Coverage of Nicolai’s amazing goal earlier this week has gone viral thanks to the YouTube video posted by his coach. The last time I checked it had over 1,800,000 views.
Four local TV stations picked up on the story and interviewed him before his game against Boston Latin this afternoon. I left work early to provide video and picture files to the various stations and to generally try and manage the media frenzy. Nicolai handled the interviews wonderfully. He was confident but not boastful. He spoke eloquently and from the heart. Jeanine and I could scarcely contain our pride and joy as we switched from channel to channel watching the coverage.
Although I missed the big iRobot party yesterday to attend Nicolai’s soccer game I had a chance this afternoon to partake in one of the product shaped cakes prepared for the event. Maya, a stalwart fan of a show called The Cake Boss will be very impressed with these edible works of art.
Pure Joy! The only words I can use to describe what Jeanine and I felt when we watched Nicolai score his first goal as a member of the CCHS Varsity Soccer Team today. No doubt this was a feeling he was also experiencing. This afternoon iRobot celebrated the 10th anniversary of Roomba and the 5000th deployed PacBot with a huge party in downtown Boston. The entire company was invited along with local dignitaries and VIPs. I opted instead to attend Nicolai’s game. My reward was a chance to witness, first hand, a milestone that I would have never believed possible when he was born. Not only did he score, but he did so in style with a magnificent overhead full volley (the one legged equivalent of a bicycle kick).
Nico can add this accomplishment to his list of “firsts”. I believe he is now the first person with one leg to ever score a goal (or even play) in a high school varsity soccer match.
Coincidentally, the Boston Herald just published a story on Nicolai which includes a great video interview and more than a dozen photos. The link can be found below. Once on the site the photos can be found by following the Photo Gallery link.
iRobot announced the acquisition of Evolution Robotics today. This explains my recent trip to Pasadena where I was conducting due diligence for the deal. They bring some nice products and very sophisticated technology to the company as well as a team of very talented engineers. Integration of east and west coast cultures is always a tricky affair but will be made easier by the common passion for robotics that runs deep in both companies. I attended a security briefing this morning given by Ray Semko, the D*I*C*E man, a former counter-intelligence officer who now makes a living giving high energy, motivational talks on the subject of corporate security. Although it was often very funny and did leave everyone with some indelible lessons, it was a bit over the top for me in terms of his overly nationalistic views. I was tied up at work till after 8pm but still found this beautiful salad and the family waiting to have dinner with me when I returned home. Am I a lucky guy or what?
A disappointing result this morning as my soccer team suffered its first loss in over a year. The 0-3 score did not reflect the closeness of the contest but there is no arguing with the outcome. I played poorly and their first goal came from the guy that I was marking off a nice header. He placed his hands on my shoulders and used them as a platform from which to elevate himself. Illegal for sure but a common tactic which I have admittedly used myself on occasion. My teammates were also in lack luster form and we failed to finish on several opportunities. The trick now will be to bounce back next week.
I spent the afternoon doing projects around the house. Maya assisted me with repairing a videotape for my mother. The tape had been partially eaten by the VCR and contained precious footage from my grandmother’s 90th birthday. It turned out to be quite a tricky affair and Maya was absolutely essential to the projects success both in terms of reverse engineering the assembly sequence and lending her small and dexterous hands. When we completed the hour-long task she immediately asked if I had anything else that she could take apart. I gave her an old keyboard and a screwdriver. In minutes she had it deconstructed and could largely explain the principles of operation. Another few minutes and she had it reassembled perfectly. There is little doubt in my mind that Maya would make a fine engineer should she decide to follow that path. Still not sated I found her an old four-tone doorbell to play with. She extracted a solenoid plunger which we used with a power supply to experiment with electromagnetism.
Maya’s ankle is still not back to full strength but felt good enough to play on this morning. Her technique continued to improve and she made many fine plays including a powerful shot on net that was just wide to the right. Her team trailed by one goal for most of the game but managed to equalize with about 3 minutes left to play. The tie felt like a win and made for a nice start to what turned into a marvelous day. Jeanine and I took an evening stroll around the neighborhood while Maya Rose was out having dinner with her friend Maia Rose at Walden Kitchen.
