Jeanine is visiting her sister in Burlington for the weekend leaving me to be chauffeured by Maya to her various activities. Her driving permit requires that an adult be in the car while she is operating it reducing my role to that of baggage. While she attended an SAT prep class near Nagoog Pond, I regained control of the Audi and did a little photography in the area of Nagoog Hill Farm.
Roughly twenty year’s ago I fashioned a quick release magnetic feather board as a safety accessory for my table saw. A feather board is used to press the wood you are cutting tightly against the fence and also helps to prevent kickback. I am fairly certain it was the first of its kind, employing large magnets that could be switched on and off with the turn of a knob. I shared a description and photos on my favorite woodworking community board and today I see that several companies are offering such a device including one which offers an improved much more compact switchable magnet. I ordered a few sets of magnets and designed an updated feather board to accept them. I could not be happier with this project which also earned me a second place finish for Part of the Week.
Maya’s CCHS soccer team wrapped up their season in fine form this afternoon with a 6-0 rout of Chelmsford. Maya had a lovely assist and made some nice runs on goal. I have been very fortunate to make so many of her games this season and love that my new job offers me this flexibility. Over the course of the season, I have amassed several thousand photos of the team and need to start trimming that number so that I can share them at the end of the season banquet.
Today’s post is devoted entirely to an article Jeanine wrote for publication in the Concord Journal tomorrow. The words paint such a wonderful picture that no photo is needed.
I like to think of Open Table as Brigadoon, the mythical Scottish town that appears out of nowhere, attracting visitors who fall in love and can’t bear to leave. But while Brigadoon appeared only every century, Open Table magically conjures up, every week, a feast for 100. Beautiful centerpieces and scrumptious dishes are prepared by a team of caring cooks. Bags of nutritious foods fill the pantry and are carried home by guests. And this magic has recurred, week after week, for 26 years!
Of course, it’s not magic. It takes many volunteers and community groups to deliver this free community service. A single night at Open Table requires at least 75 volunteers. They work at so many different shifts during the day that most have no idea that they are a team of so many.
At 8 AM pantry pickups begin at neighboring bakeries and grocery stores. At the Everett Street Pantry, six volunteers sort the recent donations from food drives at the Concord Children’s Center and the Concord Rec. Dept. Once that is accomplished they will begin packing bags to later be transported to the First Parish Church by Fenn School students or the NuPath team of adults with developmental disabilities. During the day, flowers from a local florist and centerpieces assembled by the National Charity League are dropped off. Home-baked muffins and breads appear by National Charity League too.
During the afternoon a work team from Minute Man Arc sets up the tables, chairs and the pantry distribution site. It’s a happy scene of high fives and industrious workers. Later, food is delivered from many different sources. For instance, Gaining Ground brings the abundance of the season in a rush of color and fragrance.
Soon the guests arrive and make the tableau complete – friends, neighbors and first timers all find a place at the table. Everyone is greeted and served. Conversation hums as pantry numbers are called and people leave their tables to shop. Social support volunteers stroll the room, helping visitors gain access to community services. One volunteer helps a guest fill out a fuel assistance form and explains how the system works. Another calls out to that it’s “Coat Give-Away Night”, when each guest is invited to shop for a gently used coat and winter clothing. MetroWest Legal Services comes monthly to provide legal advice. The Domestic Violence Coalition is often present. Young volunteers from the Walden School help guests out to their cars with their packages and guests begin their slow departure home rom Open Table.
After dessert is served and the last guest leaves, high school students from Middlesex School arrive to dismantle the magical world of Open Table. Tables and chairs are put away. Tarps are stored in the basement. Bags of un-used food are driven back to the Everett Street pantry. Laughter and clinking dishes are background music while executives and school students swap stories and wash dishes.
One of the oldest regular guests is helped to her car. Many of the students call out to her. I am awed by her consistent, positive demeanor. Week after week she calls me “doll” and asks how my family is doing. Her rich, full life didn’t include a retirement package at the end, but Open Table gives her socialization, simple human contact and healthy food. My mood lightens whenever I see her, and I ask myself “Who is benefitting most – me or her?”.
I turn and switch off the lights. The church hall is once again quiet and empty. No traces left of the magical world of Open Table except the lingering lovely aroma of what was served for dinner.
