In 2011, I purchased a new Audi Q5 and passed it down to Maya five years later. She named it Mishka. It is the car she learned to drive in even before her legs could reach the pedals. Sadly, Mishka fell ill last night while Maya drove to the River House. She was pronounced dead this morning after being towed to Maya’s mechanic. The autopsy revealed a total loss of compression, possibly caused by a broken heart (timing chain.) The cost of replacing the engine with a used one is more than the current value of the car so Maya decided to donate it to WBUR. Mishka lived a good life and was a strong and reliable companion who lived to the age of 150,000. She will be missed by all who felt the warmth of her heated seats and the embrace of her retractable seat belts. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to National Public Radio.

Maya has decided to start dating new cars immediately and is considering a new long-term relationship with either a Toyota or Subaru.

Despite her assertions to the contrary, Jeanine prepared a perfect batch of popovers to kick off our traditional Christmas breakfast which included a lengthy conversation about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on humanity. Next, we plumbed the depths of our Christmas stockings for the various treats and presents within, a process that took about two hours. Games and noshing carried us into the afternoon when Secret Santa gifts were opened, followed by various forms of resting. Jeanine is pictured testing her new yoga bolster (hidden under her back), which caused her legs to stretch to twice their normal length. Several more hours were devoted to the evening meal with Nico acting as head chef. Our menu included prime rib, bacon, mushroom and pancetta risotto, and a pomegranate seed and pear spinach salad. Kyle’s flatmate Eloisa joined us for the feast.

This morning, we were fortunate to get a dusting of snow, providing the backdrop for a white Christmas. The river is frozen creating a pristine ribbon of white weaving through the neighborhood and past our house. Conversely, the trees remained brown and green because the snow was too powdery to stick to the branches. This is the inverse canvas produced by a normal snowstorm and made for some interesting drone photography.

The kids arrived midday and helped prepare our traditional Swedish Christmas Eve dinner of Raclette cheese served over boiled potatoes, sausages, and cornichons. Nico prepared the most delicious Focaccia bread I have ever had in my life, and a nice salad provided nutritional balance to the meal. After dinner, we were joined by Maya’s friend Fiona, who is spending the night here between nursing shifts at the hospital where she works.

Stockings were hung under the “fireplace,” where they were visited by several clandestine elves who were lending Santa a hand.

The family’s quest to purchase a mixed-use building in Somerville ended abruptly this morning. Kyle and I met on-site with a structural engineer to conduct another inspection. No sooner than he started his work, I noticed a pin-hole steam leak in one of the building’s original pipes. This type of failure is caused by corrosion, which is not uncommon in a 124-year-old pipe. Unfortunately, it stands to reason that additional failures of the plumbing are to be expected, and the cost of ongoing repairs could be exorbitant. As much as we saw the potential for this property, logic dictates that we move on to other options.

On the home front, I am pleased to report that our heating system is working as designed. Overnight, the temperature reached 2°F and all remained toasty inside. When I sized our heat pump, I used -15°F as the design temperature. Below that, an auxiliary electric resistance heater kicks in.

Owen is Maya’s boyfriend. He is Canadian. Canadians are very nice people obsessed with ice-related activities.

Maya is visiting with Owen’s family this weekend at their lake house a few hours north of their home in Waterloo. Apparently, Canadians regard the winter holidays as a good time to carve a hole in the ice of a frozen lake, span it with a chin-up bar, and then see how long it takes to make a human popsicle. I can only imagine that Maya participated in the popsicle making to prove herself worthy of a Canadian boyfirend.

Well, I have news for Owen. Maya is one-quarter Italian. Italians are very nice people who like to eat pasta which is made in boiling water!

Having sorted my full-size tripod collection, I have now focused on my tabletop tripods. Of the three shown above, I will use the largest one for travel. It weighs less than 12 ounces and fits neatly in a front pocket when collapsed. It is a pound less than my full-size travel tripod. It is tough to justify the other two as they offer no real benefits over the first. Even so, I will not be parting with them. Pictured below is a set of tripod legs I 3D printed. Although they cannot be collapsed, they are as light and stronger than all my other tabletop tripods. As of this moment, my tripod collection numbers 13 with 2 up for sale. What can I say? Some people collect stamps. I should note that part of the enjoyment for me is matching the optimal tripod head with the legs. In the group above, each base is mated with a head from a different manufacturer.

Pictured below is Jeanine’s idea of a table topper, the dish she prepared to bring with us to a neighbor’s winter solstice party. The food and ambiance were fantastic, but the highlight of the evening for me was the opportunity to hold two of the smaller guests in my arms. It has been 15 years since I have cradled a baby. Tonight, I had a chance to do so with not one but two. I have forgotten (1) how heavy they are and (2) how completely they surrender their weight to you. I did remember how soft and sweet-smelling they were. I hope and pray that I will not have to wait 15 more years before getting another fix.