I am a huge proponent of developing staff through organized challenges designed to surface opportunities for creating exceptional teams. At work I lead our program management, systems, mechanical, software and electrical engineering departments. Today the later conducted a team building event in which participants were asked to design and construct a car from cardboard, duct tape, a pair of axles, and four tires. Once built these vehicles were raced down the Nashoba Ski Area “bunny” hill in heats of three to determine the winning team. The primary goals are to not kill anyone and to have fun. Learning about the importance of a winning strategy, the value of good planning and communication and the efficient utilization of resources; priceless.
Yesterday I walked into work to find this scale on a table marked “free stuff”. There has been a good bit of housekeeping going on in recent weeks as a large number of folks have relocated their offices and cubes to be closer to their respective program teams. I remembered that Jeanine has long wished for a kitchen scale of this size (0-5 pounds) and immediately laid claim to it. I forgot to bring it home yesterday and was asked about it repeatedly as it sat at the center of my conference table, clearly not to be confused with a piece of artwork. It was well received on the home front and will be put into service after it receives a thorough cleaning. While I tried to take this photograph Maya kept piling on various fruits and vegetables. I decided that a single apple would be the most photogenic.
Nicolai got his first minutes today against Waltham. The team fell behind 0-1 despite dominating play on the field. Two goals during the second half, however, secured the win. Nicolai looked very comfortable on the pitch and had a powerful shot on frame from just outside the box but is was also directly at the keeper who was able to handle it. While shooting from the sidelines, I noticed a professional sports photographer (gear tells the story). He eventually moved near my shooting position and I could tell from the sound of his shutter that he was shooting Nico exclusively. I inquired if he was from the Boston Herald and my guess was correct. We spent the rest of the game shooting and chatting and I agreed to send him some early soccer photos of Nico for the piece that they are planning to run.
Nicolai was interviewed today by the Boston Herald. He may well be the world’s first one-legged high school athlete to make a varsity soccer team. I am not entirely sure that he appreciated the attention. Nicolai has never craved the limelight unless it has been in support of a worthy cause (Free Wheelchair Mission, American Amputee Soccer Association). He is not one of the starting players and did not get any minutes in the team’s opening match which no doubt dampened his enthusiasm for the interview. Nicolai went in with realistic expectations about how much playing time he would get but I can only imagine how hard it was for him to watch from the sidelines. First and foremost, Nicolai is a fierce competitor and wants to earn recognition for his accomplishments on the pitch and not his anatomy. The team’s coach is highly motivated to take this team to the state finals and will put the players on the field needed to win every game. I am confident that will include Nicolai in some matches and will do my best to attend every game as I did for Kyle who also played varsity soccer for CCHS.
Pictured above is his player profile from the school’s website (either a very poor photographer or Nico’s attempt to look really intimidating).
I rather like this portrait of Maya that I literally shot from the hip. These days it takes a certain amount of creativity to obtain her photo. She has settled back into school nicely and we are thrilled to see that her commitment to school and her homework remains as strong as ever. Her ankle is still tender from the injury she sustained yesterday but it is clear that it is minor and she will not be sidelined for too long.
After having last weekend off I returned to the pitch for my team’s second match of the season. We faced Acton-Boxborough in a hard fought 0-0 tie, our second of the season. On the bright side we remain undefeated 🙂 Looking at it another way we have yet to win a game. Before leaving the house I did not bother to check my e-mail because the weather had cleared up and it was evident our game would not be cancelled. Had I done so, I would have learned that there had been a last minute field change. I wanted a really good warmup so I left early and was first to the field. With 30 minutes till kickoff I was the only one there which was not a good sign. As I was set to leave, a member of the opposing team arrived so I returned to stretching. As the minutes ticked away, I asked repeatedly if he was sure that we had the right field. He insisted we did. When we were down to 15 minutes, I told him I was leaving and called Kyle from a nearby Dunkin Donuts. Kyle checked my e-mail and gave me the new field address. I arrived ten minutes after kick-off and went straight into the game on the very next substitution. Despite having zero touches on the ball before starting, I played very well. I didn’t have any shots on net but did a good job of pressuring the defense, winning balls in the air and passing smartly.
