On our way over the Hillsborough Bridge on Boxing Day, I took this photo of the side of a semi-trailer parked on the trail construction site.

Following up later in the day, I fell down a fascinating rabbit hole, learning about the “king pin to rear axle distance,” and why this is important.

The “king pin” is the place where the trailer attaches to the truck pulling it. The 40 foot distance is important (and thus labelled) because in California there’s a regulation, known colloquially as the “Bridge Law,” that on a typical 53 foot trailer, the maximum distance from the king pin to the rear axle is 40 feet, and the weight over the axles cannot be more than 34,000 pounds.

The 40 foot distance varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction; California’s in the shortest limit, and thus a kind of effective baseline.

In June of 2013, Catherine, Oliver and I attended a site-specific theatre production, Manna-Hata, in the James Farley Post Office in New York City. In the intervening years, this post office, which was largely decommissioned when we were there, has been transformed into the Moynihan Train Hall, an extension of Penn Station across the street. It’s set to open on Friday.

I’ve been on a Would I lie to you? tear for the last month; if you need to laugh out loud, it’s a good catalyst. This episode has it all.

Tonight I feel like a master of the culinary universe: butterhorns were a gateway drug to the yeasty arts. Pizza dough, it turns out, is within the grasp of mortals.

Killer toppings: pickled romanesco from Terra Rossa and cherry tomatoes from Trudy White. 

Following Nature Conservancy advice that local birds will appreciate a novel winter hangout, I placed our retired Christmas tree in the back yard.

My friend Dave has launched a project to, over the next 52 weeks, film a shot-for-shot remake of Love Actually, but with his kids in the starring roles. At least that’s what I think he’s doing; I may have misinterpreted.

This year we expanded our terrain and walked all the way to Stratford. The new path along the Hillsborough Bridge is only half-completed — from Charlottetown to the span — but the way is passable until land on the other side. The 50 km/h winds added some resistance exercise on the way over, and blew us back home.

Quick, get your turkey in the oven: it will be cooked by 100% wind energy at this hour.