In addition to his work on the Bionic Project, Nico serves as the assistant coach for the Lexington High School men’s varsity soccer team. At his request, I took team photos of the varsity, junior varsity, and freshman squads in addition to headshots of the varsity team and coaches. The boys were very cooperative, and I am pleased with the results, which will be posted on the team’s website.
The Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island, is a scenic 3.5-mile public trail along the southeastern shore of Aquidneck Island, famous for its dramatic ocean views and historic mansions from the Gilded Age. Jeanine, Mayela, and I ventured there after stops in Providence and Jamestown on an all-day car trip. Pictured above is the Anglesea, a private residence that may be my favorite on the Cliff Walk.
The Breakers is a renowned mansion built as the summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, chairman of the New York Central Railroad, between 1893 and 1895. The estate remained a Vanderbilt family property for decades. After Cornelius’s death, his wife, Alice, and then his daughter, Gladys Széchenyi, inherited it. Gladys leased the mansion to the Preservation Society of Newport County in 1948, who bought it outright in 1972.
The Forty Steps is a historic stone staircase originally constructed in the early 1800s and later rebuilt with granite in the 1990s. It became a lively gathering spot for mansion staff and locals during the Gilded Age, where people socialized, danced, and enjoyed ocean views after work.
The Chinese Tea House sits atop the Marble House estate, built between 1912 and 1914 by architect brothers Richard and Joseph Howland Hunt as a tribute to Song Dynasty architecture. Commissioned by Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, it served as a site for suffragist rallies, with “Votes for Women” china and calligraphy inscribed to celebrate women’s rights.
While my soccer team cruised to a 5-0 victory this morning, Nico’s New England team won a hard-fought semi-final match against New York in a penalty kick shootout, earning them a place in the US Cup finals. There, they faced last year’s champions, Miami, which is basically the Haitian national team.
In the finals, New England looked very strong through 80% of the match. The team had the more dangerous attacks with two shots just off the posts. Miami, however, managed to score with ten minutes remaining, putting New England into a must-score situation. They pushed forward more players on offense, leaving themselves exposed to counterattacks, which Miami exploited for two additional goals. Nicolai left everything he had on the field, collapsing as the final whistle blew. It was a tough loss for New England but a great victory for amputee soccer.
Visiting us from North Carolina is my baby sister, Mayela (right), who traveled here specifically to watch Nico play in the US Cup this weekend. Also in attendance at today’s match against Colorado was our good friend Eliza Edwards. Nico was in fine form on the pitch, scoring the first goal in a 3-1 victory. For those unfamiliar with the use of forearm crutches, it requires considerable strength and keen balance to execute an overhead kick, as shown below. I usually think of Nico as an attacker, but today it was hard not to recognize how critical he is to the team’s defense. I lost track of the number of interceptions he made and the turnovers he forced. His New England squad will play in the semi-finals tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, I will miss that showdown as I will be playing with my own team in Medway at that time. Should his team advance to the finals, I will have enough time to make it to Weymouth to see him play again.
Nicolai was instrumental in creating the US Amputee Soccer Cup, hoping to increase the level of participation and competition among regional teams in this country. This weekend, it is being contested for the third time here in the Boston area. Five teams from across the country are competing for the national title. Nico’s team is from New England and defeated Chicago in the opening match by a score of 5-1. Nico was in fine form, scoring the first goal of the tournament on a blistering shot from distance. He is pictured here winning a header in midfield and paying the price for his effort.
Normally, this fallen branch that extends above the Sudbury River just outside our house is reserved for use by the local Great Blue Herons. Occasionally, King Fishers will use it for a scouting perch. On this day it was the domain of a very large Red Tailed Hawk. It makes me wonder what the perching policy is; fist come, first served or biggest talons rule.
This filing cabinet has served as a storage cabinet for miscellaneous items in our various garages over the past three decades. I can no longer remember how I acquired it, but I am sure it was free. It has never been an optimal solution and always looked out of place. I moved it to the top of our driveway and took a photo to advertise it as a free item on Craigslist. I had a taker within minutes. For some reason, I find the image interesting. Perhaps it is the juxtaposition of the industrial steel, painted black, against an all-natural setting.