Apparently, there are no materials that are both compressible and have zero water vapor permeability. I recently came across an application that requires such a solution. To address the problem, I devised an approach that combines a deformable gasket (round – orange) and a flexible vapor barrier film (thin – light blue) like aluminum foil. The foil prevents vapor migration, while the gasket provides compressibility. Since the foil is flexible, it can conform as the gasket changes shape.

When we designed the River House we decided for health and safety reasons that it would have zero indoor combustion. The most difficult thing to give up was a fireplace. Reinforcing our decision was the fact that a stone chimney is an efficient conductor of heat and, hence, a conduit for energy constantly leaving the home. Even the best flue dampers allow some amount of air through, and thus, a second major source of energy loss and drafts. Finally, we thought about our last home. It had five fireplaces of which we only ever used one and that one only a handful of times per year. Our energy efficient alternative is a virtual fire that plays on the big screen TV in our living area complete with the sounds of a real fire. Now that winter has arrived, we find ourselves “making a fire” almost every night and while we miss the heat and smell of a real fire we are equally happy not having to gather wood from outside or clean ash from the hearth. When we want the authentic experience we step out to the patio to enjoy the fire pit.

Mild winter days are the best time to do tree work in the yard. It is not so cold that your fingers get numb, and all the leaves are down making movement and pruning easier. I spent a couple of hours on the west end of our property cutting down dead trees and smaller ones that will never break through the canopy. Pictured above is the bottom half of a 75-foot tree that I dropped within a foot of my target by cutting a precisely angled hinge at the base with my chainsaw. I only wish I had the foresight to set up a camera to record the felling. As weather permits, I will need to spend another afternoon cutting this trunk into sections for firewood.

The drawer slide hardware I have been waiting for arrived today, allowing me to complete the drawer project I started last week. I will use this area to store my photography gear. I enjoy creating organized spaces for my equipment, which allows me to access and retrieve it quickly. One drawer will be allocated for lenses and another for my “goto” set of full-size tripods. The one in the middle is for travel and hiking (1.8 lbs). In the front is the one I use for most normal shooting situations (3.4 lbs). The one at the back is my choice when using my heavy telephoto lenses (4.1 lbs).

Over the weekend, the entire family toured the building pictured above. We are thinking about purchasing it as a group in 4 equal shares (Kyle:Nico:Maya:Parents). Today, Kyle and I revisited it to do a closer building inspection. We discovered undisclosed fire damage, a non-functional furnace for the top apartment, and a floor that slopes 8 inches over 25 feet. None of these are deal breakers but need to be considered should we decide to make an offer. I returned later in the day with my drone to survey the roof. We have decided to get an HVAC contractor to estimate the furnace replacement cost and to get a sense of the permitting requirements before making our decision about an offer.

Last week, I encountered a tower while walking through the woods. Today, I passed the same tower and went off the path to investigate. A peek into the dilapidated hut at its base revealed an abandoned well. The tower was for a windmill used to pump water for irrigation. A follower of this blog suspected as much and can take credit for solving the puzzle. As a prize for that bit of sleuthing, I am offering a new challenge based on an object I found later on the same walk. I know this mystery will be of special interest because this individual is a subject matter expert on gears.

Jeanine and I met up with Kyle, Nico, and Maya in Somerville to look at a mixed-use building in Somerville. The ground level houses two businesses with a three-bedroom apartment on each of the the second and third floors.

Kyle has been orchestrating the search for an investment property and Maya and Nico are interested in building equity rather than paying rent. The three are planning to pool their resources to buy the building. Nico and Maya would each take a floor and rent out their extra bedrooms. After the tour, we had lunch together and it looks like everyone wants to move forward with an offer. There are still a lot of variables to consider and hurdles to overcome but we all left feeling excited about the possibilities.

On the home front, I persuaded/coerced “glue girl” to help me assemble four drawers that will eventually be installed in my office to house camera gear.

While meeting with a former colleague at the house, he spotted a red-tailed hawk land on a nearby tree. I briefly paused our conversation to get a photo of this handsome fellow. He has been a frequent visitor, but thus far, I have never had time to wait and watch as he hunts. We have an abundance of squirrels that would make for a nice meal, and at some point in the future, I hope to capture that action.

I finally got around to designing our Holiday Card and placing the order. It will feature a photo of the family from our visit to the Lakes District in England and another of Jeanine and me during our southern road trip on the beaches of Pawley Island, South Carolina.