I had a doctor’s appointment this morning which is located a couple of blocks from the Audi dealership through which I ordered my e-tron. I stopped in to get a status update on my car which has been sitting at the Davisville port in Rhode Island since June 3. I counted 8 e-trons on the lot, none of them mine which only adds insult to injury given that I know for a fact that my reservation was placed before all of these cars. After receiving exactly zero help from my salesperson, I reached out to a dealer I know in California. He was able to look up my order and discovered that the dealership had placed my name in the “notes” field of the order form rather than the “customer’s name” field which is where it belongs. He believes this explains the hold up. Learning this I was fit to be tied. On a positive note, I have had some very serious nibbles on my i3 which I am selling privately.

Maya, who turned twenty years old today, was treated to dinner by her former boss from Rolls Royce. She interned with RR last summer at their Indianapolis facility which produces jet engines. He wrote Jeanine and I a very thoughtful and complementary letter after her internship ended and was and continues to be a great champion for her. He is in the area on business and we were happy to have a chance to meet him and thank him for being such a great first manager for Maya. We will be celebrating Maya’s birthday as a family this weekend.

This week construction commenced on a new life sciences building located just a few blocks from my office. I spoke with the construction manager who told me it was to be an 11 story building with a 4 story subterranean garage. Scheduled duration for the project is two years. As much as I enjoyed watching the heavy equipment at work, all I could think about was the additional traffic this new facility will bring. City planners here seem inexplicably unconcerned with the traffic challenges that are going to hit like a tidal wave when all of the new office buildings going up in Cambridge and Somerville start operating.

I took my BMW into a windshield repair shop a few blocks from work this morning to address the small chip I picked up last week. After inspecting the dime sized crater, the technician said he would have me in and out in 15 minutes. Half way through the procedure he announced that the entire windshield would need to be replaced and showed me how an 8 inch crack had started to propagate from the original point of impact. Fortunately, it was an easy walk to work and they said my car would be ready by the close of business. When I returned that evening they were just wrapping up the job and I was very pleased with the quality of the workmanship.

For Father’s Day I requested a one hour portrait session with the family. It is a great opportunity to practice my hobby and it produces images that will be cherished forever. This year I purchased a set of tee-shirts that I thought particularly relevant for our family. Absent the usual grousing that accompanies such sessions, it was a ton of fun as the kids really got into character. Earlier in the day, my soccer team won our final soccer match of the season by a score of 3-0. We lost two midfielders to injury and I wound up playing an exhausting 75 minutes. We finished the season in first place for D1 South. Two more wins among the top two teams in D1 South and D1 North will determine the overall league champion. Hopefully my injured teammates will be back in action before then.

Before they had to leave for the airport and return trip to Minnesota, Maya, Jeanine and I joined Mark and Marie for a nice 3 mile walk to Walden Pond and back. Later in the day I assisted Maya as she began to install the flooring in her tiny house. Much progress was made.

Not a week after listing my BMW i3 for sale, I caught a stone this morning which chipped my windshield. I am fairly certain the repair will be covered by insurance (hopefully without a deductible). I have arranged for the work to be done next Monday and do not know yet if a repair or replacement will be required. I feel as though my car is trying to tell me that it does not want to be sold.

My brother and sister in law stopped in today on their return from a vacation in Maine. They will stay with us until their flight back to Minneapolis on Saturday. Maya took charge of creating a veritable feast which satisfied requirements for both the 30 day cleanse we are on and my brother’s list of off limit foods. Mark and Marie used their time in Maine to relax as well as to scope out potential homes/property for vacation and/or future retirement We are highly supportive of any investments that will bring them closer to Boston.

“Q5 is an immersive learning experience leveraging the curiosity, knowledge, and passions of students and faculty to foster complex thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. Q5 complements our academic program and seeks to inspire students and faculty to pursue shared interests and ideas.”

At CCHS, where Nico is teaching, they offer a variety of one week long, end of the school year, elective programs for non-seniors. Nico is staffing the All Things Paddleboarding course in which students spend half the day learning to paddleboard and the other half kayaking. Today they are headed to the Charles River and Nico will be paddling in style using the kayak I built several years ago.

On the day after climbing Mount Fitzroy in Argentina, I noticed blood in my urine, never a good sign. It persisted for a few days and then everything returned to normal. When I got back to the US, I saw my GP and then a urologist who ordered a CAT scan which revealed a number of kidney stones (5mm, 3mm x 2, 2mm). I decided to give them 6 weeks to pass before considering more invasive remedies. The journey from the kidney to the bladder can be excruciatingly painful (renal colic) and totally debilitating. The pain comes in intense waves that last for 30-90 minutes. Once in the bladder, passage out of the body is not as painful. Starting last Thursday, I have been having 2 to 3 episodes per day. Yesterday on the way back from my soccer game (non-driver in a car pool), I had a particularly painful attack. This morning, I produced over a hundred tiny stones, mostly sub millimeter, several 1mm, and a couple of 2mm. I believe that the strenuous activity may have helped break down the 5mm stone into all the remnants pictured above. Time will tell.