Maya started her fall soccer season this morning in fine form. Although she left the game with a turned ankle she played very well to that point assisting her team as they won 2-0. Although I had to carry her from the field to the car, a bit of ice and rest had her up and about by the end of the day. During the afternoon I went on a 3.5 mile hike with Kyle in the Wright Woods. We climbed up the Devil’s Staircase for a nice view of the surrounding area and then down to Fairhaven Bay before making a somewhat circuitous return to our car.
As parents, there are few activities we enjoy more than when our kids choose to make music. This evening Nicolai invited Jeremy and Raz over for a jam session. I recorded over an hourof their music from which I extracted a 60 second sound bite which you can access by clicking on the JamSession link below which downloads the file. I am still trying to figure out how to embed an audio clip directly into the blog.
This mobile chicken farm is a recent addition to the neighborhood. Less than a mile from our home, these chickens are slowly moved across a field, fertilizing as they go. Their eggs are harvested daily and sold at the Verrill Farm stand. We are increasingly eating food that is grown locally, and it is fun to see the “factories” from which it comes.
Jeanine seems to think these are grapes, I haven’t a clue. Grapes come in bunches that are all the same color, right? I came across these in the Alley Pond Park while in NYC last weekend while walking their with Maya and Kyle.
Today was a long day at work. I attended a 12-hour offsite meeting, the first of a two-day strategy planning session being held by the new General Manager of our Defense and Security business unit. Despite the long hours I enjoyed the meeting and thought we did some really good work (not always the case for these types of meetings).
It has been a memorable summer for the kids but all great things must come to an end. Today is the first day back to school for Maya (entering 8th grade) and Nicolai (now a high school senior). Meanwhile,Kyle has another two weeks or so before he returns to Santa Clara which starts much later than most other colleges. It has been a great summer for me as well but I always look forward to the fall, my favorite season, which I can now feel in the air.
After a wonderful sourdough French toast breakfast prepared by Maya we returned to Concord. These portraits, taken yesterday, include my mother, the 2-year-old daughter of Edward’s girlfriend, and my Uncle Bob.
City Island, made famous by the movie of the same name, is approximately 1.5 mi long by a half mile wide and has a population of 4,400. Vinny took Jeanine, Kyle, Bob and I on a tour of the island after we made the transit across Long Island Sound in his motor boat. Jeanine, not a fan of adrenaline producing activities, will long remember the ride. Pictured above is the Harlem Yacht Club one of the oldest in the United States, relocated here from Harlem in 1899.
During the afternoon I took the kids on a little outing. We hiked the nature trails of the Alley Pond Park encountering a Great Egret and a massive windmill relocated here from Douglaston under the supervision of my uncle. We then stopped at the historic Saddle Rock Grist Mill which was in continuous operation from 1700 until 1940 producing flour made from corn. Our final destination was the United States Merchant Marine Academy (also know as King’s Point) where Kyle and I toured the grounds while Maya decided to sleep in the car.
During the evening we were joined by my cousins Anita, Jackie and Edward and their spouses/significant others for a family reunion. Bob cooked salmon steaks on the grill. Yummy!
The 9/11 Memorial at ground zero was opened to the public a year ago and we were privileged to be given a tour of the beautiful pools and park by a close friend of the family, Vinny, a former firefighter who escaped with his life on that fateful day some eleven years ago. It was a very moving experience, greatly amplified by the perspective of someone who grew up with and worked alongside many of the victims, who witnessed people jumping to their deaths to escape the inferno, who narrowly escaped the collapsing towers himself, who toiled through unimaginable conditions to search for survivors in the days that followed and who played Taps on the bugle at many of the funerals of his fallen brothers. This is a day I will not soon forget and am so thankful to Vinny for sharing his story with us. His account of the day and details of the tragedy are now burned into my consciousness as vividly as the images I witnessed on the day of the attack.
