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.
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:
to care for you in sickness and in health
to nurture your emotional, spiritual, and physical well being
to honor you and remain true to you forsaking all others
to respect you as an individual and as a partner
to appreciate your uniqueness
to learn more about you as we grow and change over time
to share in your dreams, challenges, and accomplishments
to support your growth and development
to encourage positive change which you desire to make
to understand you well enough to give you the nurturing you need
to accept that there are some things about you that I wish were different but may change only in relatively small ways
to foster healthy communicating and problem solving
to forgive you when you seek forgiveness from me
to play with you
to seek deeper levels of emotional, spiritual, and physical intimacy
to create and nurture our own family (including a dog) further extending the union of our two families
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 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.
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.
It may take close examination to identify the subjects in this photo. While not as dramatic as many of the landscapes I shot while in The Rockies, it is sublime and a personal favorite from my all-too-brief photography adventure in Colorado. It is amazing how much transpired while I was out of the office for two days and it took a very long day to catch up.
I cannot conceive of a better way to celebrate my birthday than spending it in a place of extraordinary natural beauty. The only improvement would have been to enjoy it with the entire family.
Another early start to the day afforded me an opportunity to photograph the super moon moonset. Not quite as dramatic as the lunar eclipse but still a beautiful thing to watch.
I spent the morning touring the Dallas Divide area, a section of the San Juan Mountains that are known for their fall splendor before heading to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The Black Canyon is so named due its steepness which makes it difficult for sunlight to penetrate into its depths. As a result, the canyon is often shrouded in shadow, causing the rocky walls to appear black. At its narrowest point the canyon is only 40 ft wide at the river. I timed my visit to the south rim to coincide with a 30 minute window during which the river was partially lit.
I was up early this morning and watched as the sun rose over the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The dunes are magnificent both in form and scale. I could have spent the entire day exploring the park and climbing the dunes but I had a great deal of ground to cover to stay on a very ambitious schedule.
Lake City was my next destination where I took the famous Alpine Loop scenic byway destined for Ouray. The three hours it took to reach Lake City passed quickly even though I stopped often to photograph the insanely beautiful fall foliage.
My traverse of the Alpine Loop took me over both Cinnamon Pass and California Pass. The “road” is for 4×4 vehicles only. My rented Toyota 4Runner was sure footed giving me great confidence as I ascended into the mountains even though many sections were very narrow with exposed drop offs (not something for the timid or those with a fear of heights, like me). The scenery and views, however, made it all worthwhile.
The descent was an entirely different story. I made the mistake of entering the Poughkeepsie Gulch despite posted warnings stating the “road” was only for experts driving 4x4s equipped with winches and lockers. When it became clear how technically challenging the path would be, it seemed safer to continue descending rather than to climb back out. I never felt that I was in personal danger but it is nothing short of a miracle that I made it down without seriously damaging my rental or getting stranded. I had to stop twice for a half hour each time to reconstruct the road with large stones so I could pass safely. I do not exaggerate when I say I could have walked faster than I drove down this gulch. A visit to YouTube and a search for the Poughkeepsie Gulch will tell the story better than I can.
I was tempted to spend the evening in beautiful Ouray but decided to push on to Ridgeway where I felt it would be easier to photograph the super blood moon eclipse. Had I know about this event before leaving home I would have brought a different lens. I did the best I could with the 300mm lens I had at hand.
I was up with the sun to enjoy the The Garden of the Gods before meeting Nico and his roommates family for breakfast at 10am. An early start for Nico translates to middle of the day for me.
Although Colorado College had countless on campus events organized for Family Weekend, I was more interested in spending time with Nico. We decided to drive to the top of Pike’s Peak. Nico is planning to hike it next weekend so this was a great opportunity to get a lay of the land and assess the magnitude of the effort.
On the way back to Colorado Springs we stopped at the Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings for a tour of the restored site and museum before we were treated to a wonderful Vietnamese dinner by Nico’s roommate Thomas, and his family.
