After days of vacillation, I have settled to within 95% on a final set of tools for my travel kit. Not yet included are a folding handsaw and tin snips that should be arriving later today. With this set of tools, I believe I can tackle the vast majority of maintenance tasks I am likely to encounter as I help the kids maintain their respective properties. I am hoping that the entire collection will fit neatly in the tool bag I have on order. No doubt, there will be another photo at some point to document the configuration. Jeanine is thankful that this process is reaching completion, or rather, that the dining table will shortly be returned to its proper use.

Last night, Jeanine and I made a brief tour of available homes for sale in Concord. We are thinking about purchasing another house to serve as a rental income property. It is not yet clear if the numbers will make sense in our very expensive town, but the idea is more appealing if the property is located nearby. We will be consulting Kyle on the economics, as he is our family’s expert on rental properties.

The perfect fall day brought out over a dozen painted turtles that like to sunbathe on various logs in the river beside our house. So many turtles, plus the single-lane nature of turtle traffic on the logs, lead to some interesting passing maneuvers as captured below. While mostly peaceful, they may mildly jostle or stack on top of each other for the best warm spots, which might provide an alternative explanation for the photo.

Jeanine and I drove into Boston to visit with Kyle and see his new Back Bay apartment this afternoon. It is located on Marlborough Street, just two blocks from the Charles River Esplanade and aligned perfectly with the Fairfield Street Footbridge over Storrow Drive. Just 5 blocks from both the Boston Public Garden and Fenway Park, it is hard to imagine a more perfect location nestled among the Boston brownstones. We went for a short walk on the Esplanade, stopping briefly at the Pi Bench, which features a bronze plaque inscribed with the first 118 digits of the mathematical constant pi (π). Most benches on the Esplanade are memorialized with names, personal notes, or inspirational quotes from donors. The Pi bench benefactor remains a mystery to this day. Many assume it was an MIT professor, student, or alumnus, given that the campus is located directly across the river and folks there might have a higher-than-average interest in the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

Morning rain gave way to clear skies and fall-like temperatures, prompting Jeanine to take one of the kayaks out for a leisurely afternoon paddle. I spent much of the day reimagining what a portable tool collection should look like now that most of my offsite projects involve maintenance on one of the kids’ properties. It is telling that I obsess over such things. My last travel toolbox was optimized for size and versatility. Now my priorities lean towards having everything I need to avoid a 1-hour round trip to retrieve a tool that I failed to bring with me.

I am switching from a small toolbox to the tool bag shown below. It will provide substantially more space for tools and test equipment while providing good organization and rapid access. It should arrive mid-week. In the meantime, I have been contemplating what tools I will need to add to my collection. My last travel toolkit was primarily geared towards electrical and mechanical work. The new setup will need to anticipate plumbing and minor woodworking as well.

Expect future posts as new tools arrive and the bag gets fitted.

Nicolai and Teddy shared this photo taken of them while attending the wedding of one of Nico’s high school buddies. I wish I knew who the photographer was so I could compliment them on their work. I think this is one of the nicest photos of this happy couple.

I had my 2-month post-prostate surgery checkup today. Happily, I can report that my recovery is on track. The image above is an ultrasound scan to determine how much urine remained in my bladder after voiding. The result was excellent, at just under half a tablespoon. I have been given the green light to return to soccer, and just in time. I missed my team’s first game of the season while in Guatemala, and our next game is a week from Sunday.

Jeanine will remind me that no one is interested in hearing about my medical issues, but the blog has become an essential resource for me. It contains +20 years of SEARCHABLE data, allowing me to quickly retrieve germane information I have long since forgotten.

The fact is, I constantly search this blog for one reason or another. Including medical information just makes it that much more useful to me. Who knows, perhaps it is also useful to someone considering HoLEP surgery who is looking for all the information they can find on the subject. I apologize to any visitors for whom this type of entry is unappealing.

We are very fortunate to have settled in a community where we really love our neighbors. Jeanine prepared a mezze plate for an intimate late afternoon gathering of eight next door. In addition to very entertaining conversation, we were also treated to a tour of the museum-like home. I fear that much of the weight I lost while traveling in Central America may have been regained due to the abundance of so many foods I enjoy.