Our group which included my mother, Maruja, Bob, Kyle, Maya, Jenaine, Vinny and I next toured the Trinity Church and Churchyard, located at Wall Street and Broadway where Elizabeth Coddington, a relative of Bob’s is entombed. She shares her resting place with many historical figures including Alexander Hamilton (a founding father), William Bradford (Plymouth governor), Franklin Wharton (third Commandant of the United States Marine Corps), Robert Fulton (inventor of the steamboat), Captain James Lawrence (commander of the USS Chesapeake during the War of 1812) and Albert Gallatin (the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury).
After enjoying lunch at a phenomenal Indian restaurant (thanks to Jeanine’s keen sense for good food) our family hopped the subway for Times Square while the older folks returned to Douglaston. It was the first time visiting for Kyle and we all enjoyed taking in the chaos at the heart of NYC.
Bob treated us to dinner at the historic Douglaston Club of which he is a member and former Commodore of the Douglaston Yacht Squadron which is headquartered there. The meal was outstanding and capped a day steeped in history and fine dining.
I worked for a half day today before Jeanine, Kyle, Maya, and I departed for NYC to visit my mother who is living with her sister and brother-in-law in Douglaston. Nicolai has a soccer match tomorrow and is not able to join us. We made the journey in less than four hours encountering very little traffic considering the holiday weekend. My aunt and uncle have a magnificent home which overlooks Little Neck Bay and is just steps away from the dock from which we are shuttled to their sailboat. Not long after arriving my Uncle Bob had us on the water with Kyle at the helm and Maya helping with the jib lines. A constant strong breeze, ideal temperatures, and a full moon provided the perfect ingredients for an evening sail. Pictured below is the Throgs Neck Bridge with the Whitestone Bridge in the background. When we returned, my mother and her sister, Maruja, had prepared a lovely dinner over which we had an opportunity to catch up on family news.
On my commute to work this morning I paused for a few photos of a field full of sunflowers about a half mile from our house. I believe these are being grown by Verrill Farm, our local source of fresh vegetables. I need to return with a tall ladder to get the shot I would like to have of this field. I will need to do so before the crop is harvested. I remember last year having a similar idea only to find the entire crop gone in one day.
When I first arrived at iRobot my team was primarily involved with robots used for floor care (fantastic products, but not really all that glamorous). Pictured here, charging her batteries, is a new iRobot product for the tele-medicine market developed in partnership with InTouch Health. This autonomous robot can navigate its way, unassisted, around a hospital, allowing a distant medical specialist to make rounds, meet with, and examine patients from a remote location. It is one of the first products developed entirely on my watch and I am very proud of the team who worked tirelessly to complete this incredibly sophisticated design on an insanely short schedule. Code named Ava, she is certainly one sexy android.
Ava is pictured in front of our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) wall of fame. Employees who support STEM initiatives in the community earn a “gear” with their name on it to celebrate their contribution to building awareness and interest in STEM education among young people. I earned a gear for my work with CCHS but it is outside of the frame.
Nicolai and Sarah Welch have been dating for the last month or so. She joined the family for dinner the night before last and I deemed that enough time had passed to require an official portrait of the two together. The pair were a breeze to pose and I only needed a few attempts to settle on this keeper.
Richard White loved to experience wild and beautiful places. At age 49, he had recently left Ferring Pharmaceuticals after a 12 year career with them, most recently as the Director of Exploratory Pharmacology, and was looking for a new job where he could pursue drug discovery and medical innovation for rare and neglected diseases. White earned his PhD in Zoology/Endocrinology from the University of Texas at Austin and went on to post doctoral research positions at the University of Manchester in London and Stanford University (my alma matter). He was married to German born Silke White, owner of Silke Smiles, a dental arts and technology boutique and was father to 21-month old Mona.
