My soccer team will move on to the championship finals next week after defeating Lexington in the semi-finals this morning. We gave up a penalty kick in the 3-1 win and dominated possession for most of the match. Having failed to do so earlier in the season, I took an official team photo after the game.

Jeanine is enjoying herself on Martha’s Vineyard, and Nico just returned from Idaho. Wrestling practice starts tomorrow at Concord Academy, and he will be presenting at Sudbury High School for the Bionic Project, so he will be spending the night here to shorten his commute.

Jeanine is visiting a friend on Martha’s Vineyard for the weekend. I am hoping to surprise her with a completed desk for her office when she returns on Monday. It is an ambitious goal that may be thwarted by the late delivery of drawer hardware. Nonetheless, I set out in earnest this morning. Pictured here is the primary desktop under construction. An “L” shaped return will be provided by a double-wide filing cabinet. Initially, I had planned to make the desk a “built-in” by attaching it to the wall. This would have saved a bit of the very expensive bamboo plywood at the cost of future flexibility and ease of installation. In addition to the top, I completed the three-drawer cabinet that will support the left side of the desk. Tomorrow, I plan to tackle the bookshelf that will support the right side and also apply the finish.

When I was a young man, I could easily carry a 3/4 inch 4×8 foot piece of plywood unassisted. Those days are long gone. Over the winter, I will be building a new desk with drawers for Jeanine’s office and a new bed with integrated nightstands, headboard, and shelving. Moving 12 sheets of bamboo plywood, each weighing ~90 pounds, from the garage to my workshop proved to be quite a demanding job. I used the pictured contraption to move one sheet at a time. The task took the better part of two hours and will take the place of today’s visit to the gym.

Yesterday, I learned that another one of my high school classmates passed away. That makes 8 over the last three years. I feel fortunate that I am still able to do the things I do and am reminded to make the most of every day. In discussing this with a friend, I had occasion to retrieve a photo from ten years ago that I did not publish on the blog and I thought I would celebrate that memory today.

I have my parents to thank for the many positive traits I inherited. Flat feet are not one of them. For years, I purchased shoes with arched insoles, assuming this would help address my skeletal-muscular defect. I finally learned that the only way I could be comfortable was in shoes with dead flat insoles. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to find such footwear that also meets my other criteria for function and style. When I do stumble upon a shoe that works for me, I have learned to buy three pairs. Pictured above is my collection of lightweight trail shoes. After much wear and tear, the pair on the left is now relegated to yard work. I wear the pair in the middle almost every day. The pair on the right are brand new, and I will not start using them until my everyday shoes get demoted to yard work and my yard work shoes wind up in the trash.

This set of shoes is likely to last me 6-8 years. The reason I buy them all at once is that most companies revise their product lines every couple of years, and I want to avoid the lengthy process of finding another set that meets all of my criteria. To me, this seems like a logical solution. To others, a reason to question my sanity and/or intelligence.

A few weeks ago, I had an ultrasound, which revealed a couple of 3mm kidney stones and an 8mm bladder stone that I had to look forward to. Today, I passed the bladder stone. Mercifully, the 8.4mm long stone was only 4mm in width.

Jeanine attended the School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT, where she obtained her Master’s Degree in Intercultural Management. Last night we hosted a dinner party for a few of her former classmates. Phil, on the left, is a lawyer who now lives in Sydney, Australia, and will be staying with us for two nights. Dan lives nearby in Groton and does small construction projects while he is not building custom “catios” (outdoor, multi-level, open-air enclosures for cats), which are apparently in high demand. Jeanine prepared a delicious mushroom-based stroganoff that was out of this world. Lively conversation took as well past 11 pm, and I was amazed that Jeanine, who usually falls asleep by 8 pm, was still going strong.

Yesterday, the pair of GMRS radios I ordered arrived. They allow me to receive FM radio stations, NOAA weather forecasts, police, fire, and medical, as well as air traffic control and ham radio transmissions. I can receive all of these, but can only transmit on a specific set of channels. This type of radio requires a license to operate, but it is very easy to obtain and covers all members of the family. In essence, these are short-range walkie-talkies that also allow you to simultaneously monitor two different frequencies and cover a huge band of the radio spectrum.

