Most of my day was consumed with researching and sizing windows for the new house. Key factors are energy efficiency (U-factor, air leakage, solar gain), long-term durability (aluminum or fiberglass exterior frames, functionality (integrated screens, ease of operation and cleaning), and appearance. Today’s photos captured my interest because of their separation from their respective background.
After spending the morning looking at windows for the new house, I spent the noon hour with my chiropractor for a much need back adjustment. After a nice nap, I took advantage of perfect weather for a nature stroll and some photography which had dragonflies on the menu. I challenged myself to shoot one in mid-flight and got a few images worth sharing. These guys are very fast so it is not such an easy thing to do. They are slowest when coming in for a landing so I set focus on a likely landing site and waited for one to show up.
This evening, the wetlands scientist and civil engineer we hired to presented our Notice of Intent did so in front of the Concord Natural Resource Commission which must approve all development plans for work being done in close proximity to rivers or wetlands. Our plans call for the demolition and reconstruction of our current home on the existing footprint with the addition of an attached garage which will necessitate the relocation of our septic tank and pump chamber. Fortunately, only minor issues were identified and we are optimistic that we will receive final approval for our plan at the next meeting on July 7. The house design has also been shaping up and we are very close to a final concept which now includes integration of the east and west wing basements into a single unified walk-out basement.
Kyle starts his new job with Hims & Hers on Monday and was in need of a new headshot. I was happy to take one for him and I think he will be pleased with the result. I spent the entire afternoon at his house helping him to square away a number of items in need of attention and shopping for essential new homeowner tools (tape measure, utility knife, level, and ladder).
One of the traditions of the soccer team I play for is to celebrate after each match with an après. Hosted on a rotating basis by members of the team, we get together to enjoy a few drinks and whatever’s on the grill. Although always welcome, hosting spouses and kids generally make themselves scarce due to the amount of profanity and off-color conversation that generally occurs. Yesterday was an exception. Per and his lovely wife and daughter served up a wonderful meal that featured much healthier food than our normal fare of chips and burgers. Today, members of the team received this photo memorializing the gathering. I have played soccer with some of these guys for 18 years now and I am really going to miss them as much as the game when it comes time to hang up my cleats, something I hope to postpone for as long as my knees permit.
Two months ago I began passing a pair of kidney stones (one from each kidney). It took about a week for them to make the excruciating journey from my kidneys to my bladder. This morning, I passed one of the stones out of my bladder. It measured 3mm, which corresponds with what was observed on my CAT scan. That scan also revealed more than a dozen stones still remaining in my kidneys. Jeanine has me on an improved diet and drinking a ton of water to minimize future stone production. The inauspicious start to my day left plenty of room for more interesting developments. My soccer team won our final match of the season by a margin of 4-0. I played in the striker position for the first time this year but other than making a few good passes did little to distinguish myself in the new role. Having won our division, we will enter two more weeks of playoffs to determine the overall league champion for our age group.
Later in the day, Jeanine and I joined Kyle for move-in day at his new house. Jeanine prepared a lovely dinner and helped with unpacking. I helped Kyle set up his bedroom furniture, install a pair of air conditioners and a dehumidifier in the basement.
UPDATE: Two days after this posting, I passed the second stone in the pair. This one was larger (3.5mm) and sharper. I realize these kidney stone posts may be off-putting to some but my blog does double duty as a medical journal and it is a very convenient way for me to thoroughly document these episodes.
Jeanine spent the day helping Kyle pack for the move into his new home. I fixed a leaking sink, attended a local talk on invasive species and planting for pollinators, and continued to refine our house plans. We decided to dine out in the outdoors, not because of Covid restrictions but just because it was a beautiful evening. When taking this photograph I wanted to feature the umbrellas being illuminated by the setting sun. I should have got up and walked into a position where I could have made that the foreground. Instead, it is the midground and the family at an adjacent table became the foreground. I did not realize it at the time, but I was saddened upon review to see that everyone at the table seemed to be focused on a phone or tablet. Is this the new family night out?
While walking in the Twin Pond Conservation Land with Jeanine a few weeks ago, we came across a home that has many of the design elements we are planning for our home, a standing seam metal roof, stone foundation, and lots of floor to ceiling windows. Jeanine asked me to return for a photograph so that we could examine it for design inspiration and share it with our architect. The home sits high on a bluff overlooking one of the ponds so I opted for an aerial photo to reveal more of the house.
