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.
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.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