Maya scored a goal off a corner kick today in her match against Newton South. The well driven ball went over the heads of those defending and attacking the near post, bounced off the ground and into the knee of the visually shielded goal keeper and careened into the net.
I spent a good portion of the weekend making improvements to my shop and taking stock of my equipment. I have decided it is time to sell my lathe and turning tools which have seen extremely limited use since we moved to Concord. I will probably wait until next weekend to post on Craig’s List. I find that New England woodworkers tend to return to their shops once the splendor of fall has passed and the days grow short.
Autumn colors peaked in Concord this weekend although the same cannot be said for the sun which was subdued by cloudy skies and rain all day. At least this made for good soccer playing weather and my team secured a 1-1 tie against Medfield. Although a win would have been the fairer outcome based on our domination of play, we were all happy to add a point (3 for a win, 1, for a tie, 0 for a loss) to our standings and a little more distance from possible relegation this season.
Maya prepared pumpkin pancakes for 25 of her fellow National Charity League members. Her chapter of the organization had its fall meeting at our home this morning. The girls also wrote holiday letters which will be distributed to people in prison. Whenever the ratio of women to men in the house exceeds twenty to one, I have learned to make myself scarce. I spent time organizing my shop so that it would be ready for the winter woodworking season. I also designed a new feather board jig that I plan to print at work next week. Once the meeting was in full swing I managed to sneak into the kitchen and liberated three pancakes for an early lunch.
One of the quality improvements we have made to our Mark One printer is an increase to the tension we keep on our fiber spool. This eliminates the possibility of having the spring-like fiber filament “jump” off the reel as it is currently prone to do. We did this by adding a second spool tensioner (the thin plastic sheets at 45-degree angles). I created this fixture so that workers at our factory will consistently install these at the proper angle.
Coach McGee asked if I would take a team photo after today’s game against Cambridge. The smiles came as easily as the 3-0 win. Maya tweaked her ankle in the first few minutes of play but returned to the pitch after wrapping it.
Last week my tool holder with embedded magnets received but a single vote during Part of the Week. I believe this was a clear signal that everyone at work is tired of my variations on the tool holder theme. Last night I decided to pick an object at random and design it for printing. With my eyes closed, I opened a camping equipment catalog to an arbitrary page and there found a collapsible cup. Today when I arrived at work, I started printing it and four hours later I was drinking water from my creation (while much of it dribbled through the seams into the sink over which I wisely conducted my first test). Normally, I would go back to the drawing board and refine the design but I had an idea for a more relevant work project and will be moving on to that. Despite the leaks, the geometry worked out perfectly including the retention features I employed to lock the cup into its extended position.
A meeting at our contract manufacturer in Lowell took me past Pages Brook Pond this morning where a family of beavers have set up their residence. I have watched this pond evolve over twelve years (my first job in Massachusetts had me commuting along this road) and it is remarkable to see how dramatically the landscape has been altered by such tiny creatures. For those who doubt that 7.3 billion humans can change the climate of our planet, they should see what 6 beavers have done in just over a decade to this corner of the world.
Employees at MarkForged are issued respirator masks for use inside our fiber production area. Today they proved handy when someone microwaved a most foul-smelling lunch. I don’t know, or care to know, what food was being prepared but I was thankful for my mask, a feeling shared by my colleagues.
Another loss (0-1) this morning has placed my soccer team near the bottom of our division. I played well as did my teammates but we just could not find the back of the net despite many chances. With the season nearing completion we have to get our act together or face relegation to Division 2, an outcome that would be hard to accept after winning Division 1 last season.
Alissa and my nephew John William treated us to breakfast at Nancy’s Airfield Cafe after the game and I found a few moments later in the day for a little photography at Verrill Farm where I was dispatched to pick up some dinner ingredients.
As a rule, Jeanine cooks a great deal of vegetarian food. When she does cook with meat, she prefers to use locally sourced, grass-fed, antibiotic free cows. Today we drove out to the Wheelview Farm in Shelburne Falls located in the Berkshires to pick up our winter’s supply of beef. I interviewed some of the cows and they confirmed that they were being treated well and getting plenty to eat. The fall foliage was spectacular and I would venture to say at its peak. We paused en route at the French King Bridge for a photo. I have shot this angle on a few previous occasions but never tire of the majesty of this bridge or the composition of its surroundings.