My soccer team practices under the lights on one of two turf fields at our local high school on Thursday evenings. Today, one of the fields was covered in plywood squares and rectangles in a very distinctive pattern. I decided it was worth putting my drone up for an aerial perspective. The wood is there to protect the turf from the chairs that will be placed upon them. My guess that these are being set up for Concord’s annual town meeting which is to be held on Sunday.
I almost posted this photo of my nephew Mario in this weekend’s post about his hurling match. I choose not to because he had just missed catching the ball he was leaping for. Today, I decided I had to post it because of the sheer athleticism of the jump. It reminded me of a photo that Nico took of me during a soccer match some 16 years ago proving that we have good jumping genes in the Calabria family. Photography Tip: Nico took this photo of me from a prone position with the lens a few inches off the grass which really creates a dramatic separation of the subject from the ground. The horizon line appears well below me. I took the photo of Mario from a standing position which diminishes the separation by placing the horizon line through his midsection. Had I taken his photo from a lower angle, Mario would have appeared to have left lower Earth orbit.
On March 12, I ordered a birthday present for Jeanine’s April 12th birthday based on an estimated 3 week delivery lead time. Nearly three months later, the 10-piece set of Demeyere Atlantis cookware arrived today. In a year during which so many businesses have been impacted by Covid, it seemed like being patient was a better course of action than canceling the order. I am only venturing a guess, but I think Jeanine is very happy with the gift and that it was worth the wait. These pots and pans just exude quality workmanship and style. Not five minutes after the first saucepan was unpacked, it was put into service for the preparation of this evening’s dinner.
As of today, I am beginning my second attempt at early retirement. Digital Alloys wrapped up operations on Friday, unable to secure “C” round financing or a company interested in purchasing the going concern. I am disappointed that we did not achieve a better business outcome and was very sad to miss the last day in the office and the opportunity to thank and say goodbye to folks in person. At the same time, I am extremely proud of my team and the work that we completed over the last 18 months. It has been one of my most satisfying jobs in recent history, having had an opportunity to wade neck-deep in design and engineering. I will continue my consulting role at Formlabs for now and will remain open to other consulting or advisory roles but I am quite satisfied to call this an end to a full-time work schedule. With our permitting process well underway, I plan to throw myself fully into our new home planning and construction, and with Covid restrictions lifting, to picking up where I left off on my travel plans.
My first act as a semi-retired individual was to finally program my electric car for nighttime only charging, entitling us to a nice discount on our energy bill. A simple task that I never seemed to find time for when I was so focused on work.
Our day began with an early visit to the Minnetonka Landscape Arboreutm with Mark and Marie. There we were greeted with the above pictured “YouBetcha” Stick Sculpture by Patrick Dougherty. Made of tree saplings woven together, the installation is just as fun to wander through as it is to look at. Later we met Brook, Mario’s girlfriend, at a hurling tournament in which he was competing.
Hurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin. The objective of the game is for players to use a wooden stick called a hurley to hit a small ball between the opponents’ goalposts either over the crossbar for one point, or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper for three points. The ball can be caught in the hand and carried for not more than four steps, struck in the air, or struck on the ground with the hurley. It can be kicked, or slapped with an open hand (the hand pass) for short-range passing. A player who wants to carry the ball for more than four steps has to bounce or balance the ball on the end of the stick, and the ball can only be handled twice while in the player’s possession.
Next, it was on to watch my other nephew, Rory, compete in a soccer match on the other side of town. Like his uncle, he plays the wing midfield position. Unlike his uncle, he runs like the wind and never seems to tire.
Most 92-year-olds consider watching TV until 9 PM to be an exciting Saturday evening. My mother’s idea of fun is heading out at 9 PM for an evening of ballroom dancing and staying out past midnight. It was my pleasure to accompany her to a Tango Night where she danced with four different partners for a total of ten dances. She is as graceful as ever and puts women one third her age to shame. I enjoyed watching and photographing her as well as meeting her many friends from the local dance community.
