Most stone sculptures are created using a subtractive process. Material is slowly removed to reveal the artist’s vision. I made the piece featured above using an additive process. Over a period of years, I added one layer of calcium oxalate at a time to form the final contours. My previous attempts did not have the same surface texture or symmetry that I find so interesting in this one. I have added it to my collection and hope to display it along with some of my other creations at a future exhibit. Unlike some of my other endeavors, work on this project involves a chemical process that takes place in the background, requiring minimal time and attention from me. The only difficult part, which can be a real pain, is removing the artifact from the chemical reactor in which it was formed, especially if permitted to grow beyond the dimensions of the outlet line.

The pictured nightstands will serve as the base for a large bookshelf-style headboard to complement the platform bed I recently completed. I would have finished the project yesterday when the drawer slide hardware arrived if not for the fact that I had fabricated all 6 drawer boxes to the wrong depth. The nightstands are 18 inches deep, and that was the depth I used for the drawer boxes rather than the 15-inch depth of the drawer slides. Fortunately, I devised a rather clever way to slice 3 inches out of the drawers without compromising their integrity or appearance. Incidentally, these 6 drawers bring the total number I have built for our house to 120. I think I can safely say that we do not need any more and that these will be the last ones.

Back in October, Jeanine and I joined a local fitness facility and have been going together regularly. As I walked past her on the elliptical machine today, she had the biggest grin I have ever seen on anyone working out. I have little doubt that she was listening to a humorous podcast and must be sure to ask her about it. I listen to the news on NPR, which tends to have the opposite effect on me.

We were graced by about an inch of snow today. High winds prevented it from accumulating on tree limbs but it was happy to settle on the iced-over sections of the river and distant Fairhaven Bay. I opted to fly from the comfort of our living room (although it may be difficult to see me through the window) rather than venturing outdoors for a second time, the first to clear snow from the driveway.

I used the pink slab of insulation as a takeoff and landing pad to keep my drone from getting wet.

As part of a Conantum community tradition, we hosted a holiday potluck open house for our neighbors this evening for the second time in a row. Each year, ~10 residents host a party attended by ~20 neighbors. Our oldest guest was 90, and our youngest was 2. As always seems to be the case, most folks congregated in the kitchen area despite comfortable seating only steps away. Our kitchen was designed to handle multiple cooks, but the wide aisles also facilitate gathering around the island.

Of the recent gatherings we have hosted, preparation for this one seemed easy by comparison. I steam-roasted a large turkey breast, and Jeanine added holiday decorations throughout the house. She called me to the front hallway to photograph our digital picture frame, which was displaying a picture of young Maya in a tasseled winter hat. This, only moments after she had placed a Santa Claus hat on one of my mother’s sculptures, creating an admittedly humorous juxtaposition.

Last weekend, Jeanine and I drove downtown for the Concord holiday parade and tree lighting ceremony. Having forgotten the start time, we were late to the festivities. While this made finding a parking spot easy, we missed all but the carolers who performed in colonial period attire to end the event. Also forgotten was that I had taken this picture, but hadn’t downloaded it until today.

I completed the bed platform I started building last week today. I added horizontal slats, which serve two functions. The spacing allows the mattress to “breathe” while the 1/2″ thickness permits them to flex, adding a modest amount of give to the foundation. The slats are floating to allow them to bend. Fixed spacers provide permanent alignment. I can’t wait to test the feel of our mattress on the new frame. If it needs to be firmer, I can replace the slats with thicker ones, and should it be too firm, with thinner ones. I will probably need to wax the slat support surfaces to prevent squeaking during vigorous activity on the mattress. I am looking forward to that aspect of testing.

During the winter months, I tend to spend more time in my shop building projects of one type or another. Jeanine finds more time for baking, especially in the run-up to Christmas. Pictured above are some of her recent creations from the kitchen. As I type this entry, there is the aroma of lemon nut bread in the air and a batch of Jeanine’s special granola in the oven.

A slight break from sub-freezing temperatures encouraged me to install new driveway lighting today. I lined one side of the driveway with a 200-foot LED rope light, replacing the one I placed 2 years ago. Its control box was run over, allowing water to enter and damage the electronics. The animated lights provide a welcoming path to our house. Don’t be surprised to see an aerial video of the lights at night in a future post.

