Day 13.021: Busy boy

At the end of a normal school week, E5N1 headed off straight from the end of classes today to join a group of trumpeters from several schools to rehearse for tomorrow's 7th and 8th Grade Honors Band Festival. He had only just made it home from that when it time to get dressed up to head back out for the school dance:

After a long evening of dancing and eating, he's hopefully sleeping well so that he can play his trumpet all day tomorrow from 8:30 am first rehearsing with the full band and then performing for us in the afternoon.

I imagine he'll be ready for a rest after that.

Day 13.020: Out of sight and ...

...alas out of mind for a bit too long.

When we were looking at houses when we first came to the US, we learned what "central air" meant and that it was a good thing (air conditioning) but were baffled by "central vac" for longer. We learned that it was central vacuum (i.e. vacuum cleaner) but couldn't really understand why anyone would want such a thing.

When we moved to Maine it was to a house with such a system. There are ports to plug a hose in around the house and the actual vacuum cleaner lives out of sight in the basement. It's nice that vacuuming is a quiet affair since most of the noise is a long way away, and the capacity of the bag is huge so it doesn't need emptying too often.

I've been meaning to check on it for some time even though it still seems to be working OK because both the girls have found the floor in their rooms after a while and vacuumed in there and it had been a while since we'd replaced the bag. I finally got around to it this evening and - let's just say it was time to empty it.

The bag was in one piece until I tried to remove it but the whole bucket was completely full and heavy.

Ah well, better now than later.

Day 13.019: Winter passing me by

It feels like I've been sick all winter. Reality is not so far away from that. In fact I have been sick for some days in all the weeks since just before Christmas. Yesterday felt like the beginning of another down-swing, but maybe it was just a bad day because I feel back to nearly-normal today.

I'm pretty much fed up of not being well. In related news, Exile #3 is - like me - on the bumpy road to full recovery and Exile #2 is starting to feel human again and hoping for the regular un-bumpy kind.

Meanwhile, how much of winter is left? Right now, we're a about 30% uncovered ground but there is currently no significant snow in the forecast, so we will see. I'm definitely not putting the shovels away any time soon.

Day 13.018: Auto-generated: animations

Here's a selection from the Google Photos auto-generated files - some animations. Most are cool looking for a variety of reasons:

but occasionally something like this happens:

...I have no idea!

Day 13.017: Outer Wilds: spoiler free review

Exile #2 bought me this charming independent Xbox game for my birthday and I absolutely love it! I completed the game (now E5N1 is playing it) but it's definitely good enough to tempt me back to explore some more.

The game is a free roaming exploration with a mystery-to-unravel plot but no real sequence to follow - just learn as you go. The story telling and discovery game play is the direct successor of those old text-based adventure games. "You are standing in front of an old box, what do you do?" but it's overlaid on a very satisfying physics-modeled flying and floating mechanic and a set of environments with varied physical challenges to go with the mental challenge of trying to work out what the heck is going on.

It's an engrossing and deeply satisfying game and unlike anything I've played in many years of computer and console gaming.

Day 13.016: Exile #2's Sunday Column #283

Exile #2 writes...

It hasn’t been a very productive weekend for me, as I have been taking my turn with the virus that’s been making its way around the household. However, Exile #1 and E5N1 made it out of the house to church this morning.

This afternoon, E5N1 headed off to the basement to practice trumpet - he has a festival coming up next weekend. I expected to hear him practicing his pieces but, ever the fan of novelty, he trawled the internet instead and found music for the theme tune to His Dark Materials. He may not have got very far with his festival preparation but all practice has to be worth something, surely?

Day 13.015: Laid low

Exile #3, Exile #2 and I have all succumbed to some kind of viral infection. Exile #3 seems to be recovering well, I have been struggling with a lingering cough and Exile #2 is still in the middle of things. Exile #4 and E5N1 are managing to avoid it so far - we are nervously hoping that continues as they both have important events and hectic schedules at the moment.

I'm not sure how any of that is related to this, but here is a pile of the younger Exiles:

Day 13.014: These sisters...

...make every mealtime memorable in one way or another:

Day 13.013: Happy Birthday to my big big sis

In honor of my sister's birthday, I did a search for photos of us together and found these two really spoke to me. First a picture of my idyllic childhood as the beloved little brother of two sisters:

and secondly this wonderful view of some retro Mr Potato Head action being carefully supervised...

...and me with my fully functional camera detector.

Day 13.012: Aerial photography

In weeks when not much of interest is happening, I find myself digging through the archives of photographs from more eventful times. Here is a photo I took as I was approaching Portland across Casco Bay on the way back from my early December work trip. It seems to be the extravagantly named, Ram Island Ledge Light and for a phone photo through an aircraft window, I was quite pleased with it!

Day 13.011: Shredding!