Jeanine and I flew to Minneapolis today to visit my mother, brother, and his family. It was so wonderful to be able to hug them all again and visit in person. Angela is looking radiant and has returned to full health. She has returned to the dance floor and we are looking forward to seeing her in action tomorrow night (stay tuned for photos). We visited her at the assisted living center where she resides and received the grand tour. She has a wonderful apartment filled with her artwork, all the amenities of a modern facility, and an outdoor nature area which she is stealthfully turning into a bonsai garden. We proceeded to take care of some technology issues she was having and to do a little hat and shoe shopping before arriving at my brother Mark’s house. Then it was off to collect my niece, Rose, from her soccer practice before returning to a feast prepared by my sister-in-law Marie where we were joined by my other niece, Sophia, and nephews Rory and Mario. A more perfect reunion, I cannot imagine.
Once a month I do consulting work for my former employer, Formlabs. For more than a year now, I have been doing so remotely via Zoom. Today, I was able to return to in-person meetings at the Somerville headquarters and also got to tour all of the facility improvements that have happened over the last year. I left hours in advance of my first meeting and stopped in Arlington for some birding. It made for a very relaxing start to my day.
It is quite thrilling when I encounter a species that I have never seen before. These are a pair of black-crowned night herons that I came across while looking for bald eagles on Memorial Day. I found them perched about 15 feet above a small stream that was chock full of Alewife fish.
Throughout the wild kingdom, parents will risk everything to protect their young. Pictured here are a pair of tiny swallows trying to chase off a mature bald eagle in an effort to keep him away from their nest. Eventually, their efforts paid off and the eagle decided to look for a more peaceful perch.
Every Memorial Day weekend, (except last year), the Massachusetts Military Heroes organization plants a Garden of 37,000 Flags in front of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common. The flags commemorate the Massachusetts service members who have given their lives in the name of the United States. “We the people,” bear the ultimate responsibility for sending these brave men and women into harm’s way by virtue of the people we elect to represent us in these decisions. While most of these soldiers died in defense of our nation and freedom, I am saddened in my belief that all too many paid the ultimate price for neither of these objectives, a consequence of misguided political objectives. I wish to express my gratitude to all the men and women who have served in our military and will continue to vote for leaders who understand the ultimate futility of warfare in all but the most aggregious circumstances.
Sunday family dinner was hosted by Kyle and included Maya’s best friends. From left to right, Lauren is Maya’s college roommate, awesome birder, and well on her way to bonus daughter status. Fiona was in the same Girl Scout troop, middle school, and on the same soccer team as Maya. Sarrinagh and Maya go all the way back to kindergarten and have been lifelong chums. Sarrinagh and Fiona have already reached adopted daughter status. I conducted my usual relationship inquisition and boyfriend acceptability testing while Jeanine asked about their work and plans for the future. It was a wonderful gathering and our last visit with Maya before she leaves for her summer internship with Rivian. She will be splitting her work time between Normal, Illinois and Boston where she will share an apartment with Lauren.
I learned about a Bald Eagle’s nest in a cemetery just outside of Boston from folks who I met while hanging out with my owl buddies. Last night after work, I drove there and was fortunate to spot one of the pair perched high in a tree with a commanding view of the area. When time permits, I will be returning in hopes of locating the nest and getting some action shots.
For weeks now, I have been waking up early and driving into Acton to photograph a family of barred owls. Some days, I spend hours at the nest site and have few images of photographic merit to show for it. This morning, however, I hit the jackpot. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted mom flying into the area carrying a northern short-tailed shrew. I knew her next stop would either be the nest where the unfledged owlet is still residing or the branch where the newly fledged fluff ball was perched. I set up my camera on the nest which proved to be the wrong guess and had to sprint to an entirely different location and find an angle through all the foliage for a clear shot. By the time my lens was on target and I had dialed in new settings the shrew had already been transferred and mom was about to depart. I literally had a ten-second window for this shot. I think I managed to nail the composition, framing, exposure, focus and was fortunate to have favorable lighting as well. Some may consider me crazy for waking up so early, freezing my ass off for hours on end, and enduring blood-thirsty mosquitoes during warmer mornings day after day. Capturing this one image, however, makes it all worthwhile for me and I would do it all again.
Our new property is graced with a veritable rhododendron forest. We have red, white, pink, and purple varieties which line the driveway and surround two sides of the house. Among the latest to bloom in our neighborhood, they should be at their finest this weekend.
Nico traveled to New York last weekend to compete in the first-ever MLS amputee soccer game. His team, the New England Revs faced the New York Red Bulls. Nico scored 2 goals and had one assist to help his team secure a 3-1 victory. Videos of his two goals are linked below.