My sister Alissa has been staying with us and was joined by her husband John this evening. The four of us went out to see the Martian, a film I can give my highest recommendation.
It is a 12-minute walk from where I work to the campus of Harvard University. A perfect fall afternoon was the only excuse I needed to make the short stroll in search of lunch today. In addition to a magnificent grilled cheese and tomato sandwich, I found a pygmy pig, baby goat, and several rabbits at a make-shift petting zoo for students. I had no idea that Harvard took campus diversity to such lengths.
Maya played a terrific match today against Westford helping her team to a 1-0 win. When I asked her why she was so full of energy she reminded me that she had gone to bed at 8:30 last night. I wonder if there is a lesson for her in this. She had several nice shots on goal and made many attacking passes setting up her teammates for shots on net. The weather could not have been more perfect and it was nice to get some fresh air after being cooped up in planes and a car for the last few days.
The second day of my mid-west business trip took my to Ashtabula, OH to visit with a supplier. The drive to Cleveland for my return flight went right right past the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I only had time for a quick visit so I decided to stop at Brandywine Falls, arguably the park’s most iconic landmark. Not satisfied with the perspective from the viewing platform, I ventured down to the base of the falls for a different angle. I will let you decide if that view (below) was worth spending the rest of the day in water-logged boots, the result of falling into the river after slipping on an algae covered rock. I think not.
Last night I flew to Detroit and then drove to Ann Arbor where I spent the evening. I was up before the sun and embarked on the remainder of my journey to Battle Creek where I had business with a vendor. A twenty minute excursion took me to Hell and back. More accurately, I went through Hell to get to my destination. It was a cold day in Hell but there were no signs of ice or snowballs. Contrary to popular belief, the road to Hell is paved in asphalt rather than good intentions. I was also surprised to learn that there are only 266 people in Hell, I would have thought the number was much higher.
I usually budget 75 minutes when traveling to Cambridge for meetings at the offices of Matrix Partners, one of the venture capital firms backing MarkForged. This morning, I made the trip in half the time because of the Columbus Day holiday which many in Massachusetts observe. With an extra 40 minutes to spare, I took a walk across the Longfellow Bridge and took this photo of the Community Boating docks. I returned to Matrix with 5 minutes to spare and could not understand why everyone else had already gone inside for the meeting. Only later did I realize that I was 5 minutes early for a 9 am meeting that actually started at 8 am.
My soccer team had to settle for a 1-1 tie this morning against the Mariners. We had to leave Concord at 6:15AM to arrive in Fairhaven in time for warmups and the 8AM kick-off. It was a disappointing outcome given that we had a 10 to 1 advantage in shots on goal.
I returned to Concord by noon, just in time to join Jeanine, Maya, and her friend Sarinnagh on an excursion to Crane Beach in Ipswich. There we enjoyed lunch on the beach and the fresh sea air. Later we toured the Inn on Castle Hill and the surrounding estate. Within the area known as the casino complex, we discovered a magnificent croquet court and introduced Sarinnagh to the game. Despite a strong showing, the girls fell victim to Jeanine’s sharp shooting and my strategy.
When a fair weather and peak fall foliage forecast align on a weekend day you can assume with high confidence that I will be in the car headed for the mountains. I left early in the morning and drove to Franconia Notch in New Hampshire where the color was great but the sky was overcast. I paused for a few shots and then set out for Smugglers Notch in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont where the light was better and the color just as nice. I failed to find a perfect shot and spent more time enjoying the scenery with my eyes than trying to capture it with my camera. Realizing I was less than an hour from Burlington, and decided to drop in on my sister-in-law, Susan for a brief visit. By the time I returned to Concord at 8PM I had logged 515 miles on my trip odometer.
I was too busy at work to make it to Maya’s soccer game today. She scored a very pretty goal which I am very sorry to have missed. I am scheduled for some business travel next week and have a number of urgent items that need to be addressed before leaving the office. This photo of Maya’s friend Fiona was taken earlier this week.
Predictions suggest that the fall foliage this year will not be all that great. I am inclined to disagree.
The weather could not have been more perfect for fall soccer today. Maya still has to tape her ankle but is back to full strength and the starting line up at center midfield. Her distribution was excellent and she had a couple of nice shots on goal. Her team defeated Wayland soundly by a margin of 2-0 in a game that could have just as easily seen another four goals for the Patriots.