Last night, the keypad used to operate our garage door openers started beeping incessantly. I assumed it was a warning that the battery was nearly depleted and removed it. I decided to wait until this morning to replace it, expecting to complete the task in a few minutes
Today, I discovered that the battery was not the problem and that the unit had basically lost its mind, the result of water ingress, I suspect. A consequence of never throwing out anything of value, I was able to locate not one, but three possible replacement units in a bin labeled “garage door components.” Two were used, not compatible with our new openers, and did not have backlit keys, making the choice easy. The third unit was brand new but did not include programming instructions. The subsequent scavenger hunt for the manual launched me on an exhaustive search and subsequent all-day re-organizing mission which included my desk, credenza, and the cabinets where I store my photo gear. Six hours later, it took all of ten minutes to install and program the new keypad using instructions I downloaded from the internet. I decided to lubricate both doors while I was at it for good measure.
Today, I made an effort to organize and declutter the room in our basement that was meant to be my photo studio. Instead, it has become a dumping ground for all manner of items that do not have a permanent home elsewhere. I made significant inroads and cleared an area large enough to facilitate a modest two-strobe lighting setup.
During the course of this work, I came across this photo of my Uncle Ernie with his friend Tony Bennett and a woman whom I do not recognize. Ernie played the guitar professionally and was an accompanist for many famous artists of the day, including Harry Belafonte, Burt Bacharach, Dinah Shore, Josephine Baker, Marlene Dietrich, Nana Mouskouri, Miriam Makeba, Steve Allen, Diahann Carroll, Melba Moore, and Eartha Kitt, in addition to Tony Bennett.
Oddly, I feel that I know more about my uncle now than I did when he was alive.
Jeanine returned from Greece today and shared the highlights of her 2-week adventure as we drove back from the airport. She spent her time in Athens traveling solo and on the island of Aegina staying with friends. Later, she showed me all of her photos and provided a more detailed description of her exploits.
This morning, my attention was focused on the first match of my fall soccer season. We faced arch-rival Medfield during intermittent and sometimes torrential rain. We squandered numerous scoring opportunities throughout the match and found ourselves down 1-2 late in the game. Fortunately, we found a way to score the equalizer and the tie felt like a win.
My week-long Nevada, Utah, Arizona road trip has come to an end. The weather (although bloody hot) has been most cooperative. I managed to not crash my drone, or car, or get stranded in the middle of nowhere despite a few close calls on all counts. Most importantly, I returned with a treasure trove of photos I have been wanting to make for many years. As a bonus, I am returning several pounds lighter, the result of skipping at least one meal everyday, several daily hikes, and the sweltering temperatures.
I am eager to see Jeanine again when she returns tomorrow from her adventures in Greece. Her photos and texts suggest she has been relaxing in paradise, sampling the wonderful food and culture, visiting the sights, and enjoying the company of friends, old and new.
One day, I hope to visit all of the US national parks. Today, I explored my 42nd, the Great Basin NP in Nevada. The park’s iconic feature is 13,063 ft. tall Wheeler Peak, which can be approached by a scenic road designed for those absent a fear of heights. I dared to make only one stop for the photo below. What is not apparent from this perspective is that inches beyond the flowering bushes is a steep drop-off of several hundred feet.
As I drove towards St. George, UT, where I spent the night, I paused to photograph this cloud seemingly poised to rain on my parade. Such was not the case, and I completed my journey with only one near incident. A large pickup truck almost merged into me while I was driving at 80 mph (that is the speed limit here) on the highway. The other driver clearly did not see me and I jumped on the horn which averted an accident. When the truck eventually overtook me, it was hard to miss the huge letters on the side which read SHERIFF and the police officer inside. That was the extent of our encounter as he knew that the near collision had been his fault. Still, it took several minutes before my heart stopped racing.
Although the focus of my photography on this trip has been landscapes and rock formations there is much beauty in the fauna as well.
Goblin Valley State Park is famous for its thousands of mushroom-shaped sandstone formations aptly named “goblins,” although “aliens” would have been equally descriptive. I was last here in 2009 with the entire family. I can still remember how much fun the kids had in this otherworldly landscape. It was my only stop on a day dedicated primarily to travel and the weather could not have been more cooperative. For the first time since I arrived, the entire sky was cloud filled providing the ideal diffused lighting for photographing in this park. Even better, this is the first park that offered drone permits ($15) and a dedicated take-off/landing pad. Ironically, this is the one park on my tour that is best photographed from the ground.
