I did not get back from work until long after Halloween trick-or-treaters had made the rounds. Fortunately (or not), there was still an abundant supply of Kit-Kat bars in the foyer when I returned. No chance for photography today, so a thematically appropriate entry taken earlier this month.
As much as I enjoyed my failed attempt at retirement, it was very exciting to be back in the thick of a high-tech startup environment again. Today was my first day on the job as VP of Engineering for Superpedestrian. A very early arrival and late return from our Cambridge office helped me avoid the worst of what can only be described as a miserable commute. Traffic in the Boston area has been getting worse every year, a function of the city’s booming economy. Our office has a very hip vibe and feels more like an urban bike shop than anything else. We are already crowded in the two adjacent buildings we lease and it is clear we are going to need a new location sooner than later. I was warmly welcomed by my new colleagues and found myself very well ensconced, dare I say already productive, by the end of what turned out to be a very long day.
It has been 17 years since I transitioned from film photography to digital. My first DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera was the Canon EOS D30 which sported a resolution of 3.1 MP, 3 frames per second shooting rate and 3 autofocus points. Today, I sold what will be my very last DSLR, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, a 30MP, 7 fps, 61 point AF camera that is considered by many to be one of the best in the world. I am transitioning to interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras and from the Canon to Sony brand. My 5DM4 will be replaced with a Sony A7r3 due in by the end of November. It has a resolution of 42MP with 10fps and 399 point AF system. Most importantly it replaces the mirror found on all DSLRs with an electronic viewfinder capable of delivering better than optical performance and a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) preview. Sony has leapfrogged both Canon and Nikon with this technology and I feel it will take both many years to catch up since they have such a vested interest in perpetuating the DSLR architecture. Of equal significance, Sony has started to make some seriously impressive lenses that are every bit as good or better than their “Canikon” equivalents.
I was back in action on the soccer pitch this morning and my hamstring seems to have fully healed. I managed a very pretty goal from the top of the box, one timing a perfect cross and sending it rocketing past the keeper. Although the game was close through the first half we were overrun by numbers in the second (their squad of 22 versus ours of 11) and suffered a 2-6 loss. Hard to beat a team with fresh subs every 10 minutes when you have none. Still, I was happy to be back on the pitch again.
With my new job starting on Monday, Jeanine and I decided to share some couples time making a day trip to Turners Falls where we enjoyed an out of this world lunch at the Great Falls Harvest restaurant. A leisurely walk along the river and through the town made for a delightful afternoon on what is likely to be the last perfect day of fall. We also visited Millers Falls and the Quabbin reservoir.
Jeanine spotted this magnificent tree which is no doubt the prettiest of the season. It was located on private property and guarded by a rather threatening dog so I had to make do with a photo through the open car window. The full resolution original image is simply amazing.
One of my soccer teammates is now the coach of the CCHS Freshman Women’s Soccer Team. He contacted me yesterday wondering if I would be available to photograph today’s match. He would like each of the girls to have a nice photograph to remember their season by. I was happy to do it even though I am between camera systems right now and had neither the proper body or lens for the assignment. I made the best of my available gear and in the end was reasonably happy with the results. I couldn’t help stopping on the way to the game to capture the swans below.
I had an idea for a packaging concept that I have been noodling on for the last several days. I found it easier to build a mock-up than creating a CAD model.
Maya is headed to Austin, Texas to attend the 2017 Society of Women Engineers Conference and Career Fair. I was happy to provide a shuttle service from Olin College to the airport for her and two classmates.
Normally I drive into the mountains to find fall color. Today the color has come to Concord. The range on my electric car is 81 miles and I used about two-thirds of a “tank” to enjoy my own neck of the woods where autumn foliage is now at its peak. Leaves were not the only thing I found that caught my eye.
The best way I know to get up to speed on a new product is by taking it apart. This morning I dissected a non-working Copenhagen Wheel I obtained while visiting superpedestrian last week. What appears very simple from the outside is actually quite complex internally. I worked very carefully out of respect for the powerful magnetic fields and high-power 48V battery present inside the housing.
After two weeks of complete rest I was hopeful that my injured hamstring would have fully recovered. Fifteen minutes into my soccer match this morning, however, it became abundantly apparent that was not the case. Fortunately, I stopped at the first twinge of pain and did no further damage to the muscle. With any luck, I will be back in action next week.