On this day, twenty five years ago, I married a woman who I continue to find as interesting, inspiring and sexy as I did then. The time has passed all too quickly and I can only hope that this is merely the half way point. Had I to do it all over again, I would make the same vows to the same woman.
Jeanine, today we stand before each other, amongst our family and friends, ready to embark on a life long journey together. In celebration of my love for you, I make these vows.
I PROMISE:
Jeanine and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow. This evening we curled up to watch a romantic comedy, oddly named Something’s Gotta Give, featuring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. It was actually the perfect movie for the occasion and we both laughed our heads off. Given my exceptional romantic instincts, I seized the moment after the movie finished to present Jeanine with a gift to celebrate twenty five years of marriage. When she opened the box and discovered an iron inside (our current one, I discovered last weekend, has a broken handle being held together by packing tape) she was nothing short of furious. I believe her exact words were “this is the WORST anniversary present EVER!” I tried to console her by explaining what a high quality iron it was and encouraged her to take it out of the box and examine it more closely. She would have nothing to do with the iron or me. I persisted, however, and she begrudgingly took the iron out and then the special cup used to fill the iron inside which she discovered a lovely sterling silver bracelet. I was forgiven in the nicest way possible.
I played the worst soccer of my life this morning after missing two practices and a game last weekend while in Colorado. In all my years of playing, I cannot remember ever allowing a man I was marking to get an uncontested shot at the net, let alone score. Today I was so exhausted that I could not keep up with the man I was defending when he made a move to the goal and released a rocket from 25 yards out. Not only did I fail to block the shot, I shielded our keeper who had no chance of stopping a ball he could not see until the last instant. My only consolation was that we lost the match 3-1 which meant that my failure to defend was not the sole reason for our loss. My team also lost last weekend and we have moved from the top of the ladder to the bottom and must now fight for our lives to avoid relegation. This after winning the division last season. I was not in the mood for any photography after the dreadful morning and am posting a few gems from last week.
Maya threads a pass through the defense during her soccer match this afternoon, her sprained ankle having recovered fully. The weather has recently turned quite cold and her High-intensity exercise has been proven generic cialis on line to be increasing T level and preventing decline of it. You generic sildenafil uk can consult your doctor for the kind of medicine that is generic medicine. Therefore they are always willing to improve canadian sildenafil their sexual power. When the immunity health of an individual should have a minimum of 8 million per order cialis millimeter of semen with motility. parents should have taken a clue from Maya and dressed more warmly for the game. Jeanine and I spent a good portion of the day rearranging furniture on the second floor now that the new floor finish has fully hardened.
The beauty of desktop 3D printing is that you can rapidly iterate on design refinements. Pictured above is my third version of a table top tripod. I have increased the size and height of the legs from my first version (shown below for comparison). In addition, I tapered the legs (which had the added benefit of creating some very cool carbon fiber patterns), increased the size and thickness of the shoulder joints and converted from a 1/4-20 to 3/8-16 mounting bolt. The result is a very stiff design that I would fearlessly trust supporting the $5,000 camera and lens combination I use for macro photography. This version was good enough to win Part of the Week at work, my first win since joining the company three months ago, a good indicator of the level of competition from my colleagues who each week create the most amazing entries. After using the new tripod for some actual work, I decided to increase the splay of the legs and make them a tad longer. I left Version 4 printing as I went home for the weekend and can’t wait to see the result when I return on Monday.
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In any given week, I often volunteer to do failure analysis on a returned 3D printer. There is no better way to identify opportunities to improve quality and reliability than getting a first hand look at failures from the field. I take a very forensic approach to the work and enjoy getting to the root cause of subtle problems. What I don’t enjoy is scrounging around for the tools I need to do the work. For this reason I decided to make a personal tool caddy which contains exactly the right set of tools to inspect and service a Mark One printer. As an added refinement, I embedded magnets below each tool slot to keep the bits and sockets in place until needed. To prevent the magnets from jumping out of the print on to the print head (this happened on my first attempt), I embedded a series of thin blade sections from a snap off knife below the magnets. My first project which made use of embedding objects in a print made it clear to me what a great feature this is.