These goblin formations, known as hoodoos, were created over millions of years as an ancient inland sea left thick layers of Entrada Sandstone, which later hardened and was exposed to air. Erosion from wind and water carved away the softer sandstone beneath harder capstones, resulting in the bizarre, rounded shapes seen today.
During my drive, I traversed the San Rafael Reef, where I stopped briefly for a photo. Early settlers of the area would travel 20 miles north or south rather than attempt to make the treacherous crossing. In the mid-1960s, an ambitious construction project started to allow for I-70 to pass through the reef.
Before I inundate followers with a slew of arches, I thought I would start this post with a spot of color. Potash is a group of water-soluble salts containing potassium, most commonly potassium chloride, and is used mainly as a fertilizer for plants. Historically, potash was produced by leaching wood ashes in large pots, but today it is manufactured by mining potassium-rich minerals from ancient evaporite deposits and processing them to remove impurities. A bright blue dye is added to potash evaporation ponds during potash mining to absorb more sunlight and heat, which speeds up water evaporation and helps the potash crystallize more quickly. The striking blue is especially visible during peak evaporation but may shift to lighter blue, tan, or brown as more water evaporates and potash forms. When I noticed these pools while looking at a satellite view in Google Maps, I knew it was a must photograph destination despite requiring a few miles of very rugged 4×4 “road” travel.
The balance of my day was primarily centered on photographing arches I had never visited before both inside Arches National Park and outside.
Sand Dune Arch
Broken Arch
Jug Handle Arch
Corona Arch
Bowtie Arch
A permit and mandatory training are needed to hike through the Arches Fiery Furnace because the area is a challenging maze-like labyrinth with no established trails and high walls that block GPS signals, making it easy to get lost and requiring careful navigation. The aerial view tells the whole story and reveals the overall structure which can not be observed from the ground.
I could not resist making a panorama centered on the Three Gossips even though I have photographed this scene many times before.
When temperatures hit their midday peak, I started seeing things in the rocks. Tell me if you do not think the photo below looks like the head of a dog.
I half expected to see a giant come over the top of this peak when I saw its massive hand grabbing the ledge.
Below, a smaller hand is preventing this precariously perched boulder from falling over.
As the sun started to set, I drove to Dead Horse Point State Park to capture the magic and was not disappointed.
I have been to Canyonland National Park several times, but never to the Needles section. It was my first stop en route to Moab, where I will be spending the next two nights. The needles (top edge of the photo above) are magnificent, but just as exciting are what I am calling the “mushrooms” which appear below them.
Temperatures have been in the 90s every day since I arrived. Imagine my relief when I encountered this natural rock formation while hiking. It provided shade, seating, and a side table for my backpack.
NOTE TO JEANINE: I think we have to visit the stone yard again.
I found plenty of reasons to pull over for photographs as I continued towards Moab.
Mexican Hat is a small town in southern Utah named after a distinctive rock formation that resembles an upside-down sombrero perched high above the adjacent San Juan River. With a population of ~100 it is not exactly a marquee destination. It does, however, make an ideal home base for visiting Monument Valley, Gooseneck State Park, and Valley of the Gods, all on the itinerary for today.
Pictured below is a location that I scouted using Google Maps satellite view. I suspect that the San Juan River once circled/created this butte before it found a shortcut.
Gooseneck State Park
Valley of the Gods is a scenic backcountry area featuring dramatic sandstone buttes, pinnacles, and mesas reminiscent of Monument Valley. It can be traversed via a stunning 17-mile unpaved drive through vast open terrain with unique rock formations. The aptly named “Lady in the Bath Tub” is one of the more whimsical. The rugged road is likely the reason few people visit here. This is my second time and I only encountered a dozen other people on each occasion.
The last time I was in Monument Valley, I lost my drone when attempting the photo below. Since then, I have gained much experience as a pilot, and I have a newer model with better obstacle avoidance and greater radio range. I was extremely nervous on this flight, but equally euphoric as I knew I had timed the light perfectly.
Midday light, on the other hand, is pretty mundane, so I tried to add a different kind of interest to my photos. It took about 20 attempts to perfectly time my jump to the ten-second shutter delay.
When the sun started setting, I was in business again. I took the photo below about 20 minutes before golden light to give myself time to drive outside the park and far enough away to get a comprehensive view.