Second Goal – Nico’s first shot rebounds off the cross bar, the second one slips under it.
Today we printed a thin-walled partial hemisphere in H-13 tool steel. Such a shape would be extremely challenging to fabricate using conventional machining. It is the largest volume part we have printed to date with a diameter of 5 inches. In recent weeks, the company’s board of directors has authorized the sale of the company after it became clear that we would not be able to attract sufficient investments to operate autonomously. My team has proven that our printing process is viable and robust. The market for the types of parts we can print is universally acknowledged as being very sizeable. The rub, is that it will take two more years, in my estimation, to design, test, and deliver a second generation printer design that will have the requisite capacity, speed and print quality to be successful in the market. We are hopefull that a suitable buyer will emerge that will allow us to cross the finish line.
This morning we had a new visitor to our back yard. A very large and very old snapping turtle. Jeanine was drinking her morning coffee in the living room when she looked up to discover this very docile fellow just resting on the ground. I was able to take several photos before the turtle moved rather quickly into the undercover of our rhododendron forest.
For the first time I can remember, I failed to take photos at an important family gathering. This afternoon, we celebrated Nico on completion of his master’s degree program in education from Lesley University. The family was joined by several of his friends and his Aunt Susan who came down from Burlington, Vermont for the occasion. Nico smoked several chickens, Jeanine prepared an amazing salad and one of his friends arrived with a rhubarb drop cake for dessert. It was a wonderful party but sadly I did not take any photographs because I was too busy helping out as a host and also because I was pretty banged up from my soccer match earlier in the day. We played against Everett, one of our strongest and most physical opponents, beating them by a score of 2-0. I had an assist on our first goal when I beat an offside trap to make a run on goal. I took the ball well into the box and waited for the keeper to commit before passing to a teammate for the easy tap-in. On the very next play, I had a breakaway and got a strong shot off before their sweeper took me down with a bone-crushing tackle that left me pretty bruised on the entire right side of my body. Lacking a photo for the day and the desire to do little more than nursing my wounds, I am posting a few images from earlier in the week.
Capturing birds in flight (BIF) is one of the most challenging aspects of wildlife photography. It requires the right equipment, skill, and a bit of luck. In my opinion, red-winged blackbirds are much more photogenic when flying than they are when perched because you can fully appreciate the coloring of their wings.
Jeanine’s sister, Susan, is visiting us for the weekend to attend Nico’s master’s degree celebration tomorrow. This morning we took her out to observe our nesting owls and herons. We had nice weather and good luck. She was able to observe babies at both sites. We then treated ourselves to breakfast at the Blackbird Cafe, something that we have missed since the start of the pandemic. Later Jeanine drove her to Medford where the two had a chance to see Kyle’s new house. The closing date has been set for June 12th and Jeanine and I will get our first full tour early next week.
In a respite from all the recent bird photography, today’s post features a Northern Water Snake. On an evening nature walk, Jeanine spotted it on land and I tracked it into the water. Fish, frogs, tadpoles, and salamanders make up the bulk of their diet, though they will also take small mammals, birds, insects, crayfish, and other invertebrates. When threatened, they rapidly retreat to the water. If cornered, they do not hesitate to strike but are non-venomous. The specimen seen here is using its tongue to taste the air and water to help locate prey. It is about half the size of a full-grown snake which can reach 5 feet in length. Pictured below is one such adult which I photographed some 15 years ago.
Formlabs just announced that it has secured $150M in an E-series fundraising round. This puts its market cap at $2 billion dollars. It is the fifth company (Formlabs, Markforged, iRobot, Sonos, Avid) to cross this threshold for which I led engineering during some portion of their rapid growth phase. To be clear, credit for these dramatic successes is almost entirely due to their respective founders/leaders. That said, I believe in each case, that I made meaningful contributions to these outcomes. With retirement inching closer every day, it is with some measure of pride that I can look back on a career that helped generate more than $10 billion dollars of market value for investors and one-tenth of a percent of that for me. Pictured above is the Form 3L, one of the last products I was involved with when I worked at Formlabs.
I apologize for the recent spate of bird photos but I continue to encounter interesting subjects on my morning walks. I am happy to report that there are two owlets in the nest I frequent and my speculation about infanticide may have been incorrect or, there was a third sibling.