Last week White was making a repeat visit to Denali National Park for a planned 5-day solo back country trek. He enjoyed photography and spent the last 8 minutes of his life capturing 26 images of a 600 pound male grizzly bear on a gravel bar of the Toklat River some three miles south of the rest stop (pictured above) used by park buses to transport visitors into the park’s interior. The first photo was taken from a distance of 75 yards and the last from a distance of 60 yards as White approached the bear. In the last five frames, taken over 13 seconds, the bear stops foraging on berries, takes notice of White, and begins to approach him in what has been described as a non aggressive manner. What happened next has yet to be determined exactly. What is known is that Dr. White was mauled to death by the bear which was killed the next day by a state trouper after confirming its identity from the photos and having discovered it still guarding and feeding on the body. News of this gruesome event certainly caught my attention having stood on the banks of the same river with Jeanine exactly three weeks prior to the incident. Park biologists report that 12 grizzly bears have been living near this section of the Toklat this summer putting the odds at 1 in 12 that the bear pictured below was the killer. I took this photo from a park bus through an open window in the immediate vicinity of the attack.
Did Mr. White run from the bear as it began to approach triggering its chase-prey response? Did the bear feel that it’s feeding area was being encroached upon? Were there other grizzlies in the immediate vicinity heightening the bear’s sense of territoriality? These questions may never be answered. What is clear is that Richard White made a series of decisions that contributed to his death. He entered known grizzly habitat alone and without bear spray. He elected to take photographs for several minutes rather than retreating from the feeding bear as his mandatory back country safety briefing advised. He has become the first bear fatality in the entire recorded history of the Denali National Park and his story will no doubt strike fear in the hearts of millions rather than building respect for one of nature’s magnificent creatures.
My heart aches for his wife and daughter and I find myself deeply saddened by the death of a man I did not know, perhaps because we are of a similar age and shared many interests. While his death was untimely and tragic, I believe he departed this world doing what he loved in a place he loved. When my time comes, I hope the same can be said of me. I would rather die in mortal combat with a bear than in a traffic accident with a drunk driver or in a hospital bed in a state of decrepitude.
For the record, I carry bear spray in a chest harness (aiding rapid deployment) whenever in bear country. Had I been in Richard White’s shoes I would have likely remained to take photos and moved closer as well. Had the bear noticed and begun approaching me, I would have backed away slowly, calmly talking to the bear (“Hey bear, hey bear”) while releasing the safety on my pepper spray and making ready to fire it if required. While I do take some chances in my desire for adventure and compelling photographs, I try to balance this risk with precautionary measures and knowledge of what I am doing.
Pictured below is my closest encounter with a grizzly while in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. I would estimate the distance to be about 10 feet, fifteen times closer than White was. The difference is that I was part of a large group (there is no record ever of a grizzly attack on a group of three or more people) led by an experienced guide and the bear was part of a large community of well nourished bears which has been habituated to close human presence over many years, viewing us as neither a threat nor food source.
Nothing tastes better than food you have grown, eaten on the day it was harvested. Jeanine spent several hours tending to her gardens this morning. In addition to removing a mountain of weeds she gathered a bowl full of delicious raspberries, several of which now happily reside in my belly.
I spent the morning on the soccer pitch in the first game of the fall season. Having gained promotion last spring, this was our first match in Division 1 and as luck would have it we faced the first place finishing team from last season. To make matters worse we were missing four of our starting players, two to injuries and two to business travel.With the odds stacked against us the squad was very pleased to produce a 1-1 tie. Despite this positive result, I was very unhappy with my game. I simply felt tired the entire time I was on the field. Fortunately I did not sustain any injuries nor make any mistakes of consequence. With two weeks until our next match I need to up my cardio and drop a few pounds.