Millions of years in the making, hoodoos never fail to capture my fascination and photographic interest. Their formation process begins with flat-lying sedimentary rocks deposited in ancient lakes or floodplains, later elevated by tectonic forces, and finally sculpted by frost wedging and acidic rain that erodes softer layers beneath harder caprock. The caprock protects the weaker underlying rock, creating the hoodoo’s columnar shape, which persists until erosion eventually topples the cap and destroys the spire. Today, I revisited several of my favorites, the Toadstools and the White Ghost. The former are easily accessible from the highway and can be reached via a relatively short hike. The latter, not so much. On my first visit to the White Ghost, I opted for the southern approach, which requires an 8-mile hike. This time, I opted for the northern approach, which only requires a 2-mile hike. What is the “catch,” you might wonder? The shorter hike requires a 20-mile round trip on “unimproved roads.” For the most part, these are just very bumpy dirt roads. The problem is with the other parts. There are about a dozen places where the road crosses a river wash. Each one offers a unique way to strand your vehicle in a place where a new vehicle would cost less than the tow truck fee. Let’s just say that I will opt for the longer hike on any future visits. On a positive note, I did encounter some very beautiful landscapes along the way.
Unsuccessful at winning the 1000:1 daily lottery for a pass to The Wave, I opted to use my drone to look for equally impressive rock formations. I found several, my favorite being the one below, which I call “Melting Ice Cream.”
I also made a long flight to capture the aptly named North Teepees.
Lone Rock is a prominent and solitary rock formation located in Wahweap Bay within Lake Powell.
I caught the last light of the day at the Glen Canyon Dam before heading into Page, AZ for the night.
As soon as the sun was up, I made a beeline for St. George, UT where my first stop was Pioneer Park. I had hoped to photograph the St. George Narrows located there, but a group of teenagers was climbing on belay, and it did not look like they would be finishing anytime soon. Instead, I found a beautiful little arch to start the day off on a good note. I made my way north to the Snow Canyon State Park, which had a lovely valley view overlook.
Next, I had planned to photograph the Toquerville Falls, hoping that the all-wheel-drive, high-ground-clearance SUV that I rented would be up to the challenge. One mile into the five-mile final ascent, I had to abandon the effort, because I was not up to the challenge. Jeanine will attest to the fact that I have tackled some very insane roads. This one was just too treacherous and I could just imagine stranding my rental on the side of a mountain and ruining the rest of my trip.
Instead, I decided to drive through Zion National Park on my way to Kanab. Fortunately, traffic was light and I could stop often to soak in the magnificence.
As the sun was setting, I made a final stop at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The light was exceptional, and the dunes looked like waves of water. A perfect way to finish day one of my road trip.
I found a very cute cabin in Kanab and hitched my trusty steed to the post.
Despite what you might imagine is happening in this photo, these squirrels were neither fighting nor engaged in foreplay. They were, in fact, grooming each other. I never realized squirrels did this, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. They run up and down sap-covered trees all day when they are not digging in the dirt.
This morning, I decided I would take a week-long trip to canyon country (Utah, Arizona, Nevada) while Jeanine is in Greece. I booked a flight, car, and first night’s stay in the morning, completed a rough itinerary and packed by early afternoon, and was on a plane headed west before dinner. I made a similar weekend-long trip in May, 2019 when Jeanine was bicycling in France with my cousins. On that adventure, I lost my drone on the second morning and missed out on all the aerial photos I had hoped to take. Hopefully, I will not repeat that debacle.
Anytime I discover a photographically interesting destination, I save it in Google Maps. I have been doing this for years. Pictured below is the rough area I will be visiting. As you can see, it is a target-rich environment. I will only have time to see a fraction of these locations and will choose based on how much ground (in the car and on foot) that I can cover, as well as weather conditions.
Concerned after yesterday’s post, that some might consider me hostile to all Hymenoptera, I decided to create a loving portrait of this member of the Apidae family. When I approached very closely to take the photo, it did not summon a swarm of its buddies to mount an attack, it did not chase me for hundreds of feet, and it did not bite and sting me repeatedly, as did the members of the Vespidae family I encountered yesterday. In short, this bee was very friendly, and I was pleased that we could peacefully coexist in the same space.
The moral of the story: Live and Let Live. An alternative interpretation: Don’t attack me for walking too close to your nest, and I won’t fill it with a flammable accelerant.
