Tobin gets his license and Rachel has a cello recital

On April 9th, Tobin took his driver's test and passed! He now is a legal driver in Massachusetts.
In MA the earliest you can get your license is 16 1/2. Taking driver's ed classes are hard for an athlete to fit in so he took a one week summer course from 8am-4pm. Even fitting in driving hours is hard. You can only book one driving hour a weekend because the school he was going through will not let you book back-to-back lessons. The weekends fill up quickly and were hard to come by. Finally, between winter and spring track he was able to book multiple driving hours. I don't know the requirements for other states, but we had to log a minimum of 40 hours with parents, 12 hours with instructors, a 40 hour class for the student and a 2 hour parent class. I am well prepared for Sarai getting her permit which she reminds us, on a weekly basis, is coming up in December! Wow, she is going to be 16 in December. Time is flying too quickly.

Here is a brownie we decorated with powder sugar to celebrate his license.

We had two choices for doing the driving test. One, you can supply your own car, which needed a hand break for the driving instructor to use, if you went to the RMV in Worcester and waited in their long lines to take a test. Or option two, you could book a Saturday test time with the school's instructor, use their cars and have a more definitive test time within 30 minutes of arriving. Option B had an additional charge, but with out busy schedule I chose option 2.

Tobin was so relieved once his test was over that he neglected to really pay attention to what the driving instructor said about his permit and license! He couldn't remember if his permit was good as a temporary license or if he had to wait for his license in the mail. We eventually figure out that his permit was his temporary license. Again, I will know so much more when Sarai is going through all of this.

Here is Tobin smiling for me. When he took his permit picture at the RMV, he did not smile. He did not realize that the photo taken then would also be his photo on the driver's license. We could wait in the long lines to retake a photo, but neither of us really want to do that until we have to.

Abram took Rachel to her first cello recital in Natick, MA. I was unable to go because one of us had to take Tobin for his driving test. The first task he had to perform on his test was to parallel park between two cars.  We worked on this skill in the morning.  I too learned a bit from teaching Tobin and now am much better myself at parallel parking.

Here are pictures of her:

Rachel had recently upgraded to using a 1/2 size cello instead of a 1/4 size.  Notice the boot.  She was able to carry the cello by herself on and off the stage. 

I believe Abram said her piece was no more than a minute long, but it gave her a sense of performing in front of an audience. Next year, if she continues with the cello, she will be performing with the High School students and to a much larger audience. 

The following day, she gave a mini concert for Jenna and Isaac in our living room.  She is the only child who will perform willingly for relatives or friends. 

April 9th, was a busy day full of great achievements!

Carmen All Dressed Up

Carmen attended a friend's Barmitzvah.  We had gone dress shopping and found two wonderful strapless dresses.  She is wearing a black one here with blue fish net stockings. 

She is with three soccer friends:  Ava, Skye and Hailey.
I completely forgot to bring my camera so I used my iphone.  Pictures taken on the iphone do not compare in quality to my nice camera, but it did the job.

Here they are ready to leave and dance for four hours.

Carmen attended her second Bat Mitzvah this month.  She wore this dress to the service and luncheon and then changed into her black dress for the party in the evening.  She looks elegant in her dresses. 

I have had this photo for a long time and did not know when to put it into the blog.  This is a mosiac Carmen made in art in the fall.  It is still on display at her middle school.  It is a landscape.  Again, I only had the iphone at the time and took a picture through the glass display case.

Flight to Montauk

[Abram:]
Leigh and I flew down to Montuak, NY, Sunday morning.  Montuak is on the eastern tip of Long Island.  It makes an ideal plane trip because flying straight there is about an hour, but it would probably end up being a longer than five hour drive to get there.  The air was smooth on the way there with a strong tailwind.

Leigh spotted this interesting park / memorial along the way:

We passed Foxwoods Casino and golf course on the way through Connecticut.  Leigh thought the turquoise roofs looked neat.

This is the Groton, CT airport.  I've made a couple trips here already, so the route to Montauk was pretty familiar.

Fisher's Island, NY, just off the coast of Connecticut near Groton.  I think an accurate forumla is: island + marina + golf course + two runways = Big Boys' Playground.

This is Montauk from a few miles North.  The airport is at the left side of the picture in the foreground.  There are more beaches to the east (left) and a lighthouse.  The main part of town is on the southern coast, on the other side of the golf course.

Montauk Airport has the shortest runway I've landed on so far, though it is not close to the limits of the capabilities of the airplane I fly.  From end to end, the runway is 3481'.  The arrows leading to the vertical lines on either end of the runway mark the "displaced threshold".  The whole length is not available for landing, you need to touchdown beyond the threshold.  In some cases, there is a displaced threshold because the pavement is not strong enough to support a landing airplane near the end.  However, at Montauk, I believe the displacement is for clearing the houses on one end and the sand dunes at the other end.  When Leigh took this picture, we were aligning with the "left downwind" for runway 6.  We are going to travel parallel to the runway at 1000' altitude with the runway on our left.  Then we will make two left turns over the harbor and land on the end marked with the "6".  Runway markings are based on their direction; Runway 6 is on a 60 degree heading (east-north-east).  You chose the runway to land on based on the wind direction.  The wind was from the east, so we landed heading east so we would have a headwind.