The motorized blinds for Jeanine’s office arrived yesterday, and I installed them this afternoon. The fit and color matched the walls perfectly. Unfortunately, one of four units appears to be dead-on-arrival. The other three are working as expected. While trying to debug the problem, I spotted a Bald Eagle hunting over the partially frozen river. It eventually landed on the edge of the ice, where it lingered for a few minutes, likely on the lookout for dinner. This month has produced a good number of really nice animal sightings.

With the river partially frozen, we have had several furry visitors over the last few days. We see beavers all the time, but rarely out of the water. This pair spent at least an hour enjoying their meal and grooming before slipping back into the water. River otters, on the other hand, are relatively rare to see. We saw this one yesterday, and he returned today for a little fishing.

I spent the better part of the day finishing my plans for the headboard that will complement the platform bed I recently completed. The design will include integrated 3-drawer nightstands, built-in reading lights, and shelving intended for the display of framed photographs. The shelving unit will sit atop the nightstands and flush to the wall, weighing slightly more than 200 pounds.

Kyle spent the weekend in New York City celebrating a co-workers 30th birthday and chose the middle of a 10K to propose in front of the Brooklyn Bridge. We know next to nothing about the woman, but we could not be more excited. We can’t wait to learn more details from Kyle when he returns this evening. Stay tuned for updates.

UPDATE 1: Even though she said YES, there will be no wedding. Apparently, the 10K run was also a scavenger hunt during which Kyle was required to propose marriage to a complete stranger. At least he got some good practice in.

UPDATE 2: I was aware of the full story when I made the initial post and was careful not to make any inaccurate statements. I wanted to see how many relatives would reach out to congratulate us. The answer: two.

Since we moved to Concord 22 years ago, I have been a member of the Concord United Soccer Club. This evening, we celebrated the club’s 30th anniversary at our traditional year-end party. The club includes an over-30, over-40, over-48, over-55, and over-62 teams. We represent something of a dynasty in Massachusetts. My team has won our Division 14 times and won our League 8 times.

By the time interest turned to a group photo, many had already left. Even so, it was impossible to get everyone into a single frame, and I had to composite 5 images to make this portrait. It turned out better than I would have expected, given the state of inebriation of most subjects and their inability to remain motionless while I captured the images. I have little doubt this will become an iconic club photo, and I must admit that I am sad that I was on the other side of the camera for this one.

The event took place at Bandoleros, a very popular local Mexican restaurant. The owner is a friend of the team and closed the restaurant for our celebration. I arrived early to set up a large screen TV, where a slide show of club photos looped throughout the evening.

The Concord Bridge, our local newspaper, featured a new section in this week’s edition. It is called “My Concord” and includes a photo essay and story about town residents sharing what it means for them to call Concord home. It has been something like a year since we submitted our narrative and images, and we had all but forgotten doing so. It was a nice surprise to learn that our family had been featured in the inaugural installment.

Jeanine had a play date with her friend Barbara today. The two could be heard laughing in the kitchen while baking an exotic holiday treat. The  Kransekake (Norwegian) or Kransekage (Danish) is a traditional Scandinavian “wreath cake” or “tower cake” consisting of a stack of eighteen or more concentric almond cookie rings.

Meanwhile, I spent a good portion of the day in my shop building a bed frame. Given the simplicity of the design, I completed the fabrication work in a few hours, and now all that remains is to varnish the pieces before assembling them. Once moved to our bedroom, I will install the mattress support slats that will provide ventilation and a measure of suspension for the mattress.

Today, I completed the final component of Jeanine’s office furniture. The set now includes an 80″ x 28″ desktop supported by a three-drawer cabinet on the left side and a two-shelf under-desk storage area on the right. A six-drawer filing cabinet creates an L-shaped return, and a 90″ wide, 18″ deep horizontal bookcase completes the ensemble. In total, the contiguous work surface area exceeds 30 square feet, something Jeanine wanted a lot of.

