It has been more than three years since I last visited the Fruitlands Museum. This evening, I revisited the campus with my drone as it is only accessible by prior arrangement due to Covid-19. While perched upon Prospect Hill where the museum is located, I also initiated a long-range flight down to the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge located on the Nashua River. I was careful not to encroach on the adjacent Fort Devens Range Control, a 5000-acre military training ground which I assumed was off-limits to drones. The Fort Devens ranges are used for live-fire training with pistols, rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, grenade launchers, and mortars. The complex’s tactical training areas can be used for land navigation, orienteering, field training exercises, and airdrop.

Standing next to me in this 2008 Concord United team photo is John Bemis. Twelve years my senior, we only played soccer together for two seasons before he retired his cleats. Even so, we developed a friendship that endured off the field. He is possibly the warmest and most caring person I have ever known. This morning, Jamie, his wife of 40 years was struck and killed by a car as she crossed Thoreau Street in Concord. The 91-year old woman driving the car drove on for some fifty feet before coming to a stop and it took rescuers twenty minutes to extricate the body from under the car. Jamie will be remembered for her philanthropic work and as the founder of Gaining Ground, now a nonprofit organic farm that grows vegetables and fruit with the help of several thousand community volunteers and donates all of this fresh food to area meal programs and food pantries. John will discover how deeply loved he is by all that have come to know him.

The latest chapter of Nicolai’s cross country travel adventure has taken him to Glacier National Park where he hiked the Highline Loop Trail yesterday. Generally regarded as one of the most scenic hikes in America, the trail follows the Continental Divide and is sometimes called the Garden Wall for reasons which should be obvious from the photo that Nico sent us. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, I had planned a 10-day vacation in Morocco and Portugal shortly after completing my first 100-days at Digital Alloys. Two days prior to my departure, all flights in and out of Morocco were canceled. It has now been close to 9 months on the new job and I have taken just 4 individual vacation days and that was so I could provide consulting services to Formlabs. It has become apparent to me that I sorely need some time off and the imminent expiration of my American Airlines frequent traveler miles has only served to compel me to start planning a getaway, either with Jeanine or solo.

Located just two miles from my office is Mary Cummings Park, one of the great public parks of Greater Boston. This over two hundred acres public park on the Burlington-Woburn border was created when the Boston City Council accepted Mary Cummings land in 1930 to be kept forever open as a public pleasure ground. Adjacent to Mary Cummings Park itself is another 100 acres of protected conservation and recreation land, including a 75-acre parcel known as Whispering Hill, now owned by the City of Woburn and held as public parkland and 25 acres which is part of the Quail Run Conservation land. Now that they are on my radar, it is safe to say that I will be spending many a lunch hour exploring these parks.

It has been more than 13 years since I last posted a picture of a snail. I suspect it has been that long since I have seen one. I encountered this little fellow on my noontime walk. He is about a half-inch long and I found him stuck to the underside of a broadleaf. He was not all too happy with me when I turned the leaf over to facilitate the shot exposing him to the bright midday sun. He quickly slobbered (not sure what the proper name is for snail propulsion) his way to the edge of the leaf and climbed over to the shady side.

Earlier this week, Kyle turned twenty-eight. Today we celebrated with a special meal prepared by Jeanine followed by a yummy lemon cake served with mango sorbet. We missed having Nico at the table; at last check-in, he was headed for Mount Hood in Oregon. Kyle has settled into working remotely and all the challenges that come with it. Like us, he has decided to postpone his plans for buying a home in anticipation of significantly lower prices and better inventory next year.

I spent the better part of the day decluttering my workshop which included burning off enough scrap wood to build a small house. Jeanine suggested I use an antique copper cauldron that we own as a fire pit rather than selling it on Craig’s List as I had originally planned. It turned out to be a great suggestion allowing for a very compact and controlled burn.

When the boys were little, I made them a right-angled bunk bed out of cherry and birds-eye maple. When they outgrew sleeping in the same room, I converted the bunk bed into two twin-size beds that we have used ever since for overflow guests. Now that we are downsizing, we really have no need for them and although they are quite beautiful, they are so heavy that no sane human being would ever purchase them. Instead of trying to find them a new home, I opted to deconstruct them and harvest the very valuable cherry wood. Kyle and I nearly killed ourselves carrying the beds to my shop but once there, it was not that difficult to salvage the cherry although it did take the better part of my morning. When I set out to write this entry, I looked through my photos sure that I had photographed the bunk beds in all their glory. Sadly, no such photo exists. All that remains now is one of the headboards, pictured above. I will leave it intact as a reminder of both the project and of Kyle and Nico when they were both young rascals jumping from the top bunk to the bottom one and then to the floor.

While attending Mony Pleasant High School in Schenectady, NY, I was oblivious to the circumstances surrounding the death of one of my classmates over the summer break between my sophomore and junior years. Yesterday, during my mini-reunion with Cathy Conway and Tom Metzold, I learned a few details which motivated me to research the full story.

On July 22, 1974, 16-year-old, Susan Carmel Zanta went missing. She was on summer vacation staying with a friend’s family at their Cossayuna Lake cottage in Argyle, NY. Her friend’s boyfriend was visiting and she did not want to be a third wheel so went out for a walk from which she never returned. Police dragged the lake and searched nearby woods. Eight days later, a farmer looking for a stray cow found her body in a cornfield. She had been beaten, raped, and hit on the head with a rock. This is the information that I learned yesterday. As tragic as it is, the rest of the story only gets worse.

