Work at Digital Alloys remains the source of great personal enjoyment for me. Our team continues to make excellent progress as we begin our series “C” fundraising in earnest. When I joined the company, I laid out a straight forward plan to get us to market. First, demonstrate that our printed parts were of the same quality as ones machined from the same metal. We accomplished this late last summer. Second, demonstrate that we could print parts at speeds that would result in an economically attractive business model. We achieved this milestone last month with a 30x improvement from our baseline. The final objective is to demonstrate that we can print parts of arbitrary geometry and I am feeling fairly confident that we can do this over the course of a few more months. Pictured above is a new fixture we have designed to hold the cylindrical block on which we print parts. It will be completed later this week when the final component (a pneumatic cylinder) arrives in house.

It has now been just over nine years since I joined the Board of Directors of the American Amputee Soccer Association. In that time, the organization has grown from one that could barely field a full squad to represent the United States in international competition and then only if the players could pay for their own travel to one that is now starting to build out regional teams and has modest funding. One of the most important missions of the organization is to help amputees reach their full potential and to create an opportunity to enjoy competitive soccer. Hayes, pictured above, recently lost his leg. He was thrilled when a member of the US National Amputee Soccer Team reached out and sent him a team jersey and backpack along with an offer to join the sport when he is old enough. I hope to still be with the organization when that day comes.

Although I have been to Italy three times, I have yet to see Rome or the region of Calabria. My most recent visit was with Jeanine when we had just started dating some 36 years ago. Last October, we celebrated our 30 year wedding anniversary. We had been planning a trip to Europe to include Italy and Greece but those plans never even got off the ground when the pandemic hit. With any luck, we will have been vaccinated in time to make the same trip next October. I hope those who follow this blog will forgive my week -long indulgence in imaginary travel. I needed something to inspire continued social isolation during these challenging times.

Of all the places I have ever trekked, Nepal is near the top of my favorites list. Seven years ago, I hiked the Annapurna circuit. The 150-mile trail covers some of the most magnificent scenery you can imagine. I feel lucky to have done it when I did as new roads are diminishing the trail every year. I would very much like to return to Nepal and climb to the Mount Everest base camp, which at 17,598 feet is not quite as high as the Thorung La Pass on the Annapurna circuit at 17,769 feet.

Although I am 50% Ecuadorian, I was nearly 60 years old before I visited for the first time. Maya and I spent 3 weeks there, equally split between the Galapagos, the Andes, and the Amazon. I would love to return again with Jeanine and combine it with a visit to Peru.

Had it not been for the Covid pandemic, I would have made my third visit to Africa last March. I took this photo 16 years ago in South Africa while lying on the roof of a mini-van, which was rapidly backing up when this herd of elephants entered the road we were parked on and asserted their right of way. It was a thrilling encounter and I cannot wait to make a return trip to the African continent for more of the same.

While visiting Kyle, who was working in Thailand at the time, we made a 3-day weekend excursion to Vietnam. It was little more than an appetizer which left me hungry for more. When Jeanine and I have both retired (only a couple of years away), I can see us spending several weeks, if not months, exploring this beautiful country.

As the new year begins, I am hoping it will offer an opportunity for adventure travel, something I have missed terribly since the start of the Covid pandemic. My 2021 motto is; “have vaccine, will travel.” In the blog this week, I will feature a new location each day where I hope to visit or revisit as soon as it is safe to do so again. Today’s entry is Greenland. I took the above photo from a commercial airliner while flying back to the US from Iceland.

At Digital Alloys, where I work as the CTO, we are focused on building a 3D metal printer with industrial capacity and commensurate proportions (think small car-sized). Today, I had the occasion to document one of the company’s early prototypes, a desktop version. As we seek new investors, interest in such a unit has been increasing and it would take very little effort to reactivate a program to bring such a model to market.

Light snow left the rhododendrons surrounding our house covered with a very pretty frosting. The rhodie leaves also offer a very predictable measure of temperature which can be ascertained at a glance. The colder it gets, the more the leaves droop. These bushes are very plentiful on our lot and I am looking forward to watching them bloom in the spring.

My youngest sister, Mayela, and her husband Stephen decided not to have children, but they have always had a loving family. Pictured above is her favorite “child, ” Peachy, who passed away peacefully today at the age of ten. I am fond of dogs and have lived with four over the course of my life. Peachy had the best qualities of all of them combined and was truly a special dog. She will be missed by all of us.

For the last two weeks, I have been on vacation. I have used that time to work on our new house and have been so busy that I have not been able to keep up with my daily blog entries. I have decided to forgive myself for this lapse and to consider it part of my vacation from normal daily routines. To start the new year, I thought I would take a look back at the kids when they were small. Few things make my heart happier than these tiny windows into the past and I can think of no better way to kick off a new year. I am happy to report that all three are gainfully employed and living independently, each less the 30 minutes away from us and minutes away from each other.