Jeanine’s office will double as her sanctuary, with almost half the floor space devoted to a carpeted lounge area that will include a queen-size sofa sleeper and a comfy swivel chair for reading. The sofa creates a nice delineation between the spaces and offers a great view of the river.

I am very pleased with the way the furniture turned out and happy that Jeanine no longer has to deal with a temporary office setup. Next, I plan to tackle a new bedroom suite.

Much of western and northern Massachusetts received the first snowfall of the season this evening. Here in Concord, we are right on the snow-rain line with the temperature hovering right around 32°F. Even though the forecast indicates that precipitation will continue through the night, it is anyone’s guess what form it will take. I decided to clear the inch of accumulated icy slush at 10 pm as a hedge against it turning into a frozen mess by morning. I have learned from experience that snow blowers work well on fluffy snow, passably with slush, and are of no use against ice. If the temperature remains above freezing throughout the night, then my work will have been for naught. If it dips below, I will be happy for the preemptive effort.

Followers of this blog are aware that I am a big fan of Chipotle and that I have lunch there most days of the week. While the food is generally considered healthy, it is high in sodium, and the serving sizes are generous to a fault. In order to help me reduce my blood pressure, per my doctor’s advice, Jeanine reverse-engineered the Chipotle recipe to prepare a version that is low in sodium and packaged in calorie-appropriate servings. I call this food Jepotle in honor of the chef. The plan is to prepare a sufficient amount at a time to last for the week. I am enjoying such a meal as I type, and I am filled with gratitude for a partner who cares for me in such a meaningful way.

Jeanine and I drove into Somerville late this morning to join the kids, and Nico’s girlfriend Teddy, at Parlor Sports to watch the Chelsea-Arsenal soccer match. This “pocket-sized” sports bar claims a capacity of 45, but I counted close to a hundred patrons who were packed in like sardines, most of them standing. Fortunately, Maya secured a table for us well before the game started and warded off all would-be chair thieves until we arrived.

Jeanine ordered the final piece of furniture to complete her office. Over the last week, she has purchased a queen-size sofa sleeper, a comfy reading chair with a matching ottoman, and an area rug. Motorized blinds should arrive mid-December, and the furnishings by March.

Building a desk for Jeanine has had an enormous ripple effect throughout the house. The standalone filing cabinets that she was using previously have now made their way to my electronics shop in the mechanical room. Placing them under the workbench located there required me to build shelving above to accommodate the items I had stored below. This freed up enough space to give my test equipment (oscilloscope, waveform generator, programmable power supply, and digital multimeter), as well as my soldering station, a permanent home on the bench top. When all was said and done, I could not justify keeping two Hewlett-Packard instruments that I have had since my early twenties. One is a triple-output power supply, and the other is a function generator. I haven’t used either in over a decade, and I am determined to find them an owner who will put them to good use.

The hunt for a Christmas tree was the order of business this morning. Maya, having forgone all manner of warm clothing, was quick to identify a candidate. Kyle deemed it too skinny and continued the search. Just about the time Jeanine joined us after her workout at the gym, Kyle declared victory, and all parties concurred with his choice. It proved to be the perfect height and width for our space, as confirmed once in situ.

Later in the day, Jeanine and I went hunting for a far more elusive item—the perfect reading chair for her office. Her fanny sampled dozens of options in three different stores. She has narrowed the possibilities to a handful and will return to her favorites tomorrow to evaluate fabric options.

Despite the chilly weather, I was able to coax an outdoor family portrait with the full crew during a break from food preparation. In a departure from tradition, we ordered a boneless turkey breast rather than the whole bird. Even more unusual, I was charged with cooking it, possibly due to my knowledge of the steam-cooking options on our oven. It should be noted that I have never in the course of my life cooked a turkey, or chicken, or pigeon, for that matter. Undaunted by my assignment and aided by temperature monitoring probes and several YouTube tutorials, I will give myself a B+ for the effort.

Joining us for our Thanksgiving Day meal were our friends Barbara and her mother, Cathy. Everyone contributed to the meal in one way or another, and we were grateful to enjoy it together. I am thankful for my family, our good health, and the fact that my diet starts tomorrow.

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.