I am often called upon at work to photograph various items for inclusion on our website. Today’s request was for images that will find their way to our technical support pages and I decided to shoot them in the evening so that I could take advantage of my home studio lighting setup. Pictured above is a close up of the nozzles we use to print Nylon and fiber from. Below are two examples that will be used to illustrate issues with printing.
As fall approaches and the morning air turns cool our fields are often bathed in a blanket of mist. I love this time of year and am looking forward to the autumn foliage as I remember my father who was born on this day in 1924.
Since leaving iRobot a lot has changed. My former boss and three of my five direct reports have left the company. Doug is moving to Ohio to head up R&D at the Transportation Research Center, an automotive test track facility. Lynne (could not join us this evening) has joined venerable Mercury Computers to lead their engineering team. Marlene now runs program management at Levant Power, an active suspension startup in Woburn. Rob and Hiten continue to excel at iRobot and have just released the company’s first self navigating Roomba, a project we all worked on for years. Our dinner reunion this evening was to wish Doug farewell and catch up on the latest happenings. It was a lot of fun and something I hope we can repeat in the future.
Followers of this blog are well aware of my penchant for tripods. I currently own six and, hand to Bible, I use them all. To them, it will come as no surprise that my recent love affair with 3D printing has now turned to that object. I spent a good portion of the weekend designing two models, a super light weight baby (perfect for desktop macro photography) which stands a foot tall and a collapsible big brother which is twice that. When I got to work this morning, I launched a single print containing all four parts (3 legs and an apex). When it was time to head home my tripod was done. All that remained to be done was attach the legs with standard hardware and affix a suitable size ball head. Despite their diminutive appearance, the legs turned out to be incredibly strong as did the apex. The feature which establishes the leg angle is not quite as stiff as I would like so it is back to OnShape for some refinement of the CAD model. The real beauty of 3D printing is that you can rapidly iterate on a design concept as often as needed to achieve your vision.
Jeanine participated in the Three Squares Ride For Food this morning. She raised ~$3500 as she completed the 25 mile course that started and ended at the Nobles campus in Dedham. Committed to eliminating food insecurity in New England, a more worthy cause you will not find. Jeanine, never one to miss a marketing opportunity, can be seen here with her fellow riders wearing their custom food helmets.
My soccer team lost our first match in some time by a score of 1-0 to a strong Midfield team. It was a close match but the better team won. We have our work cut out for us if we hope to repeat as Division 1 champions this year. I had two shots on net. Both were on frame but neither with enough power to be a real threat.
I only use two types of filters in my photography. Circular polarizers remove reflections and glare and enhance color saturation. Neutral density filters cut down the amount of light reaching the camera’s sensor, allowing for long exposure times which can be used to create motion blur (I use these a lot when shooting waterfalls). Good filters are not cheap and worth protecting when carrying in the field. Many cases exist but they are generically sized and tend to be bulky. I designed and printed this filter case for the ones I like to carry with me. It is lightweight, compact and more protective than most cases I have seen.
Maya returned to action on the soccer pitch this afternoon. She has been nursing a sprained ankle for the last ten days and it finally felt strong enough to test in competition. Judging from her performance. I would say she has made a full recovery. Unfortunately, her team fell to Acton Boxborough by a score of 2-0.
The crew refinishing our hardwood floors completed the job today. I am often dissatisfied with the work of contractors because they rarely do it as well as I can (simply because I care and I don’t rush). This project was an exception and we are very pleased with the results. Beyond opening the windows and running the AC there is little to be done about the unpleasant smell of the drying finish, however.
While moving Maya’s bed from her room so that the floors could be refinished, I discovered that the central “beam” structure that supports the mattress had developed an enormous crack and was drooping by several inches. It should be noted that such a failure would most likely be caused by a large child jumping on the bed (ah hem, no further comment). This evening I repaired the failed structure and added a pair of sistering beams which should more than triple the strength of the existing one. Pictured here is the glue-up of the final assembly.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