Exile #2 discovered that shredded paper can be recycled if placed in a clear plastic bag in our single-sort bin. Then she went to work on the oldest paper records in the filing cabinet. Since we increasingly get electronic "paperwork" it was a significant reduction in our stored paper:

Day 13.010: Just beachy

A few pictures from our Saturday morning cold-before-the-storm walk on the beach:

The way the brook was flowing over the sand looked very strange - not sure if it was related to the cold or not:

Finally, Exile #2 mentioned the ice band at the top of the beach - in places it was impressively under-cut:

Day 13.009: Exile #2's Sunday Column #282

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #3 has an impressive cough at the moment and Exile #4 just quite likes staying in her pajamas on a Saturday morning, thank you very much, but Exile #1 and I headed out to the beach to have a brisk walk before the snow. The beach is really the only place you can stride out on at the moment without fearing you’ll go tail over teakettle, as a fellow volunteer commented the other day in a slightly more polite form of a delightful phrase. There is still opportunity for upending yourself on the wide strip of ice along the top of the beach but once you’ve shuffled over that, you’re good to go. Well, until it’s time to shuffle back over which, I’m told by Exile #1 can be a challenge.

The walk was brisk in more ways than one but I rustled up a couple of balaclavas last year and they are just the job, even if they aren’t the most chic style statement.

Day 13.008: Another storm

It's been quite a week for winter weather and tonight it's really coming down again!

Day 13.007: Scoops Galore

Thanks to B, C & D, we have acquired a fancy ice-cream maker. It came in a box with some interesting marketing headlines:

And last weekend we had some immediate gratification when we enjoyed scoops galore of this particular frosty variety: dairy-free coffee ice-cream.

It was pretty good for a first attempt!

Day 13.006: Another snow day

Yesterday’s forecasts for today were all over the place again - from an inch or two of snow followed by rain to six or more inches of snow. Our day started around 5 am when the school-closing call came in. In the end it was the right call as the snow continued for most of the daylight hours. Not a big storm but a solid snow day.

Day 13.005: Pandemic Legacy Season One

I first wrote about Pandemic Legacy back on Day 11.238. It had arrived as one of Exile #4's 14th birthday presents and we had opened it on our White Mountains vacation later that summer. The game plays out over twelve months with a story that develops month by month. In each month, you play one or two games - each month either you win, lose then win or lose twice. Some of the decisions you make and your successes and failures carry over into the next game.

When the Christmas break started. we realized that we had not played since April and decided to get our momentum back. Each game takes around an hour and we played every day of the break blasting through a large part of the story with its twists and turns and loving it.

When break finished we had the last few game months to play, but we maintained our momentum and played at the weekends, finishing the whole game on Saturday.

Overall, we felt pretty good about our performance, most months we won in the second game, three or four times we won the first one and I think twice we failed twice. The game is for up to four players, but the five of us played through each game (approx 20), with E5N1 teaming up with Exile #2 for most of them. The game is cooperative - played as a team against the unfolding crisis, so it works well with extra players teaming up to help the four game characters do their thing.

I'm happy to say that thanks to a generous Christmas gift from my uncle, we have Season Two ready to go - we played a quick practice game last Sunday and I have a feeling we'll be starting our new journey soon.

Day 13.004: A fresh coat

We had a nice coating of snow this evening. Maybe an inch or two. It made everything pretty and the roads a little slippery.

Day 13.003: Winter marsh sights

Here are some of the sights from our birthday walk at Scarborough Marsh back on Day 12.363 and written about on Day 12.364 including some ice patterns fashioned by the tides, and a solitary loon:

Day 13.002: Exile #2's Sunday Column #281

Exile #2 writes...

It was a bit of a surprise when, early in the week, E5N1 announced he was entered in the school spelling bee. He muttered something vague about a list of words but then it was Exile #1’s birthday and it wasn’t until Thursday night that the list came out for a cram session. The list started fairly mildly but by section three there was the odd word I wouldn’t have known how to say, let alone spell.

It’s hard to imagine how something as mundane as spelling could be made into an exciting contest but somehow it is. You find yourself rooting for each student as they take their turn and then breathing a sigh of relief if they spell their word correctly. You feel the disappointment and/or relief of those that don’t and the agony of those that begin to spell their word then realize they have gone wrong. Although they can restart, they cannot change the order of any letters they have already said. Each student received enthusiastic applause as they retired from the competition, and before I knew it, E5N1 had placed a very respectable third place behind two enormous 8th graders.

Apart from the anonymity edit - this is an absolutely genuine photo of the top three - standing on a level floor!

Everyone seemed to enjoy the occasion but at the end of it all, the panel of judges looked emotionally exhausted!

Day 13.001: Thirteen years ago...

...we started this adventure in exile. As a family of four - with a third child already making their presence felt - we arrived in the suburbs of Albany, New York.

This is the first family photo I have of us this side of the Atlantic from a couple of weeks later - on Day 17:

 and so we move into the fourteenth year of writing these daily blog posts - who would have thought we'd keep it up this long?!

Day 12.365: Spelling Bee

Between them, Exile #3 and Exile #4 experienced much of what middle school had to offer, but neither of them did what E5N1 did today by taking part in the American institution that is the school Spelling Bee.

Exile #2 went to see what it was all about :

There were about 30 kids taking part from all three grades (E5N1 is in the middle of the three - 7th grade) and after several rounds of competition, he ended up coming in 3rd - beaten by two 8th grade boys. Quite an achievement!

Day 12.364: A walk in the snow on the marsh

Here are a couple of pictures from our walk at Scarborough Marsh yesterday. It was snowing - which was lovely - but it was a little challenging underfoot.