This morning we faced the top team from the other flight in our division, the Black Rhinos from Wellesley. We took a 1-0 lead at the thirty minute mark and scored three additional unanswered goals in the second half for a 4-0 result. I had a blistering one touch shot that rang off the cross bar. Obviously, it would have been far nicer if it had gone in but to strike the ball with such power is a nice feeling in and of itself. After the match I lined everyone up for a team photograph and could not be more disappointed with the results. I put the sun to our backs so we would not be squinting and had a fill flash mounted on the camera that was suppose to provide the correct exposure for faces. It did so for the guys standing but not for those on a knee. This is exactly what you would expect if you exceed the camera’s flash sync speed, which I did. When in that situation you turn on the HSS (high speed sync) function to prevent it from happening, which I did. Clearly, something went wrong and I have to figure out the mystery. Because the photo does not meet my standard, I will have to coerce everyone into posing for another one before the season ends. I will no doubt catch a bunch of grief when I request the do over.

Several years ago I tiled over our brick fireplace and hearth. Unfortunately the tiles that were subject to intense heat eventually cracked. Today I removed the damaged tiles and poured a new concrete base in the heat zone and behind the fireplace screen. Other than making a hot mess of the kitchen when I over revved the mixer I was using, the project came out well.

Maya is spending the summer completing work on her tiny house. What remains to be done are the built in cabinets and flooring. After about a week in the design phase she is now working on construction. Pictured here are a number of plywood panels to which she is gluing 1/2 inch solid stock edging. In the background she is doing the same to stretchers that will divide drawer sections. She is using a European style frameless cabinet to maximize space utilization and has opted for push to release closures to eliminate the need for handles. Eliminating handles buys back an inch and a half of extra maneuvering room for occupants of the kitchen.

I ordered a new flash for my camera system earlier this week and it arrived this evening. This unit features a round reflector in contrast to the rectangular system used by most flashes. The result is a much more uniform field of illumination but not the reason I ordered it. Whenever I use flash I make every effort to bounce it off a white ceiling or wall. When used this way the uniformity of light pattern makes little difference. What attracted me to this unit is a much improved user interface and mechanical coupling to the hot shoe. Anytime I update my system I put up the replaced item for sale. Below is one of two flashes that are now up for sale on Craig’s List.

I discovered an additional video featuring Nicolai from last weekend’s US National Amputee Soccer Team training camp. This one produced by the team’s host, MSL Soccer League team FC Dallas.

I took advantage of delightful weather for a lunch hour walk to the Boston Museum of Science. I didn’t have time to go in but did pause to photograph the 5-story Foucault Pendulum in the lobby. Originally  conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth, the device is mesmerizing to watch.

Nicolai spent the weekend in Texas at a US National Amputee Soccer Team training camp. Local TV covered the story.

With my new Audi e-tron set to arrive shortly (I placed my reservation last September) it is time to put my BMW i3 up for sale. I cleaned it from top to bottom and photographed it for listings on Cars.com, eBay Motors, and Craig’s List. Earlier in the day my soccer team was in action against the top team in the other flight in our age division. Our over-56 league has two divisions (1 and 2). Each has a North and South section. We are in the D1 South section which has two 4-team flights. We play teams in our flight twice and the other flight once. Winners of each flight go to through to the playoffs with the North section to determine the best of the 28 team league. We went up 1-0. They scored two in a row. I was credited with the equalizer when a teammate headed the ball off a corner kick into the top of my back from there into the net. Hardly a goal to be proud of but it gave us the tie and preserved our undefeated season.

The field behind our house is hayed a couple of times each year. The farmers who do the work charge us nothing and in return get to keep all the hay. It is really something to watch the expertly choreographed operation. Another tractor proceeds this pair to leave the grass piled in straight rows. While these guys were at work, I relocated the EVSE (Electric Vehicle Service Equipment) used to charge my electric car. It is essentially a box with fuses, a big contactor, a 25 foot cable, charge port connector and a little logic. My BMW i3 has its charge port at the back right whereas my soon to arrive Audi e-tron has its charge port at the front left. The whole project took less than 2 hours and will allow me to easily connect the cable to my new car rather than draping it over the roof. I went on to completely clean and organize the garage with Maya’s assistance.

Pictured above is an aerial view of “The Wave.” It is centered on the two puddles which can be seen in the image. Look even closer and you will find a couple of photographers (of the twenty permitted per day). I suspect they may not be all that happy because of those puddles. They aren’t big enough to use for a reflection pool but they are large enough that they will detract from an otherwise uniform image. When I was last there on foot, I had to deal with fresh snow. The upper puddle in the image above is the same one that can be seen in my photo below.

