Happy Solstice, Changing Times

We hope this finds you and your family staying healthy during this holiday period and for the foreseeable future.

Yes, it's been a while since my last post, and lots of changes have gone down for us, and for us all. We have a new president elect, and hopefully that will bring some good changes for us in the US as well as globally.  and here's to hoping we can see and end to this pandemic.

Some of our changes started back through October (my last post) as I was preparing to sell my house in Framingham and move to Carlisle. Well, all that took place with a big push of selling large pieces of furniture out of the Framingham house before the move, moving the furniture into pods, moving the pods to Carlisle, and then selling more items out of the pods so that we could have these removed from the driveway. So, my news is that I have become very successful at selling things on the Facebook Marketplace and on Craigslist. It's quite amazing. I even sold a solar grid-tied inverter we decommissioned recently when Claude installed a new inverter in order to use our Alumacraft and Wake with the Sun batteries for power backup during power outages -- another new project. Yes, Claude has been doing many projects around the house. We are most excited that when we tested the "critical load circuit panel" connected to the solar inverter when we threw the main power switch to the house, it continued without a hiccup, even keeping continuity with our internet. That is a big relief. And we installed lots of open storage space (cubbies) around the house to help accommodate my move. And we are still getting ride of things we don't need as we notice these. We didn't sell it all. We also donated a bunch and discarded some of it. 

We left the island at the beginning of November, and we are pretty much hunkered down for winter. 

We have had many nice cycling day trip adventures, including a few times checking out the 57 mile long Northern Rail Trail in NH. I had my last outdoor swim on November 20. I am still driving around with my paddleboard in the car, hoping to go for a ride on the board, but we shall see. Now that the snow has come, we are hoping for some nice skiing locally.

Oh, and I have had a few poems published during this period. I have included images of one of the poems, Daily Run, below, which appears in the Worcester Review's most recent issue. And here are links to a couple of my tweets, where you can read some other recently published poems. The poem in this next link appeared in Hope Through Community, an anthology of poems, song lyrics, photos, and essays, inspired by the pandemic.  https://twitter.com/cb99videos/status/1331243102519037952?s=20 and here is a link to my tweet about two poems recently published in Sport Literate. https://twitter.com/cb99videos/status/1328918017745580033?s=20 I also took part in the launch of issue 3 of Channel, Ireland's environmental literary magazine. Here is a link. https://youtu.be/T1lXFC95j3s I come in maybe 20 minutes into the video.

Here are some recent photos. I will say more about each group below. 

As always, it's lovely to hear from you. Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year, and let's hope for a happier, healthier earth.

The following is a photo from one of our October outings on the lake.

Lake Life Late Autumn

We were still swimming in the lake up until we left in early November. This meant for me at least a lot of neoprene. We also had some nice trips on the lake coming back from bike rides, some storms, and some nice photos to go along with the last days there in October.

Heading out for a swim

First, work. Then, Swim,

Our Last Ride on the Northern Rail Trail

Our last bike tour on the Northern Bike Trail, took us through the town of Bristol, NH

We are planning a Bimini for 2021

In preparation for the Bimini we are having built for us for 2021, Claude built a to-scale mock-up of the front of tiny house on Wake with the Sun, so that the Bimini craftsman can use it to build our Bimini. 

Me, after a Ride

I've been doing a lot of rides in the cold weather. Mostly I have taken drives to Wayland and then would ride to various places..to shop for groceries, or to go to appointments. Here is a photo of me coming in from the cold one day. I was happy.

Good Eggs

Our neighbors keep chickens, and we have the option to support their operation by buying eggs. This one egg had a snail-like design on it.

More Lake Life Pictures

An Ocean Hike

We first saw the ocean during the great wind storm of Thursday this week. Very disorganized. Now it's calmer but still very stirred up.

First Snow,  My new Bike-related Magnetic Poetry, Definition of Claude, and Claude's Crowbar circuit.

These wonderful filmmakers came to Carlisle to film me and interview me about my creative work. 

This is the photo of my poem Daily Run from the recent issue of Worcester Review.

The old Solar inverter (one of them), the Fronius (I ended up selling) and the new Solarc inverter, to charge our batteries to back up our system in the event the grid goes down. 

Deer in the Yard

A Walk in Watertown to find wood fairies, ducks, beaver activity, and this found and repurposed object sculpture museums, work by Gregory Steinsieck. 

New Spice Shelves in Carlisle

Claude repurposed wood that came from some closet doors in Framingham to make a set of spice shelves.

My poem Transplant in the Hope through Community book

Proceeds of this book go to some very good causes. Here is a link to the reading from this book.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI3xepRbgP0&t=2s

Poem Published in a Peterborough Poetry Project Anthology 

My poem, My Home is Now Place appeared in an anthology of pandemic poetry published by the Peterborough Poetry Project. 

Some Family and Friend Visits

Here are some photos from visits with friends and family. First a wasp nest hanging in a tree at the old north bridge. Second a brief visit with my beautiful sister. Third, a bike ride with a friend.

The last POD being Craned away

My house in Framingham Sold! by Nelson Zide