After pitching my tent in Collier-Seminole State Park I head out on a nature walk in the waning light and am rewarded for my effort with these two photographs. The first features what must have been a century long battle between an enormous strangler fig and an equally massive tree. The second is of the endangered Wood Stork perched over a tiny lagoon.

My first destination is the city of Cape Coral, home to Florida’s largest population of Burrowing Owls. When development first began in the area of Cape Coral and the land was clear-cut for homes, these owls found suitable habitat in the sandy soil of freshly cleared lots and set up residence. The owls either create new or make use of abandoned burrows to live in and nest. They stand approximately nine inches tall and weigh roughly four ounces.

Jeanine drove me to the airport early this morning for my 6AM flight to Fort Myers where I will start a 5 day solo adventure centered on exploration of the Everglades and surrounding areas. This photo taken on approach sums up southwestern Florida quite well. In the foreground is Lovers Key State Park a pristine wildlife sanctuary with Fort Myers Beach and its back to back high rise hotels just across the channel in the background.

Today was my final day at Sonos. Although I am very excited about my new opportunity with iRobot, I am going to miss the friends I have made over the last two years. I learned a great deal and am very proud of what my team and I were able to accomplish. There are many many things I am going to miss about Sonos but the commute through rush hour traffic (pictured above) is not one of them. Knowing this was the last time made the journey just a tad more tolerable. The heavy heart over saying goodbye had the opposite effect.

I leave early tomorrow morning for the Everglades where I will spend several days on a solo kayak and camping adventure.  I hope to come back with some great images and will post again late next week. The children have given me a great deal of advice on how best to avoid being eaten by an alligator. I will heed it all.

Jeanine and I love the fact that Hannah is a serious student and has introduced Kyle to the concept of a study date. Without the time demands of a varsity sport to deal with Kyle has taken his academic performance to a higher level and the hard work is paying off.

Any visit to the optometrist which does not result in a stronger prescription is one I am happy with. I wish the results of my soccer match this evening were as good as my checkup. We came from behind to tie the game at 4-4 but gave up two goals in the closing 2 minutes. I found the back of the net once with a line drive from 25 yards which the goalie was unable to handle.

This is the brush assembly from the electric motor which raises and lowers our downdraft ventilator in the kitchen. The narrow dingy yellow device on the right side of the image is a thermal overload interrupter which was tripping after a few seconds of motor use. Bypassing the device and rebuilding the motor revealed shorted windings and a replacement is now on order. It took several hours of work to disassemble the ventilator before I discovered the root cause of the problem. On the bright side, the replacement motor costs $150 compared to a new ventilator which runs $1400.

I used a long exposure to capture this image of Maya’s soccer team during an indoor training session. I like the resulting photograph more than the ones that more faithfully depicted the scene.

The rain we have been deluged with for the past few days has subsided, and the local rivers are all swollen. This is a view of the Sudbury River from the South Bridge Boat House. Note the height of the water on the bridge in the background. Normally, there is about 6 feet of clearance under the three barely visible arches.

Jeanine is at a workshop this weekend, and I have had the kids all to myself. Maya started the day with a dance lesson and finished with a birthday slumber party. In the middle, she had a soccer game in which she played goalie for a bit. Her team was down 3-0 and came back to win in the final seconds by a score of 5-4.

Why does an otherwise normal child seek to incarcerate herself in the dog’s crate? Answer: To avoid eating vegetables. Fortunately, Maya continues to eat enough to grow and may one day need a larger sanctuary.

Nala does her cute paw thing while having her neck scratched by Nico. Torrential rains helped me stay focused on completing performance reviews for my staff. Once finished, I will have fulfilled my final obligations at Sonos.

I constantly remind the kids to brush their teeth regularly. The price I paid for not following my own advice as a youth is helping to sustain the dentistry industry in Boston. I had 4 teeth worked on today and can still hear the drilling in my mind.

This evening’s meal featured the most delicious rice salad. Jeanine is a true artist when it comes to making foods that are both nutritious and delicious, her wheat grass and sunflower sprout smoothies aside.