikely to forget (ever).
Patriot’s Day is not something that is taken lightly in Concord, the birthplace of the American Revolution. “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” was taken here at the Old North Bridge and each year we commemorate the occasion with an early morning parade that literally shuts down the town. When you ask someone from Concord how long they have lived here they are more likely to answer in generations than in years. To say that it is a community steeped in history would be a huge understatement.
This evening Kyle had his haircut, apparently pleased enough with Nico’s new look to let me proceed. With Kyle a haircut is measured in pounds of hair removed rather than inches. I estimate this was a two pounder. Kyle and I both played with injuries today (Kyle’s ankle and my hamstring)and yet managed the only goals for our respective teams. My team came away with a hard fought 1-1 tie and Kyle’s team had a disappointing 2-1 loss.
Nico asked me to give him a haircut today. He requested a buzz cut but I suggested we try something a little less dramatic since we could always go shorter if he was so inclined. Kyle has an appointment for tomorrow. Maya and Jeanine will still not let me cut their hair.
It is not clear to me whether this is a soccer or a boxing match. If the later, Maya seems poised to deliver a nice jab to her much larger opponent. Kyle is still nursing an injured ankle and saw limitted action in 2 matches today. The first a dissappointing loss to a team they should have beat and the second a definitive 5-1 win.
Maya samples the peanut butter chocolate milkshake she made in the new blender. My attempt at a strawberry shake was just shy of a failure, closer to a thick smoothie than a shake.
My parents drove in from Schenectady to join us for the weekend. It was warm enough to dine on the sun porch for the first time this season.
Maya hand carved this stamp which she used to sign her brush painting with.
One of the class projects was to design a windmill using a milk carton for a base and to experiment with different style vanes. Maya’s windmill produced the highest torque (measured by lifting weights in a cup supported by a string wrapped around the shaft) of any in the class.
This morning Jeanine and I attend Maya’s school open house where we see some of the projects she has been working on recently. This poem and Chinese brush painting will certainly resonae with her grandmother who is coming to visit this weekend.
This evening Nico found Kyle and Chloe asleep in front of the TV and grabbed my camera. Either the show was really boring or these guys need to get to bed earlier.
Jeanine has been longing for a powerful blender to make quick work of her various smoothie concoctions. She received this one for her birthday after much research revealed it to be ridiculously capable. At this website you can watch as this unit is used to blend an iPhone, snow ski, and golf balls. What chance do frozen blueberries have against this brute of a machine?
I am met at the airport by the entire family and we have just enough time to make dinner reservations at Henrietta’s Table at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge. Here we celebrate Jeanine’s birthday joined by her sister Susan who drove down from Vermont for the weekend. Chalk it up to healthy living but I think Jeanine gets prettier every year.
My return flight to the east coast takes me over Niagra Falls. Not the best angle but I always hesitate to ask the pilot to turn the plane around for the benefit of my photography. One day I will coerce my brother to fly me around in a small plane with the door open so I can really take some nice aerial shots.
After a heavy photographic diet of intense reds and oranges I thought it would be nice to conclude with an image containing a more muted palette. Tonight I treat myself to a nice Mexican dinner in St. George, a piping hot shower, and a comfortable bed. This week long adventure has been both exhilarating and exhausting. Although I did not reach all of my planned destinations, I found many unexpected and wonderful opportunities along the way. There is little doubt in my mind that I will one day return to this place of natural beauty for continued exploration and image making.
The forecast today is for snow and rain. I opt to head for Zion National Park which due to the lower altitude will be limited to rain. I remember shooting this exact same scene when I was here several years ago with Jeanine. The positive side of bad weather is that you often get really dramatic lighting and I am sure when I compare this to my prior images of this location I will find this one the more pleasing.