Since its origin in 1965, the Head Of The Charles Regatta has welcomed the world’s best crew teams to the banks of the Charles River for the ultimate two-day rowing competition attracting over 11,000 athletes and tens of thousands of spectators. Kyle and I were among the later group this morning enjoying the racing and a spectacular autumn day. Kyle wondered if boats often collided. I told him it was rare and not 10 minutes later we witnesses a three way crash. Two racing fours collided side-to-side and were then carried by the current into the reverse direction “lane” where they were T-boned at high speed by a double traveling in the opposite direction. It is very fortunate that no one was seriously injured although the double rowers seemed none too happy with their short swim in the frigid Charles.
The geese pictured below managed to just dodge the advancing shell but one was not so lucky with respect to the sweeping oar.
As the resident biking expert in the family, I asked Jeanine to test out a product called the Copenhagen Wheel. It is a retrofittable rear wheel that turns an ordinary bicycle into an electric motor assisted speedster instilling in the rider a feeling of super human strength and endurance . Her smile reveals the verdict and validated my decision to join the company that literally reinvented the wheel. Superpedestrian is a startup, founded in 2012 by one of the wheel’s co-inventors, with a mission to transform urban mobility. Over the last 18 months I have been heavily recruited for various head of engineering roles both here and on the west coast. Most were interesting, all were lucrative, but none till now stirred my passions enough to coax me out of retirement. The superpedestrian mission, its technology and design sensibility, the culture and team of exceptional individuals all spoke to me on a very profound level. My first day in the office will be a week from Monday. Although I have failed at my first attempt to retire, I feel I made great use of my time off. I enjoyed travel adventures in a dozen countries, visited more than half the US states, and built a tiny house with Maya.
I had to swerve violently to avoid running over this snake on the road today. Confident I had missed it, I circled back for a photo (taken with my telephoto lens). I have no idea what kind it is but thought it wise to keep my distance despite its relatively small size (about 2.5 feet long). If anyone knows what species this is, please drop me a note and I will update the post. My current best guess is a Northern Water Snake.
During my travels yesterday I encountered a number of bridges and decided to post them today in honor of a loyal blog follower who enjoys them.
Every year at this time I try and venture into the White Mountains of New Hampshire in search of fall color. Weather and foliage reports suggested that today would be optimal. I traveled north to Franconia Notch and then east through Crawford Notch to Jackson. I returned by way of Conway and Kancamagus Highway covering a total of nearly 350 miles. The foliage this year was somewhat muted but more expansive than in past years. I enjoyed the drive as much of the photography and may even make a return visit later this week.
Women who have passed kidney stones compare the pain to that of childbirth. Early this morning after an entirely sleepless night my pain increased to 11 on a scale of 10 and it was time for a visit to the ER. There I received a very effective pain blocker and underwent a CAT scan to confirm that I was passing two 3mm kidney stones. I was discharged by noon and felt good enough to walk home from the hospital. During my recovery, I enjoyed watching a video from Maya showing her hopper in action. Note the clever time-delayed trigger. Link to Video
I had hoped to head up to New Hampshire for some fall foliage photography today. My soccer match was cancelled due to a forfeit by our opponent leaving me a rare unscheduled autumn Sunday. Unfortunately, the skies were overcast and I opted to do some much-needed shopping instead. By late afternoon, the sun was peaking through the clouds occasionally and I managed to get some nice pumpkin photos at one of our local farm stands. Later I took Jeanine out for dinner and the latest Kingsman movie. We both agreed that it would have been better if I had taken Kyle instead. Better yet would have been waiting to catch it on TV.
During day two of Olin’s Family Weekend Maya had to work on her hopper project and we were all happy to watch as she built mechanisms from parts that were laser cut over night. The project is due on Monday so she needed to work on it while we were visiting. Later we joined some of her friends and their parents for dinner at a Japanese restaurant before saying goodbye to our baby who we will see next at Thanksgiving.
Jeanine, Kyle, and I had a chance to visit Maya during Family Weekend at Olin College. We are already fairly familiar with the tiny campus and therefore most interested in seeing Maya’s first project, a biologically inspired hoping mechanism (below is one of her initial design drawings). Maya seems very happy and thoroughly engaged in academic life as well as the social scene. We attended her ultimate frisbee practice to cap off the day
Jeanine asked me to take some photographs for Open Table’s next fundraising newsletter which I was happy to help her with. Pictured above is the food pantry at their new Maynard facility. Below is from dinner service in Concord shot from the top of a 12ft ladder.