I set one radio up to monitor Concord Police and Fire Dispatch. The other one is set to monitor air traffic control at nearby Hanscom Airfield. Because Concord is a sleepy little town, I did not imagine there would be that much action on the radio. The Fire Department responded to three false alarms, including the new Chipotle in town, the Concord Academy Science Building, and the Concord Children’s Center. All three were false alarms. I was very impressed by the speed of response. Each time I arrived, the firefighters were already heading out. The first call came when I was at home, so I decided to head over to Chipotle for an early lunch. The second two came while I was driving in town, allowing me to quickly divert to the scene. I was very impressed.

UPDATE: Later in the evening, I heard another call for a return visit to Chipotle. Four false alarms in one day.

I finally got around to setting up a proper photo studio in the basement today. Most of my time was spent suspending three rolls (grey, while, and black) of background paper from the ceiling. Each roll is 9 feet wide and can be individually raised or lowered with pull chains for quick background color changes. These will be used for portraiture and large product photography. I also mounted a 4’x4′ light tent on a mobility base. In the foreground is my camera stand, which allows me to rapidly position my camera almost anywhere in the studio. Think tripod on a mobile base with an arm that can reach out over things. Two battery-powered strobes with soft boxes complete the all-wireless setup. Slightly more compact than my studio in our last home, it is more than adequate for the type of photography I expect to be doing going forward.

Behold the tiny White-Brested Nuthatch. These birds are known for their ability to climb down trees headfirst, a behavior that distinguishes them from other birds like woodpeckers. Their diet consists of insects, seeds, and nuts, and they are found throughout North America in deciduous and mixed forests. They get their name “nuthatch” from their habit of wedging large seeds or nuts into tree crevices and then “hatching” them open with their bills. I spotted this one after waking from a long post-soccer-match nap. We finished our season with a 5-0 win and are now on to the postseason playoffs, which will start next weekend. I had a very nice pass to one of our best players for an open shot on net, but he failed to finish and deprived me of the assist. On a positive note, the combination of rolling out my leg muscles and a healthy dose of Ibuprofen allowed me to play free of hip pain.

For the first time in our 35-year marriage, Jeanine spent the entire day in her pajamas. I spent much of it experimenting with a new flash for my camera, using her as an unaware subject. The photo above appears straightforward, but it is actually quite challenging to balance the bright outdoor scene with the darker interior. Jeanine and I are relatively active, but something about the weather, the phase of the moon, or the prior week of gym workouts left us quite content just lounging about for the day.

Jeanine and I hosted a potluck dinner for the soccer parents of Maya’s teammates at Concord Carlisle High School. It was wonderful catching up with everyone, and the food was great. Jeanine prepared lasagna, possibly my favorite Italian dish. Little did we know at the time that these friendships would have endured over the years.

It took me a moment to connect the automated UPS delay notification I received with the tragic plane crash of flight 2976 in Louisville, KY, on November 4th. It appears that a catastrophic engine failure on takeoff caused the crash, which killed the 3 person crew, 9 people on the ground, with another 12 missing and presumed dead. My heart goes out to the families and friends of all who have been impacted by this horrific accident. I also feel guilty that a package for me was processed through the UPS Worldport facility in Louisville while workers there were grieving for their community and lost colleagues. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to return to business as usual after such a tragic event. When my package arrives, one of 22.4 million per day delivered by UPS, I hope to greet the driver and share my condolences and appreciation for the work they do.

After one year of normal use, our milk frother stopped working. Specifically, the frother spring stopped rotating even though the heating element continued to work. My first impulse was to repair the unit. When the problem became apparent, it was clear that a fix would only be temporary. The root cause of the failure was a poorly designed seal that allowed heated milk to penetrate the front bushing of the motor, where it became encrusted around the shaft. I have ordered a replacement, which employs a different design with a totally separate stainless steel vessel for the milk. The frother is magnetically coupled to the motor in the base, making the current failure mode impossible. Only time will tell how robust the new unit is.

The Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, located in Boston Harbor and operated by the MWRA, is one of the largest and most advanced facilities in the U.S., serving over 2 million people in 43 communities. It treats up to 1.2 billion gallons of wastewater per day—removing more than 85% of pollutants—before safely releasing cleansed water into Massachusetts Bay via a 9.5-mile outfall tunnel. The plant also generates energy from methane produced during sludge digestion, supporting on-site power needs.