I volunteer as the aerial photographer for the Concord Bridge, our hometown newspaper, and found a multi-part assignment waiting for me today. One was to show traffic. This image pretty much tells the story of the evening rush hour in Concord. Bumper-to-bumper heading out of Boston and almost none heading in.

I do not even know how to describe my lodging last night. Located on a jungle mountainside, its main redeeming quality was that it was less than 200 feet from a private, unobstructed view of Volcán de Fuego. This allowed me to leave my camera on a tripod unattended, taking photos of the volcano all night using an intervalometer programmed to capture a 6-second exposure every 7 seconds.

I slept in my clothes with my boots on, waking up every two hours to go out and change memory cards and batteries. By morning, I had over 4000 images, a small number of which captured the two eruptions that occurred during the evening. I assembled one sequence into the video below.

I returned to Antigua this morning because it is, without a doubt, the most enjoyable city/town I have visited within Guatemala. I parked my car and covered a lot of ground on foot, taking time to soak up the culture and go inside some of the ruins I had photographed from the outside yesterday.

Driving here has been quite stressful. The ratio of motorcycles to cars is insanely high, and they drive wherever they want to, mostly in between lanes of slow-moving traffic. I was quite relieved when I returned my rental car this afternoon, undamaged and with no civilian casualties to answer for. My flight leaves very early tomorrow morning, and I am looking forward to returning home.

After years of trying, I finally managed to photograph an erupting volcano. Pictured here is the Volcán de Fuego, taken from a safe distance above the town of Alotenango. Prior to a major eruption a few weeks ago, Fuego would reliably erupt every 15-20 minutes. I witnessed only one event over several hours, suggesting this volcano may have entered a new pattern. I was fortunate that there was a break in the rain and clouds when things kicked off.

Antigua, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, served as a major capital of the Spanish Empire for over two centuries. It is a beautifully preserved showcase of Spanish colonial charm, renowned for its cobblestone streets, colorful building facades, and Baroque architecture. A series of devastating 18th-century earthquakes eventually forced the government to relocate, leaving behind a cityscape filled with intact monuments and crumbling ruins.

The USA defeated El Salvador 2:0 to win the five-country Central American amputee soccer tournament—the perfect tune-up for the World Cup to be held in Mexico this November. Nico was named MVP of the tournament, a nice consolation for having to play today’s match with a sprained big toe.

Below, Nico congratulates Liam on winning the Golden Boot Award. He is one of a group of exciting young players who have recently been selected for the national team.

This morning, I flew to Guatemala, where Nico is competing with Team USA in an international friendly amputee soccer tournament. By the time I cleared immigration and obtained a rental car (I had to wait an hour for my pre-booked car to be available), I missed the first game against Costa Rica, which ended in a scoreless tie. The playing field is somewhat less than optimal, if I am being kind. Technically, it is grass-covered, but the surface is rock-hard, with many undulations making the motion of the ball over it entirely unpredictable. That, combined with smaller-than-regulation-sized goals, led to the lack of scoring. Apparently, the US dominated shots on goal by a wide margin, but the inconsistent field surface made accurate passing and shooting very difficult.

I arrived in time for the second match against Honduras, during which the US adjusted its tactics to favor possession and patience on the ball until a high-percentage shot was available. The strategy paid off with a 7-0 win. Nico had 1 goal and assisted on several others. Pictured above, he is able to just beat the keeper to the ball, flicking it over his head to a teammate behind him who tapped it in for the goal.

Link to all photos. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ymoRL7pxmukJZLUH9

Below is a view from the lobby of the Tikal Futura Hotel, where I am staying for the weekend. I generally prefer to avoid such high-end hotels in favor of basic accommodations. I’d rather spend money on reaching more destinations. In this case, however, its proximity to the soccer venue and high security ruled the choice. In this area of Guatemala City, tourists are advised not to walk around the streets after dark. Nico and the team are staying in dormitories at the school that is hosting the tournament, and I was not permitted to join him there.

As national libraries go, San Salvador’s is possibly the most iconic. It was built with a $54 million cooperation grant from the People’s Republic of China and opened in November 2023. It has specialized zones, including children’s areas, gaming sections, reading rooms, robotics and 3D modeling labs, and a digital archive with millions of resources.

The Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador sits on the opposite side of the plaza, creating quite the juxtaposition of modern and classical architecture.