Turquoise on one side, blue on the other; looks positively Carribean...

After a successful landing, we waited for a cab to take us into town.  Passed the time playing with the airport pup.  He wanted to get both tennis balls in his mouth at the same time.  Don't be fooled, I am NOT a dog person.  Lots of doggy slobber on those tennis balls.

In the top left corner of the above picture, there is an airplane in a compromising position...

Last fall the pilot ran it off the end of Runway 24, through the fence, and across the street, losing the left wing along the way.  And then, to add insult to injury, it wasn't secured to the ground and got flipped over on recent windy day.  It is awaiting the salvage company.  The airport manager was anxious to get it out of there -- not real good for business.

We went into town and got a bite at "Coffee Tauk".   On the way back to the airport, the taxi driver pointed out "the oldest cattle ranch in America", and Paul Simon's place. We had him drop us off at the beach on the north side, and we walked down the beach and sat a bit.

Favorite Passenger:

As we left, Leigh noticed the parking lot at the point filling up. 
"The ants go marching, two by two, hurrah, hurrah"  errr... not ants, motorcycles.

Taking off from runway 6 is a little disconcerting: as you accelerate down the runway, the 20' sand dune at the end gets closer and closer.  I took the opportunity to practice my "short field take off" technique, which I was required to demonstrate in my checkride for the private pilot certificate.  [25 degrees of flaps for more lift at lower speed, bring engine to full power while standing on the brakes, then go...]



The trip home was on the bumpy side, particularly passing over cleared fields.  The sun heating up the fields creates updrafts and turbulence, even over a mile above them.  The Providence air traffic frequencies were very busy, with lots of VFR traffic.  (VFR = Visual Flight Rules; commercial traffic is generally IFR; there were many recreational flyers out Sunday going on trips and getting advisories for air traffic.)

Happy couple:

Tobin's Confirmation

Tobin made his confirmation on Tuesday April 12. 

This day was crazy.  I worked and both Tobin and Sarai had track meets.  I rushed to Northboro to get Sarai from her meet early to find out her event was starting late.  I did not make it to Shrewsbury High to get Tobin from his meet until 5:45.  Tobin was to be at our church no later than 6:10.  Somehow he ate, showered and we got to the parish by 6:15.  Angels were with us!

Nettie and Russ met us at the church.  Tobin chose Russ, his godfather, to be his sponsor.  One of the suggestions given to the confirmandees was to connect your baptism with Confirmation.  Tobin chose to do so.

Here Sarai is pinning Russ with a sponsor pin we gave him.  While Nettie is pinning Tobin with a dove pin.

Sarai was sitting at the end of the pew and was able to get some great shots of the sacrament.  Tobin chose the name Oswald.  St. Oswald was a bishop who created many local parishes in his area.  He was simple, but had a great effect on many people's lives and faith.  Tobin felt that this saint was someone he could relate to and they both have distinguished names.

The bishop took a minute with each confirmed to ask what they liked in school and to offer some advice.  He told Tobin he saw him going to WPI and that his smile will heal others.  It is obvious from this photo that the interaction between the bishop and Tobin was joyful.

Since the bishop did take time for each candidate, and there were 55 of them, Confirmation mass was two hours long.  Even though this made the evening long I do believe that Tobin will remember his confirmation with fond memories.  The bishop did make a great impression on him. 

We were able to take a picture of the family that could make it for Tobin's Confirmation. 

Great Grandpa Arcifa wanted to meet the bishop.  The bishop was kind enough to take several pictures with us.  Here are Tobin, Great Grandpa, the bishop, Great Grandma and Russ.

Now for just Tobin, the bishop and Russ.

This is Father Houston, the pastor of our church.

Here are my three silly girls.  Carmen was an altar serve during Confirmation.  She was lucky to hold the Bishop's hat during mass.

Aidan was tired after mass, but managed to have a bit of fun afterwards with Abram.

Having a Confirmation during the week makes it difficult for relatives to come to mass, but it was wonderful for all those who did come.  Thank you.  I had a celebration for him on Sunday April 17th to which different relatives came and celebrated with us. 

Here is the group photo from that celebration.  We were blessed with my mom, Lawrence, Marie, Chip, Max and Mira, Jesse and Jacinta and Marita.

Tobin with his cakes made by Carmen and Rachel.

What a blessed day.  We also found out that Mira and Max are having a baby in October!  Another cousin, yeah!