Jeanine and I completed the 2.6-mile walk around the perimeter of this island in very high winds. We did so in the early morning after dropping Marie and Rose at the airport for their return to Minnesota. In addition to being a state-of-the-art facility, it is actually quite beautiful from an architectural perspective.

I just purchased a new, more powerful flash for my camera, which triggered a rethinking of my portable lighting kit. As a result, I posted several strobes and lighting accessories for sale this afternoon. My rule for camera gear and computers, and tools in general is that nothing collects dust. If I upgrade or add to my kit, then I take a hard look at what is replaced and what can be sold.

My sister-in-law, Marie, and my niece, Rose, are staying with us for the weekend while doing college visits in the area. After discovering Nico’s synthesizer in the basement, we were treated to a lovely concert. The acoustics in the house are such that her singing could be heard throughout. I managed to make the brief recording featured above.

I left the house early for my soccer match, while Jeanine, Marie, and Rose drove into Boston to have brunch with Maya and do some sightseeing. My team faced Medfield, our toughest opponent in the league, and had to settle for a scoreless tie, which was good enough to earn us a first-place finish for the season and qualify us for the playoffs with home-field advantage.

Kyle shared this photo, taken in Miami with friends from high school who are there to attend the multi-day wedding of their classmate Dave Lishanski. His bride’s family is from India, where celebrations involve vibrant attire, extensive food, music, and dance, with specific ceremonies varying by region and religion.

The Boston University Pumpkin Drop is an annual Halloween tradition hosted by the physics department, where dozens of pumpkins are hurled from the roof of the Metcalf Science Center. The event serves as a festive, messy lesson in physics concepts, including gravitation, velocity, and energy transition, as the pumpkins filled with various gooey substances fall 70 feet to the plaza below. When I heard about this event on the radio this morning, I decided I had to drive into Boston to witness it for myself. While in the area, I enjoyed photographing the Center for Computing & Data Sciences, also known by the nickname “the Jenga building” due to its unique stack-of-books architectural design. 

In the evening, Jeanine and I attended the Conantum Haunted Woods celebration (photo album here) before attending an adult party with neighbors.

Kyle is on his way to Miami to attend a wedding, while Maya and Nico enjoyed the holiday with friends. Maya’s costume did not arrive in time, so she had to improvise.

I spotted this red-tailed hawk as it took up a surveillance post above the river in our backyard. I suspect it is a male which are somewhat smaller than the females. Unsurprisingly, the squirrel and chipmunk activity in the yard came to an abrupt halt when it arrived. One look at those talons and you know this bird means business, although I have yet to see one actually catch something.

The combination of wind and rain we are experiencing today is bringing down much of the remaining leaves in droves. It is feeling very much like the end of autumn and time to order more bamboo plywood for the winter projects I have planned: a desk, drawers, and bookshelf for Jeanine’s office, and a new bed with nightstands and shelving for our bedroom.

Jeanine hosted her Buddhist Sangha this morning and asked if I would make a fire so the group could meet outdoors. I was happy to oblige. With the right combination of kindling, dry wood, and an industrial-sized propane torch, I produced the pictured fire in under four minutes. Later, I added a couple of full-size logs, which provided warmth that lasted for the one-hour duration of the gathering.

Last week at the Bionic Project Fundraiser, Will Border, the president and co-Founder, included the cartoon above in his presentation. It had such a powerful impact on me that I wanted to learn more about its creator.

Michael Giangreco, a University of Vermont education professor in the special education program, has written more than 300 comics lampooning the bureaucracy, absurdity, and challenges he saw in the implementation of special education. The strips were collected in three volumes, all subtitled Absurdities and Realities of Special Education.  In the early 1990s, when he was making presentations of his research, he often used humor to make his point by including cartoons such as those of Gary Larson’s Far Side. It was difficult, however, to find cartoons that were specifically on point, so he eventually started writing his own. Because he was not very good at drawing, he enlisted the help of his friend and Burlington, VT fine artist Kevin Ruelle. The two have been collaborators ever since.

It is these gentlemen we have to thank for this poignant and thought-provoking image.

When my perspective on an issue is changed in an instant, I call that a 2×4 moment, as in being whacked in the head by a heavy bit of lumber.