I dropped Jeanine off at the airport this afternoon. She is headed to Greece, where she will spend 4 days in Athens before taking the ferry to Aegina. There she will be staying with her friend Maile at a vacation home in Perdika through the first week of September.
The southern yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) is known for its notably aggressive behavior, especially when its nest is disturbed or threatened, and it can coordinate group attacks using alarm pheromones released by individuals in the colony. This species is recognized as having a “shorter fuse” than other yellowjacket types, often attacking more quickly and aggressively, particularly in late summer and fall when food scarcity and high colony populations amplify their defensiveness. Even a minor disturbance near their underground nest can provoke a swarm response, with multiple individuals joining in defense and stinging repeatedly without losing their stingers.
While spreading the last of the wood chips, I managed to disturb such a population of yellowjackets and suddenly found myself under attack. I set a new personal best speed record while retreating and simultaneously swatting at the marauders that were already on me. Fortunately, I only sustained four stings, but they are quite painful. After licking my wounds, I returned to the nest with a pint of gasoline, which I poured into their underground burrow. Admittedly, it was more an act of retribution than remediation, but I felt quite pleased with my counter offensive and justified it as necessary to protect neighbors who might be attacked while walking a dog who stumbled upon the nest.
I have decided not to risk further confrontation with the yellowjackets, and I am done spreading wood chips for the season. The remaining 1/2 ton will be left in a small pile for future use.
While on an evening walk with Jeanine, we encountered a neighbor coming from the community garden. She was thrilled to show us the basket of tomatoes she had just picked from her plot. About the size of a softball, the tomato pictured above was her gift to us and will be in my belly as soon as I complete typing this post.
I made another big dent in the last remaining wood chip pile and estimate that 1 ton of the original 21 remains to be spread. I am very much looking forward to a change of pace to my landscaping workout.
While driving down the highway this afternoon, a large push broom came flying off a truck traveling well ahead of me. It hit a car in front of me and broke in half. The severed handle flew into my lane and skewered the front of my car. Picture above is what I discovered when I reached home. I still need to do further investigation but my initial assessment is that no major damage was sustained. A few inches in any direction could have led to a completely different story. For the record, all parties were traveling at an approriate speed with reasonable following distance. Even so, there was ZERO time to react and the only thing to be done was to brace for impact.
My soccer team played a preseason match this morning against a team from the age division below us. We traditionally begin our season with such a competition to help us prepare for the challenges ahead. Despite having a limited number of substitutes, we managed a 0-0 tie, which felt like a win against our younger opponents. I played a total of 60 minutes and needed a nap three times as long to recover. Even so, I felt like I was in reasonably good shape, which I attribute to my daily wood chip workouts (see prior posts on the topic).
Later in the day, I completed the wireless switching upgrade to my window washing deionizer and finished cleaning the windows on the front side of the house. I am delighted with the performance and ease of use, and will look forward to this bi-annual task in the years to come.
As the sun was setting, I decided to get a drone shot of the property showing the exposed shoreline, the result of the lower river level we are now experiencing. Jeanine has encouraged me to find a way to carry our kayaks down our steep embankment so that we can access the river directly from our property rather than relying on the use of our gracious neighbors’ launching area. I have an idea in mind. Stay tuned for updates.
With this being the last weekend before Jeanine heads off to vacation in Greece, we drove into Boston to spend the afternoon on the Common and at the Downtown Crossing. At the former, the Marine Corps had several aircraft on display as part of their 250th anniversary celebration. Photos do not convey the scale of these machines. They are enormous and insanely impressive, especially the tilt-rotor vertical take-off Osprey.
Although it was installed almost three years ago, this was my first opportunity to see The Embrace, a bronze sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas, commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. It depicts four intertwined arms, representing the hug they shared after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. The work was created by welding together about 609 smaller pieces.
Later, we walked over to Downtown Crossing, where we attended two musical performances as part of the We Make Noise Festival, which showcases women and gender-expansive artists.
We enjoyed more music when we returned to Concord and a truly unique outdoor venue called the Back Forty. All in all, a very fun day.
Among photography professionals and enthusiasts, the “Holy Trinity” refers to a set of three professional zoom lenses designed to cover a vast range of focal lengths with constant wide apertures. These are:
For the last 8 years, my lens kit has included the following zooms:
I chose f/4 lenses because they are lighter than their equivalent f/2.8 counterparts, and I already have a set of primes for low-light situations. Even though it is quite heavy, I chose the 100-400 mm for shooting birds and soccer.