Nicolai learned today that he has been selected as a member of the Concord Carlisle Men’s Varsity Soccer Team. It would be fair to say that he has worked toward this goal since he started playing soccer at age five. Under the leadership of Head Coach Ray Pavlik, the team has a record of 148-43-22, winning 4 DCL championships, 5 MIAA Division 2 North Championships, and 3 MIAA Division 2 State Championships (including 2 in the last 3 years). If the coach did not believe that Nico would be competitive with the best players in the state he would not have been invited to join the squad. Due to the significant time commitment, Nicolai tendered his two week notice at Verrill Farm where he has enjoyed working for the summer and has developed great customer interaction skills.
I spent the morning with Kyle as he received a therapeutic sports massage from a guy who has helped me in the past. It has been almost two years since he sustained a severe groin muscle injury while snowboarding and he still has not recovered sufficiently to return to sports. For someone as athletic as Kyle this has been a terrible price to pay and we are exploring new doctors and approaches to treat his injury. During the afternoon Jeanine and I went for a nice 2.5-mile walk, starting from downtown Concord and out to the Old North Bridge. On our return, she showed me a shortcut through a tiny sliver of a park (pictured) that I did not even know existed before. We dined at the Main Street Cafe to conclude our date.
Jeanine purchased a new pair of point shoes for Maya to replace the set she has outgrown/worn out. Maya will enter the fall season studying dance four times a week in addition to playing soccer three times a week.
She was happy to give her new shoes a test drive on the kitchen floor and the family was happy to watch her.
Nicolai feared that he had lost all his photographs from his recent visit to Nicaragua while transferring files to an external hard disk drive. I was able to recover all the photos from his original media card and had a chance to experience his adventure virtually. Many of his shots were of the typical travel variety. He also took a great number of portraits of his friends, many of which were excellent. Today’s journal entry features three of Nicolai’s photos which fall into the artistic category. I am constantly amazed by his innate sense of composition, color, and balance. Click on each image for a higher-resolution version.
Before my return flight to Boston I had an opportunity to take another long walk (4 miles) with a colleague who had a particularly good eye for spotting tiny creatures.
Easily the most exciting insect pictures I have ever taken are of this epic battle between a Praying (Preying would be more appropriate) Mantis and a Yellow-jacket. The mantis appears to attract the bee by presenting its wings in a flower like configuration. As soon as the bee approaches the mantis snatches it with its barbed forearms and begins eating its head. The Yellow-jacket fights back and eventually frees itself. It is hard to tell from the angle of the photo but it appears to me that a portion of the mantis head is missing (click on the third photo and then click again). I am wondering if he is a survivor of a mating encounter in which his mate started to eat him. In laboratory settings, females routinely start eating their delirious partner’s head, presumably to ensure that the sex act is completed and to gain nourishment. Some scientists believe this behavior only occurs when the female is stressed and is not seen in the wild. Either way, I plan to suppress any romantic notions I may have when I reunite with Jeanine later this evening.
After concluding a day full of business meetings I found time for a six mile walk through Pasadena before dinner. It was very hot and I returned to my hotel dripping wet. I visited the Pasadena Memorial Park, City Hall for a second time, the Gamble House, the Rose Bowl Stadium, and Brookside Park. Many of the homes along Rosemont Avenue were spectacular, in distinct contrast to the homeless encampments just minutes away underneath the labyrinth of freeway overpasses.
The Gamble House is an outstanding example of American Arts and Crafts style architecture. The house and furnishings were designed by Charles and Henry Greene in 1908 for David and Mary Gamble of the Procter & Gamble Company. The house, a National Historic Landmark, is owned by the city. Regrettably, a dinner engagement did not leave me enough time to tour the home.
Brad Whitford, the actor who played the character of Josh Lyman in the West Wing, and his wife were on the same flight with me to Burbank, California today. Although we were seated near each other and stood side by side while waiting for our baggage, I decided not to invade his privacy by taking a photo or starting a conversation even though I really admire his work.
I will be spending the bulk of the week in Pasadena on iRobot business and took an opportunity as the sun was setting to photograph the Pasadena City Hall. This location is popular with wedding photographers and I encountered no less than four couples posing. I was careful not to interfere with their shots as I photographed the inner courtyard. I wish I could say the same for the “professional” photographers who had no hesitation moving into my sight lines.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