On July 25, 1974, police took Kenneth Arnold Yarter, a 23-year-old, 6’ 1” tall waiter into custody for questioning because he had been seen with Susan on the day before she was reported missing. He consented to a polygraph which concluded he had knowledge of Susan’s whereabouts. He then underwent further interrogation throughout the night during which time he claimed he was physically coerced into confessing to the murder and rape.

In 1977, the NY State Court of Appeals, overturned his conviction, ruling that his confession to the murder was obtained through duress and he was subsequently released.

In 1980, Yarter was convicted of kidnapping in connection with a rape in Pohapcong, NJ, and of rape in Easton, PA.

On July 19, 1991, with 5-10 years still left on his sentence, he was accidentally released from a New Jersey correction facility when the institution switched from a manual to a computerized record-keeping system.  The error was discovered and reported by Susan’s mother who had been diligently keeping tabs on her daughter’s rapist and killer.

Yarter then traveled to Florida where he told a fellow tourist that he had killed a girl in New York but escaped punishment because police had tortured him. That fellow tourist turned out to be a British police officer, who reported the statement to authorities. At about the same time, in mid-August, 1991, St. Petersburg Beach police determined that Yarter had held two 18-year-old female Canadian tourists captive for nine hours, alternately raping them. They issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of kidnapping, rape, and robbery. Yarter fled to Las Vegas where he was apprehended a couple of days later.

After being sentenced to 50 years in the St. Petersburg Beach rape case, Yarter was returned to Nevada to continue serving sentences for various crimes there and in Pennsylvania.

In December 1995, he was extradited to New York to be tried for the rape and murder of Susan Zanta. 

In September 1996, Yarter agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in Zanta’s death and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. He is currently incarcerated in the medium-security Dade Correctional Institution in Florida City, FL with the earliest possible release date in 2026.

In 1976, I graduated from Mont Pleasant High School in Schenectady, New York. This evening I enjoyed an early diner with two of my classmates, Tom Metzold, my wrestling partner, and Cathy Keehu (Conway), the sister of one of my wrestling teammates. We dined al fresco in the North End while catching up on the last four decades. Cathy lives in Hawaii now and was in town visiting a friend. Amazingly, she seemed to be aware of what many of our high school classmates are up to now and it was wonderful and sometimes sad to hear all of the stories. Tom, retired now, lives in Westwood and we have managed to connect with each other about once a year since moving to the Boston area.

I returned from downtown just in time to join a family birthday Zoom call to celebrate my mother (92), Kyle (28), my sister-in-law Maire, and brother-in-law Stephen who were all born in the month of August. The call included a slideshow that I prepared which can be found here.

As if this wasn’t enough excitement for one day, I arrived at the office this morning only to discover that the power to the building was out. It was another two hours before a power line crew was able to undo the work of one industrious but now very dead squirrel.

The countertops in Maya’s tiny house were installed today. It is one of the few jobs that she subbed out since it requires specialized tools to cut the Quartz material. Once the faucet and sink plumbing is completed and the induction cooktop is connected, the kitchen will be officially open for business. Pictured at the very back of this photo, provided courtesy of Maya, is the vanity counter and bowl style lavatory sink. Yet to be built is the vanity cabinet that will sit below and cover the on-demand water heater and associated plumbing. There still remains much work to be done on the interior, but the day is rapidly approaching when she will be able to start living in her very own tiny home.

Since the arrival of Covid-19, I have increasingly taken to having outdoor “walking meetings” in lieu of using my office or a conference room. This trail is located just a few steps from our building and offers a natural and shaded setting for conversations with members of my team. Born of the pandemic, it is a practice that I hope to continue when life returns to normal.

The cornfield behind our house has grown nicely and I imagine it will only be a few more weeks before it is harvested. The plants are approaching 10 feet tall and the corn cobs are generally about 6 inches long. Regrettably, this variety of corn is destined for animal feed and not the sweet corn we enjoy so much. That said, you can rest assured that I will be doing a taste test in the coming days.

Maya is scheduled to give a presentation at work about her tiny house later in the week. Her recent work on it has been centered on the kitchen cabinetry which she designed, fabricated, and finished entirely by herself. Her design exploits every cubic inch of available space including the toe-kick area and is a masterpiece of execution. At full extension, the alignment and 1/8″ reveal between drawer faces is perfect. In all honesty, I do not believe I could have matched this level of precision despite my many years of experience in the shop. On Wednesday, the quartz countertop is scheduled to arrive. Once in place, the sink, faucet, and induction cooktop can be installed rendering the kitchen open for business.

Tonight’s dinner featured tomatoes grown by Jeanine. Placed on Italian bread with a slice of mozzarella, basil, and balsamic vinegar, this is one of my favorite foods, made all the more delicious when prepared with fresh ingredients. It was a nice treat after spending much of the day working to replace the weather stripping on the front doors of our house. I also joined Jeanine for a 3 plus mile walk to visit what she described as a murder scene. It was indeed a gruesome sight, the result, I believe, of a Great Horned Owl killing and eating a Barred Owl. The meal took place on a horizontal tree limb and one could see feathers littering the ground everywhere beneath it.