Cross country

Ethan had a good season this fall running on the cross country team at Diamond. Here is a picture of him (taken by Amy) running at the state championships in Devens:

He did well this year, won a number of his races and placed 21st in the statewide championships in his age group. He's a very intense runner -- from his expression he is definitely not out for a stroll in the park.

He is also so much faster now than I am that it is almost embarrassing for me to go jogging with him (he keeps on saying things like "Why are you going so slowly, dad?" while I huff and puff). Much more fun to watch him race from the sidelines than it is to try to keep up with him;

The Diamond cross-country team has a couple of good coaches, a nice course to run on (runs through a nearby wooded area) and is very well attended. The girls team is especially good-- they won nearly all their meets this year.

The races for Ethan's age group around usually around 1.4 to 1.8 miles long. His best pace for that distance is about a 6:10 or 6:05. Yikes!

Tutoring a tooter to toot

Lydia is now learning to play the trumpet; our house is now regularly filled with toots, bleats, squawks, peals, warbles, blaats, honks, and other dulcet tones from her horn. She is making good progress and it enjoying the classes; the teacher that Amy picked out for her is almost ideal for her learning style. Lydia has learned a couple of simple songs and likes to roam around the house with her instrument looking for opportunities to play for her brother and her parents, to wit:

Good stuff. Her goal is to get good enough to play the theme from "Wallace and Gromit".

Kitchen work

Here is a picture of Lydia enthusiastically kneading some sort of yeast dough (I think this was a batch of cinnamon rolls-- can't quite recall):

She really has the cooking bug these days-- wants to help with just about everything (even cooking dishes that she won't eat afterwards).

Our other kitchen-related news is that we are getting some new cabinets and a new countertop. Not too much longer to wait now-- the countertop guys are supposed to some in next week and do the installation.

Attack of the Fifty-Foot Green Cone-Throwing Monsters

This has been a strange year for trees-- first it was the ridiculously oversized acorn crop, now the pine trees next to our house have swung into action and dumped enormous quanities of cones. Picture:

This was just the first layer-- we had the same thing all over again the following week. To be honest, the pine cones were not all that bad, but the pine pitch dripping onto the car winshields was very unpleasant (takes forever to clean that stuff off).

Soccer? Soccer!

This being autumn in New England, the kids have been participating in the practically obligatory (at least for our family) soccer leagues, and as usual I have been roped in to help out with coaching. Ethan's team is now playing a full 11-11 format on a regulation field with off-sides, which is an adjustment. Picture:

He has been playing up front more (either forward or "offensive midfield"), which is another change.

Lydia's team plays 6-v-6 on a field that's about half size. Her squad is learning a little more about field positioning this year (real passing is still a fairly long distance in the future, however).  Picture:

It's a fun league -- I will definitely miss it when the kids outgrow it, even though it chews up ridiculous amounts of time on the weekends.

Day out with the kids

Verterans day seems to be one of those holidays that corporate America (particularly high tech) likes to ignore, but it is most definitely observed by the Lexington school system, so the kids were off last Wednesday. I took a vacation day to hang out with them. We decided to go explore Providence; we drove down the visit the zoo in Roger Williams park, then had lunch at a restaurant downtown, then wandered around the Brown campus for a bit to see what we could see. It was a nice outing. Pictures, first Ethan:

then Lydia:

Late Night Entertainment

Last night Amy and I went out to catch the Lexington Symphony; they were doing a Beethoven program that looked good, so Amy bought the tickets, I hired a sitter and we had a nice musical evening together. At the very tail end of it, however, we had a bit of excitement on our stretch of Burlington St.  I had just gotten into bed and Amy was still watching the local news when there was a loud crack (sounded like a gunshot) from across the street, after which all of our lights went out. We opened the front door and took a look; we could smell smoke and see a few tiny flames on the sidewalk across the street. I dialed 9-1-1 and then we waited for the police to arrive. By the time the police showed up, the end of the power line (which was sitting in the gutter on the opposite side of the street in the rain) had gone up like a roman candle, and was making some very scary noises. The police guy didn't even want to get out of his car at first, I assume because of all the water on the ground (he yelled to us to stay put), but in a few more minutes the fire department showed up and a fireman walked over to check on the situation. By this point, the end of the line literally looked (and sounded) like an electric arc welder. It was too bright to look at with a naked eye (I had to use sunglasses) and it was kicking off huge clouds of steam and smoke:

I had no idea power lines could be this destructive-- my assumption was that a downed line would just sort of sit around unless you brushed something conductive up against it.  The police and fire guys called the power company and then we all basically sat and waited for them to turn off the line so that it could be repaired (took them quite a while, nearly an hour).  To their credit, however, they worked through the night and by the next morning we had our power back on again. The next morning Ethan and I went over to take a look. This shot is of the section of curb where the line was resting at one point:

Yes, that is indeed melted granite that you are looking at. A whole section of pavement in the area around had been "cooked" and was showing holes & fissures. At this point there was still much poking and prodding going on with the utility guys, and in another hour or so they determined that the fire had actually melted part of the gas line buried underneath the street, so they had to send in a whole new crew to dig it up and repair it.

It was an interesting "learning experience" on power lines and the things they are capable of doing. It was also a nice reminder of how quickly the emergency services work in our town, too-- as with the episode we had back in March of 2008 (drunk driver hit a tree outside our house) they were there within just a couple of minutes. Those old jokes about how the pizza delivery guy arrives before the paramedic don't seem to apply here.