I can’t think of a tool I have owned that has given me more pleasure and carefree use than my Stihl chainsaw. I have owned it for more than 25 years and it has never let me down. It saw most of its use taking down and sectioning huge dead beech trees when we lived on a 5-acre forested lot in Indiana. It also opened up the magnificent view of the field we enjoy today on our Concord property. It has seen little use in the last 5 years, however, and therefore will get posted to Craig’s List where I hope it will find a happy new home.
I had an opportunity to stroll along the Charles River Esplanade this afternoon between consulting gigs in the city. I am trying to walk as much as possible to help stretch out my injured hamstring. With normal strides I am already pain free which bodes well for a quick recovery.
When DeWALT upgraded their cordless tool line from 18V NiCad to 20V Li-Ion battery technology, I sold off all my old tools and replaced them with their newer equivalents. Today, I completed my second transition to tools with brushless motors, DeWALT’s latest cordless technology by selling off my last two saws that use motors with brushes. I managed to recover 80% of my acquisition cost which makes the transition much more affordable. I have also started to invest in some of DeWALT’s 60V tools including an air compressor and track saw. Generally speaking, I am on a path to replace all my corded and stationary power tools with cordless ones. I am waiting impatiently for the introduction of a cordless router and orbital sander which I can’t believe has not been released yet.
I have played soccer in Massachusetts for as long as we have lived here, some 14 years now; first on the over-40 Concord team, then the over-50 Concord team, and now on the Lexington over-56 team. In all that time, I have never witnessed a fight between players that resulted in injury. Most are merely shoving matches with lots of trash talk. When the final whistle blew this morning in our tied game against Peabody, an opponent who felt he had been fouled by one of our players stuck him in the face resulting in a cut that required 10 stitches to close. Our guy fought back to defend himself and both were issued red cards. I suggested we photograph the injury so that assault charges could be substantiated and to seek to have the offending player permanently banned from the league. I watched the whole fight transpire from the sidelines where I spent the second half of the game benched with a strained hamstring.
Scattered clouds and a visible full moon in the morning gave way to overcast skies with little in the way of sunshine. Nevertheless, we enjoyed exploring the area. We started with a 6-mile bike ride along the Androscoggin River and then a visit to an artisan craft show in Brunswick which yielded a beautiful set of silver earrings for Jeanine. After a wonderful lunch at the Frontier we explored Orr’s Island and Bailey Island where we made a short hike to the Giant Staircase (pictured below). We decided to cancel reservations for a sunset sailboat cruise when thick fog began to form and it started to rain.
Twenty seven years ago today, Jeanine and I were married on an equally beautiful autumn day. Jeanine collected me at the airport this morning and we drove to a quaint bed and breakfast at Lookout Point in Harpswell, Maine. We spent the day touring the area by car and on foot winding up on the tip of Basin Point, at the water’s edge of Pott’s Harbor for dinner at the Dolphin Marina and Restaurant with an exceptional view of Casco Bay and its many islands.
Stringers are long sawtooth-shaped boards used to support stair treads. Mark’s deck required six of them which we fabricated today from 2×12 lumber. Almost half our time was well spent getting the layout and dimensions just right. Careful execution resulted in a perfectly matched set and made for a nice accomplishment to wind up our construction efforts for the week.
Favorable weather today allowed Mark and I to make significant progress on his deck project. We installed thirteen 9′ tall 4×4 posts that will support the railing and overhead trellis. Each post is supported by 3 massive bolts and 2×10 blocking on all sides (about a third of which we completed).
It is hard to photograph 9-year-old Rose because she is in a constant state of motion. I gave her an eyebrow massage which slowed her down long enough to get a nice portrait.
I travelled to Minneapolis today where I will be spending the remainder of the week with my brother Mark and his family. Mark spent last week in Boston helping me with the tiny house project and I will be helping him this week with his deck project. The best part of my visit is seeing all my nieces and nephews. This is 11-year-old Sophia.
My birthday celebration was postponed from Friday until this evening so that Maya could join us. Jeanine prepared Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and broccoli for a wonderful family dinner which also included my nephew, John.
Unfortunately, I was not treated so well on the soccer pitch this morning. My team suffered a real drubbing in a 0-5 loss to the current first-place team in the league. I had the only shot on goal of the entire match and managed to find the crossbar rather than the back of the net.