The Eustis Estate is a historic family estate located in Milton, Massachusetts. Its centerpiece is a large, three-story mansion built in 1878 and designed by the prominent architect William Ralph Emerson in an eclectic Late Victorian style. The mansion features local stone construction with red and yellow brick accents, a red tile roof, Romanesque arches on its porte-cochere, and six chimneys with decorative brickwork. The estate covers 110 acres with forests, ponds, gardens, orchards, and several outbuildings, including a gatehouse, stables, greenhouses, and barns, reflecting a self-sustaining property with its own water and ice supply and even electricity generated in later years. The estate was developed by William Ellery Channing Eustis, a Harvard-educated engineer who owned mines and smelting companies, and his wife Edith Hemenway, who inherited the land from her mother. The estate remained in the Eustis family until 2012, when it was sold to Historic New England, which now operates it as a museum.

I decided to visit the mansion while driving ahead of schedule to an appointment with my urologist, whose practice is in Milton. There, I learned after an ultrasound that I have a 3mm kidney stone in each of my kidneys and “multiple” bladder stones with the largest being 8mm. The latter are ticking time bombs. 7mm is generally considered the largest size stone that can be passed without potentially getting stuck. Should one become lodged in the urethra, it is considered a medical emergency and needs to be treated immediately to prevent permanent kidney damage, among even less desirable outcomes. With my luck, this will happen while I am in Antarctica or on the Bolivian altiplano. With this in mind, I will have surgery to remove the bladder stones and during the same procedure address the root cause, an enlarged prostate (68 grams compared to the normal size of 25 grams). I am still evaluating the various surgical options and will try to schedule around my soccer season and travel plans. Fun!

The video posted above was prepared for the Bionic Fundraiser that we attended last Friday. It is a short and succinct summary of what the Bionic Project, where Nico is the Lead Educator, is all about.

Despite the fact that many of my soccer teammates were in Vietnam for a tournament this weekend, the rest of us took care of business with a decisive 7-0 drubbing of Raynham this morning. It was not one of my better matches, but I was grateful to be on the pitch at all, given how bad my hip had been hurting earlier in the week. I did manage a pretty assist during my 65 minutes of playing time.

After the match, we gathered for our customary post-game aprés, this week hosted at our house. In addition to my over-62s team, we had players from the over-48s and over-55s join us. Jeanine prepared a magnificent chili, which was a big hit, as were the fresh cider donuts she purchased from a local farm stand. Our first outdoor fire of the season took the chill off the crisp fall air and was so big it was still ablaze as the sun set.

This female Eastern Downy Woodpecker is a regular visitor to the trees around our property, as are its much larger cousins the Pileated Woodpecker. I am pleased to say that so far they have shown no interest in our house, which cannot be said for the last two we have owned in Concord. At one point, I thought I heard a woodpecker pecking on our aluminum roof, which seemed quite implausible to me. I have since theorized that it was pecking on a dead branch that had fallen on top of the roof. Since our roofs are fairly low-pitched (3:12), detritus can often remain there until a good rain storm or strong wind comes along. One of the selection criteria for our siding was that it not attract woodpeckers or rather that it would not host the insects that they are hunting for. So far, knock on non-wood, we seem to have achieved our goal.

This evening, Jeanine, her friend Barbara, and I attended the Western-themed Bionic Project fundraiser held at Loretta’s Last Call adjacent to Fenway Park. I volunteered to photograph the event, which proved to be quite a challenge given the dim and multi-colored lighting, as well as the dark ceilings, walls, and floors, making bounce flash impossible. Still, I made a good go of it. The full set of images can be found here.

Country Western music was provided by the Clay Street Unit after an emotionally stirring video explaining the work of the Bionic Project, a message from the Chairman of the Board, and a live auction. The event was a great success, and I would estimate that they raised $100,000.

Pictured below are the prettiest cowgirls of the evening and two handsome dudes.

Over the years, I have taken several aerial photos of the Concord Carlisle High School. Today, I discovered an entirely different perspective, which may well be my favorite. The reason I have never considered this angle before is because it features the back side of the school. I think the architects might have gotten the orientation decision wrong. The only reason I can think of to support their choice is that construction on the new school started while the old one remained in use. This no doubt would have limitted some options and complicated the logistics.