Rachel's Injured Foot

Rachel sprained her foot six weeks ago. She was playing basketball at half time. She was competing for a ball with a teammate, landed oddly and had her foot kicked at the same time. These actions caused her toes to touch her shin, in her words. I cannot imagine how that happens, but since that point in time she was unable to put any weight on it.

We took her to the ER that afternoon. Here she is sitting in a wheelchair at the UMASS pediatric ER. She and Carmen had so much fun trying to maneuver the wheel chair in and out of the room. The nurses were surprised at how well Carmen and she got along.

At the time of initial injury 6 x-rays were taken. Rachel did not break any bones, thankfully. The ER doctor thought she would be walking within a few days of using the crutches. Not the case, Rachel had to use crutches for 3 weeks. Still unable to put much weight on her left foot. I contacted a friend who is an orthopedic surgeon. We had more x-rays taken.

Here is her beautiful long foot.  They looked to see if there were any signs of breaks.  Sometimes a break cannot be seen until healing has occurred.  But again, no signs of bone breaks.  We were told of a few anomalies in her foot.

First, she is missing a joint in her pinkie toe.  If you look at her toes there should be three joints, but the top bone of her pinkie toe is solid without the joint.  No issues with this, just an interesting fact.  She is also missing a bone in her foot that the metatarsals attach to. 

Really cool photo of her foot. 

The only possible explanation the surgeon gave for her continued pain and inability to place weight on it is that she may have cracked a growth plate between her third and fourth toe.  That is where most of her pain has been.

After seeing the surgeon she was given an air cast. It took her a day or two to be able to walk with out the crutches and just the boot.  Two weeks after getting the boot on she would play soccer and basketball in it.  We went back for a final check up, 8 days ago and was told to ween her off of the boot within the week of vacation.


Here is Rachel using the boot to walk around Boston.  That was Marathon Monday, April 18th.  After that day she barely used the boot and now is boot free.  She has started wearing two shoes for the first time in over 6 weeks! 

When we would tell people she sprained her foot they always wondered why she was taking so long to recover.  I learned that sprains happen in levels:  1st, 2nd and 3rd degree sprains.  The more severe the sprain the longer it takes to heal.  She didn't break a bone, but tore her ligaments and injured a growth plate so her recovery time was similar to a break.  It took Abram's elbow 3 months to fully heal. 

 Now the question is:  when will she be OK to play soccer.  She stopped all sports once this injury happened.  She missed multiple play-off games for basketball and soccer.  I'm sure she will be playing soon; my tough cookie.

More flights with Abram as Pilot

Since my last blog about flying with Abram, we have flown with him several times. 
Here are some of the pictures from Feb 6th; a flight to Windham, CT.

Carmen and Rachel came on this flight.

I gave Carmen the camera to use during the flight.  She took over a hundred pictures!  Here is the view from the back seats.  Each seat has their own headset jack.  One great feature a plane has is that you can press the cockpit button so you can hear the people in the backseats.  If they are too loud, which Carmen and Rachel can be, we can turn them off from us in the front.  They can speak to each other, but we don't have to listen to their giggly banter.   This is a feature I want for the car!

This is what a majority of the pictures were:  Eyes, noses and mouth close ups! 
This is Rachel:

Here's Carmen:

This is a nice picture of the levee surrounding the airport we landed in.

The highlight of the flight for Carmen and Rachel was getting free Fruit Snacks at the airport in Windham, CT. 

Carmen did capture some good photos of the sunset.

On some runways there are four lights on the right side to guide you in.  They are arranged to show a white light when you are high, and a red light when you are low.  When you are on the desired 'glideslope', you will see two red lights and two white lights.  In this photo you can see three red lights and the runway number.  You can also see the runway edge lights, which go from white and then orange and red as you get to the end of the runway.  Abram had been asked to make a short landing so he could be off the runway for a jet who was next to land.  He was successful with the short landing, we got off the runway with plenty of time for the jet to come in behind us!  It is nice when the tower controller compliments you on your landing as they did after this landing.

On March 20th, Abram and I flew to Springfield, VT.  This is the airport that is near the Inn at Weathersfield that we stayed at in February. 

As we traveled we passed a hill covered with windmills.  I thought this picture was neat.

This was one of the only signs I saw that winter was disappearing - melting ice on the river. 

After we landed the airport was much more alive and I captured someone taking helicopter lessons near the area where we park the planes.

The following weekend, we traveled to Lebanon, NH to see Leah.  We flew by the same windmills we saw the previous weekend from the opposite side.  I think this photo is better.

 Carmen took this group photo of us. 

 Here's the budding photographer approaching the plane.


  Rachel had crutches, which added difficulty getting into the plane.  I will tell her foot injury story in my next blog. 

Abram is enjoying flying to many places, some of which we get to join him in.  On April 17 he flew to Provincetown, then to Nantucket, to Martha's Vineyard and back to Bedford, MA. He did this flight with his instructor.  This was good because he had to negotiate >50 mile an hour winds at Nantucket.