Today, I began the transition to what I am calling the “Dynamic Duo,” a pair of zoom lenses to replace the trinity.
I started with the purchase of a new 20-70 mm f/4 lens (pictured above) to replace my 16-35 mm and 24-105 mm lenses (pictured below), which are now up for sale on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. My new kit will weigh 3.2 pounds, down from 5.7 pounds. I will lose 4 mm on the wide end and 120 mm on the long end. It remains to be seen if the reduced range will be worth the lighter load. I would not have gone down this path if I were not already fairly certain about the answer. I used Lightroom to create a histogram for the 115,000 photos I have taken to determine my most frequently used focal lengths. The answer: roughly 6,000 taken at each of 24 mm, 50 mm, 70 mm, 85 mm, 100 mm, and 135 mm.
Every so often, my preferred online photo printer runs a 50% off sale. I take advantage of these occasions to print photos that I would like to display or share. Most recently, I had them print my all-time favorite aerial photo, which I hung in my office today. The photograph is a wide-angle panorama composed of 21 images and stitched together with software. The 3-foot-wide by 1-foot-tall picture is of Mount Fitz Roy, located in Patagonia straddling the border between Argentina and Chile. I took this photograph with my drone during my trip there with Nico in 2019. Rising to 11,170 feet, Fitz Roy dominates this section of the Andes located within Los Glaciares National Park near the village of El Chaltén. On this early morning, Nico hiked to Laguna de Los Tres (pictured below, a small slice of the larger panorama), a climb I had done 7 years earlier with Kyle. I opted instead to hike to a different area where I could launch my drone safely and away from other climbers. The further I flew away from the mountain the more spectacular the panorama became. I was positioned perfectly when the sun lit up the peaks and against all odds, there was not a cloud in the sky.
Yesterday, I started testing my newly constructed deionized water window washing system. A feature that distinguishes it from every other system I have seen on the market is the ability to switch between regular water for washing and (expensive) pure water for rinsing using electric solenoid valves rather than a mechanical bypass valve. This allows me to switch from the window washing pole location rather than having to go back to the deionizer tanks. What I realized after washing a few windows is that a wireless remote control switch would be a far superior alternative to the wired version I initially built. Managing an electrical cable in addition to the water feed tube proved to be something of a hassle. For the whopping sum of $12, I purchased a wireless transmitter, receiver, and case to upgrade my system. I initially considered this approach but was concerned that a transmission might get dropped and leave the system in the deionized delivery mode wasting the expensive pure water. For an additional $6, I will be adding the beeper/flasher pictured below which will provide a visual and audible alert anytime deionized water is being used.
Against all odds, several of the coneflowers that Jeanine planted last year are blooming. Most succumbed to the voracious appetite of our resident groundhogs, who have a particular fancy for the young sprouts.
Recently, the water level in the Sudbury River has dropped significantly, exposing wide enough banks to create a nice area for walking along the river edge. I took advantage of this to explore and was rewarded with sightings of a Great Egret and what I believe is a juvenile Sharp-Shinned Hawk.
Back in early June, we were visited by a large snapping turtle, which deposited a clutch of eggs in the compost pile at the end of our driveway turnaround. We left the pile undisturbed in the hope that those eggs would hatch. Today, while working in the yard, I spotted a baby turtle making its way across our driveway and into the river rocks that line it. When I investigated the compost pile for signs of further hatchlings, I discovered the poor little fellow pictured above, who was not strong enough to break free from his shell.
I spent a couple of hours today “chipping away” at our wood chip piles. Of the 21 tons we started with, I estimate that only 9 remain, all to be spread adjacent to the street. Pictured above are some of the areas that have already been filled in. Given the August heat, I am only able to work for one or two hours a day. It provides a surprisingly effective workout for both strength and cardiovascular training. I keep telling myself that it is a good way to prepare for the fall soccer season, but that remains to be verified. The trick has been to do a little bit every day. Kyle has helped me on two occasions, which made the work go three times faster.
I also completed the design of a switch enclosure for my new deionized window washing system. It will get strapped to the carbon fiber extension pole, allowing me to select between regular water for washing and pure deionized water for the final rinse. The switch will be press fit into the enclosure.