I had a deep tissue massage this morning to try to get my hip in shape for my soccer game this weekend. It helped, but I will be hitting the Ibuprofen pretty hard if I am going to make it onto the pitch.

At Jeanine’s request/insistence, out of concern for my safety, I will be joining a photography tour when I travel to Bolivia in March. This afternoon, I secured my reservation with a small group led by a Peruvian photographer that will visit the Uyuni Salt Flats and Altiplano Desert. I hope to combine this with a visit to Guyana, where I plan to visit the Kaieteur Falls. I generally prefer to travel alone on such photo adventures, but I can see the wisdom of going with a guide. Since the group is composed exclusively of photographers, I am hopeful that the itinerary and shooting times (sunrise/sunset) will be similar to what I would have chosen if traveling solo.

My hip has been bothering me so much since Saturday that I failed to notice a foot injury I sustained during my soccer match on Sunday. This is what happens when a defender wearing cleats steps on your foot. It is a tactic used by unscrupulous players to slow down attackers. In this case, however, it was inflicted unintentionally. If anything, I was more of the aggressor last weekend and felt compelled to apologize to my defender after the game for being too rough. I consider this injury to be karmic payback that I deserved.

With fall color peaking in Concord this week, I don’t even need to leave the house for a great photo. This shot, taken on our first floor, reminds me of a photo I took in December of 2023 from the basement window directly below it. I am now inspired to capture all four seasons through the same window with the same framing and perspective. Stay tuned.

Jeanine and I joined the Thoreau Fitness Center yesterday and went in for our first session today. I had the good sense to take it easy, given my left hip remains quite tender. Even so, I can tell I will be waking up with some sore muscles tomorrow. We have scheduled two workouts a week that we will do as a couple, and a third, which will remain floating for the time being.

iPage is the web hosting service I use for this blog. Each month they send me usage statistics generated through their hosting control panel and analytics modules. A “visit” represents a single session of activity from a unique visitor until the visitor leaves or remains idle for roughly 30 minutes.

Over the last few month the number of visits to this site have increased substantially to nearly 7,000 per day and I have no idea why. In the last year, the number of visits was more than 1.2 million which is hard for me to wrap my head around given my target audience is just friends and family.

After further investigation, I learned that for hobby-level websites like mine, it is common for between 30% to 80% of all visits to be from automated bots or scrapers. I wonder if the recent increase in daily activity is linked in some way to the increased use of AI.

Regardless, it is nice to know that more than a few people take a moment each day to visit and this serves to motivate me to keep posting.

Fall color is now moving through our neck of the woods. Pictured above is an aerial view of the section of the Sudbury River adjacent to our home, the roof of which can be seen on the left bank. Also visible in this photo, if you look carefully, is a kayaker and a Great Blue Heron.

Yesterday, I woke up almost completely unable to walk with severe pain in my left hip joint. Apparently, all the driving I did on Friday (10 hours in the car) did not sit well with my hip, pun intended. A combination of Ibuprofen, icing, walking (4 miles), and a massage from Jeanine made it possible for me to play soccer this morning, a seemingly miraculous recovery. Not only was I able to play, but I also scored my first goal of the season, and a beauty at that. I intercepted a pass at midfield and made a Nico-class juke to evade my defender. I then passed to a teammate who attacked the goal. His shot was rejected and fell to their sweeper, who I stripped and then beat a second defender to face the goalie one-on-one from the 18-yard line. He charged to cut down the angle as I fired a left-footed rocket which bounced off the inside of the far post for the goal.

I should note that this is the first game I played with a new set of cleats that I purchased to replace the pair I blew out last month, making them forever lucky.

Jeanine and I attended the Concord No Kings Rally at the Minute Man National Park today. Considering that we are a town of 18,300, the turnout was significant. I estimate close to 1,000. The photo’s resolution is good enough that you could actually get an exact count if you were so inclined. I was able to spot Jeanine in the image, but only because I knew where she was standing. As one would expect of Concord, it was a peaceful demonstration that was as frivolous as it was sagacious.

For the first time in a week, the sun was out, demanding that I jump in the car for a road trip in search of fall color. Unfortunately, the 400 miles I covered driving through three states provided few scenes that lived up to my expectations. Instead, I turned my attention to waterfalls, making stops at Moss Glen Falls, Warren Falls, and Bartlett Falls.