Here is a reverse angle taken on an earlier sortie. Notice the shadow that is no longer present in the image at the top.

I am always hesitant to post panoramas on this blog as they can only be appreciated at full resolution. Click on the image for a better view. This was taken just off the highway as I was approaching Page, AZ.

While hiking off trail just outside of Canyonlands NP I came across a bleached white skeleton of what I assume was a cow. The contents of its stomach remained undisturbed between its ribs. The scene left me wondering how this bovine met its demise.

This week will feature a number of photos from my recent visit to the South West. It is a busy time at work and I have a lot to catch up on and little time for additional photography. In total I took more than 2000 photographs and drove 1398 miles over the course of three days. Today I find myself thoroughly exhausted and very happy.

I slept in this morning and spent a few hours backing up and culling photos before heading south to Las Vegas for my mid-afternoon return flight to Boston. On the way I took a slight detour through the Valley of Fire State Park which is a must visit destination for anyone with kids who like to climb on things. Despite the loss of my drone, this has been a most enjoyable and photographically satisfying vacation. It is amazing what a few days in the beauty of nature does to restore my soul.

Despite the fact that Arches NP was overrun with tourists for the Memorial Day weekend, I had Landscape Arch all to myself as the sun rose. I had plenty of time to get exactly the composition and lighting I wanted. I was surprised by how many cars I encountered when entering the park at 5AM and relieved when every single one of them took the early turn for Delicate Arch. I suspect none knew that it would be in deep shadow all morning. I slowly worked my way out of the park as thousands flocked in.

It was about 10am before I made my way to Canyonlands NP only to find a two hour wait at the entrance gate. I immediately turned around and set out for Capitol Reef NP where I stopped briefly while en route to St. George.

I slept like a rock but had no trouble rising well before dawn. I was intent on taking the perfect aerial sunrise photo of the entire Monument Valley. The light was perfect and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. As I was flying my drone to the optimal vantage point, about two miles out, I lost radio contact. This is not uncommon during a distant sortie and the drone is programmed to return to home in this circumstance. Communications are generally restored after a minute or two and I generally climb to a higher altitude to increase range. On this flight, however, with every passing minute, it became apparent that my drone was not going to return. I will never know if it crashed, was attacked by a raptor, or experienced some kind of malfunction. At the time I lost signal, it was positioned over terrain that would have made recovery impossible. Adding insult to financial injury ($1,500), I had planned my entire weekend around interesting destinations for aerial photography, forcing me to change plans in real time. I decided to head to Moab by way of Mexican Hat, Valley of the Gods, Goosenecks State Park, and Natural Bridges National Monument arriving at Arches National Park in time for evening golden light.

I rose at the crack of dawn and drove to the Coyote Buttes which span the Utah – Arizona border. Pictured above are the South Buttes and below the North Buttes. I spent the morning exploring both areas with my drone and if not for my ambitious plans could have spent my entire weekend here.

At midday, I hiked the Wire Pass to Buckskin Gulch. There are two lovely slot canyons along the trail.

After completing the round trip hike, I set out for Monument Valley but not before a brief stop just outside of Page, AZ to revisit my old friend, the Horseshoe Bend.

I arrived at Monument Valley just in time for sunset and put the light to good work. As soon as the sun was down, I made a beeline for the nearest campground, pitched my tent and immediately fell asleep.

I arrived in Las Vegas late this afternoon where I promptly rented a Jeep and headed off to Kanab, UT. Along the way I stopped for a canister of butane for my camping stove and a supply of water.

This lovely scene courtesy of Jeanine who is riding through the French countryside with my cousin, her husband, and his brother and wife. I can picture them all having coffee and croissants under that umbrella. Jeanine is part French and speaks the language fluently (she will claim she is rusty). I have no doubt she is chatting up all the locals at every turn and will return with her proficiency restored.

Meanwhile, I have decided to take a long holiday weekend and will leave for Utah and Arizona tomorrow. I plan to revisit some of my favorite places and also to explore some new ones (see my recent Geo Detective post for one example). This weekend being the only one of the spring without a scheduled soccer match and weather forecasts showing three dry days at my destination, I decided not to squander the opportunity.

I had lunch today at the CambridgeSide Galleria. A few more blocks of walking took me to the banks of the Charles where I launched my drone and flew down to the Hatch Memorial Shell for a nice cityscape. From the back, the shell looks like a full dome and I must remember to photograph it again from an angle which reveals its true nature.

Kyle requested some update portraits this weekend and I was happy to oblige him. If I can find some time (not likely) I would love to add a voting option to this post to see which picture people prefer. For family members, feel free to register your opinion directly with Kyle by e-mail.