Yesterday Jeanine returned from Oklahoma where she spent the last week with her closest childhood friend, Kris Earle, pictured here atop one of her horses. The two spent hours gardening together and gathering peaches and blueberries and turning them into yummy things, some of which made their way in the form of preserves back to Concord. Jeanine returned with a nourished soul.
Nicolai has been sleeping away most mornings on this summer vacation. Today he did not appear too happy at 5:50AM while waiting to be picked up by a friends family with which he will spend the next week at their summer home on Nantucket. Despite the mood captured in this photo, Nico is thrilled for this opportunity and has been looking forward to spending time with his friends.
Although I enjoyed observing the marine life, I took even more pleasure from watching the boys interact. It is not often these days that they spend time with each other absent the presence of their friends or electronic entertainment. Kyle spent a large part of the weekend working and is tired and hungry. Both boys required feeding before and after the aquarium visit. We ate at Quincy Market and lingered to enjoy a street artist.
To the utter dismay of their mother, who returns from Oklahoma tomorrow, the boys elected to go to the Boston Aquarium for a boy’s night out. Jeanine constantly strives to expose the kids to educational and cultural enrichment opportunities often to her total consternation. Although the boys have grown up a lot since their last visit, they remained quite enthusiastic about the penguins, jelly fish, sharks, giant octopus and harbor seals.
Jeanine normally retrieves the mail from our box and it is not something I am in the habit of doing. This morning I was delighted to find two letters from Maya which arrived earlier this week describing life at camp . Both contain requests for a hair brush and the second a plea for skin moisturizer. Pictured here is a care package prepared by the boys and I which in addition to the requested items includes a letter from each of us and several delectable contraband items.
In an effort to start preparing for the fall soccer season I did a 14 mile bike ride while enjoying an absolutely perfect summer day. My knee is still bothering me a little and I am hoping it will be ready in 4 weeks. The one way distance to work is 11 miles and I have been toying with the idea of making the commute on bike. We shall see.
Nico now has his driving permit and offers to chauffeur me at every chance. We practiced a three point turn and did two passes on the very intimidating Concord rotary before going out together for dinner.
This is much closer to what I looked like most of the time during high school. Throw in a suit and regular tie and I would have had a much better senior photo.
During my off site meeting yesterday I promised to send colleagues my high school senior photo. Hard to say which is more embarrassing, the Afro or the bow tie. Note to children: Think carefully about what you wear and how you look when taking a photo that will follow you for the rest of your life. Note to colleagues: Use of this photo for purposes of extortion will be viewed dimly.
A very productive all day session with my boss and colleagues ended, at my insistence, in a team photo. Among this group I learned that one was nearly killed in an armed robbery attempt, one cried at his wedding, one has made a hole-in-one, one escaped from the police on a mini-bike, one met Mohammad Ali, one is a descendant of Henry the Eighth, one hike 600 miles of the Appalachian Trail, one had an Afro in high school, and one worked in a gold mine.
This pond and fountain is located on the International Golf Course in Bolton, MA. The senior leadership team from iRobot is having dinner and spending the night at the adjacent conference center in advance of an all day goal setting meeting tomorrow. Enlarging the photo will reveal a nice rainbow formed in the mist from the fountain.
Kyle purchased his first vehicle today, a Ford F-150 which he plans to use for his business. We insisted on dual air-bags but beyond that Kyle did the research and choose this model. There are a couple of small items that need to be addressed, but by and large it is in very good condition compared to many of the other trucks we looked at.
Kyle and I spent the better part of the afternoon and early evening inspecting and testing used trucks. He has narrowed his choice to Ford F-150s and we looked at four of them. I tried to document the issues with each truck to help us remember. Here I have managed a self portrait while trying to document a crack in the side view mirror. Our travels took us to Worcester, Ashland, and Lexington. The final truck, a 2002 model year, with airbags and air conditioning looked like a good choice and Kyle will be finalizing the negotiations tomorrow.
Maya has settled in at camp and passed her swim test on the first attempt. Jeanine, who returned this evening, reports that Maya will be sleeping in a lean-to (three walls and a roof) and that the setting is idyllic.
Kyle has been after me to teach him how to use a chainsaw (he feels this would be a good skill to have for his landscaping business). This afternoon he received his first lesson and for homework we felled an oak tree that has been depriving Jeanine’s tomato plants of adequate sun. We had to exercise great care because the tree was naturally poised to fall directly onto the raised bed garden containing the tomato plants. Using a carefully cut hinge we dropped that tree within millimeters of our target. You would think that today’s photo , therefore, might show Kyle in the act of sawing on a tree but I was more concerned with carefully monitoring his technique rather than capturing it. Instead we have a bunch of bulbs from the Verrill farm stand where I made a brief visit to pick up some fruit and bread.
During the summer months, iRobot employees are encouraged to put a little extra time in early in the week so that they can take advantage of a half day Friday. This was my plan but by the time I cleared a number of unexpected challenges it was late in the day. I decided to photograph some flowers as a virtual gift for Jeanine and Maya who are in Burlington Vermont this weekend visiting with Jeanine’s sister Susan. Tomorrow Maya will be dropped off at camp and it will be weeks before I see her again.