Before leaving for Vermont to visit her sister for the week, Jeanine casually asked me to clear a new section of the front yard. Six hours later, I was halfway done with the job, finished for the day, and covered in dirt. I was able to pull many of the small saplings from the ground, roots and all. Apparently, shaking the dirt from the root ball left some of it deposited on my head. I did not notice until I came in for lunch, and am now left to wonder what the neighbors I spoke with as they passed by the house must have thought about my appearance.

Left to my own means for preparing dinner, I opted for a healthy salad that I purchased in kit form. The meal was not really photo-worthy, but I thought Jeanine would be impressed that I was not eating junk food.

In the 22 years we have lived in Massachusetts, Jeanine has never watched the Boston Marathon in person. Today, we rectified that situation. I took her to Wellesley, arguably my favorite spot to watch the race. It is just shy of the midpoint, and the eventual winners are generally among the lead pack. Once again, I managed to photograph the men and women winners of the elite and wheelchair divisions.

Pictured above on the right in the light blue shorts is John Korir of Kenya, who won his first Boston Marathon in the professional men’s division, joining his brother, Wesley, who won it in 2012 (the first siblings to ever win).

Below on the far left is Sharon Lokedi, also of Kenya, who won the professional women’s division in a course record time, defeating defending champ Hellen Obiri, who finished second.

Marcel Hug of Switzerland won his eighth Boston Marathon in the men’s wheelchair division, and American Susannah Scaroni won her second championship in the women’s wheelchair division.

The Wellesley supporters never disappoint with their enthusiastic encouragement.

I was back on the pitch this morning with my Concord United team for the first time since the fall season ended last year. I did a 50% rotation at right wing and had a solid game with no ill effects from the 10 miles of walking I did yesterday. We managed a total of 7 goals. 5 for us and 2 own goals for them! It was not our prettiest game, but we got the job done. Several of my teammates were missing, so I will be taking another photo later in the season.

The kids all had other plans for Easter, so we invited our good friends Irene and Eric over for dinner to celebrate the holiday.

After months and months of preparation, the 250th anniversary of the battles of Concord and Lexington finally arrived. The center of town was closed to automobile traffic as tens of thousands arrived to watch reenactments, a parade, speeches from our governor and state representatives, and an evening drone show. Jeanine served as an ambassador to provide visitors with information and to alert the police in the event of trouble. She rode her bicycle into town, as did Maya, Owen, Fiona, and Ben who left pre-dawn so they could watch the reenactments. I walked into town arriving by 6:30 AM with plenty of time to stake out a good vantage point for the parade. I also attended the speeches and ceremonies at the North Bridge.

Although quite exhausted by the time we returned home, Jeanine and I drove to Gilette Stadium, where Nico and his New England Revolution Amputee Soccer Team played against the New York Metro Amputee Soccer Team after the MLS teams concluded their match. The Revs won 2-0, and the Amputee Revs won 6-0, a great night for New England fans.

When Kyle and I renovated the basement in his house, we installed an upflush toilet rather than a gravity toilet to avoid excavating his concrete basement floor. Unfortunately, it recently started flushing continuously, suggesting a problem with the valve that lets water into the tank. To his credit, Kyle disassembled the complicated toilet to troubleshoot the problem, but was not able to find any obvious issues. He pulled me in on a video call, and we made more progress, but we still have not figured out what is wrong. I will be making an in person visit soon with some diagnostic tools that Kyle does not have at his disposal and hope to get it working again. Nicolai and amputee soccer teammate and Bionic teaching partner, Jovan, will be moving into the basement in the near future and Kyle wants to ensure that all is ready for them.

While driving through Somerville on my return home after a day of consulting work at Formlabs, I saw this art installation in the outdoor seating area of a restaurant. Traffic was stalled at the time, so I was able to capture a quick photo through the windshield with my phone. It expressed a sentiment that I share, so I decided to post it here.

Pictured above is about 1/20th of the pruning debris I produced during 6 hours of working in the yard. I removed 100s of saplings and cut down a few 20-foot-tall trees. The prior owner of our property let the forest grow wild for several decades, and we are hoping to introduce a little more diversity to the ecosystem. I was quite exhausted by the end of the day, but also 3.1 pounds lighter at my next morning weigh-in. Normally, I prefer to chip away at such large undertakings, but this is the first dry day in several and I will be busy for the next few. The work is much easier before the trees have had a chance to leaf out which is just about to start.

Several months ago, I helped construct stands to support a number of photo cutout boards that are going to be used for the Concord 250th Celebration this weekend. Today, I completed the project with my partner. We cut out the face openings and finished drilling the mounting holes for each of the four boards, which feature Revolutionary War characters.

Next weekend, the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War will be celebrated in Concord and Lexington. A drone light show will be one of the significant events. It will happen over the Concord Carlisle High School baseball fields. I was asked by the Concord Bridge, our local newspaper, to capture an aerial image of the high school grounds so they can illustrate where spectators should gather to get the best view of the show.

During the last few days, we have seen increasing numbers of Blue Heron returning to fish in the Sudbury River. This evening at dusk, this beauty took up a perch to survey the menu. I am surprised by the image quality given it was shot with an ISO of 51,200. In years past, such a photo would have been unusable but now using the latest noise-reduction software it is quite acceptable.

Earlier in the day, Kyle stopped in to spend time with his mother on her birthday weekend. Nico was here as well and the four of us watched the Liverpool game. I was reminded that this family gathering was made possible by the new couch. I was back on the soccer pitch later in the afternoon for the first time since the fall season ended. All the hiking in New Zealand and the ten pounds I left there certainly helped my game. Our league match scheduled for the morning was canceled due to weather so we played a 6v6 intra-squad scrimmage.

Jeanine celebrated her 62nd birthday today. It was the first time in her life that this auspicious occasion found her in the presence of snow. We enjoyed breakfast at the Colonial Inn with friends and Nico before attending the raising of Concord’s new and substantially larger American flag.

Later in the afternoon, we caught up with our good friends Dave and Sarah before a roaring fire, the perfect antidote for the unseasonably cold weather.

Jeanine has been known to stretch out her birthday celebration for days if not weeks. This year, she decided to cram it all into one day.

We joined Maya, Nico, Jeanine’s friend Stephane, and her son Ben for drinks and appetizers at the Mad Monkfish in Cambridge before walking over to the Havana Club where we hit the dance floor for Bachata and Salsa dancing.

Ending a tumultuous week on Wall Street, temperatures also dropped, leading to an uncharacteristically late snow here in Concord. Fortunately, I completed a third day of yardwork before the weather arrived.

When we purchased a bistro table base for our patio, I fashioned an octagonal piece of bluestone (salvaged from the original house) for a top. Unfortunately, it was a bit too small and not uniformly thick or particularly flat. To address this, I ordered a circular granite top that arrived today. I still need to affix it to the base but wanted to do a test placement first.

For the first time in days, the sun was out and it was not raining. Jeanine and I took advantage of the weather to do some spring yard work. Among other tasks, I removed the straw waddles that were in place to prevent soil erosion while our plantings took root. Jeanine said that our neighbors might be interested in reusing these. Let’s just say I was a bit skeptical. Even more so when I explained how hard they would be to transport. They are bulky and heavy, especially when wet. Our neighbor suggested draping them over the roof of his car. It is an idea I would have never considered but it certainly proved effective as shown in this photo from one of our security cameras.