Members of my team recently completed installation of a Form Cell. It is an array of eight Form 2 printers and a robotic automation system that handles the movement of build platforms from input tray, to printer, to wash station, and finally to an output collection area. The Form Cell reduces manual labor, speeds production, and reduces the cost per printed part. It is only offered to select strategic partners and is not available for general sale.
Jeanine took Nico on a shopping spree yesterday to celebrate his new job. This evening she tailored all the pants they purchased and I asked her to save the off-cut legs for this photograph. Nico already has a quilt made exclusively of such material. Earlier in the day I made a run to REI to stock up on dehydrated food and trail snacks for an upcoming trip to Brazil and Argentina with Nico.
Recent heavy snow and rain have left our Iocal rivers quite high. I decided to pay a visit to the Old North Bridge while running errands this morning to investigate. I find the scene far more inspiring with water levels this high as opposed to the view when we are experiencing drought.
This evening, Jeanine and I joined Maya and cousin Rachel for dinner at The Local in Wellesley. Although they attend different colleges, Maya is at Olin and Rachel is at Babson, their dorm rooms are only a couple of hundred yards apart. It was nice catching up with Rachel, now a senior, whom we have not seen recently, and also learning about Maya’s schedule for this term (overbooked as usual).
Since returning from Colorado for the holidays, Nicolai has been working part time as the Assistant Wrestling Coach at Concord Academy. Last week he was offered and accepted a full-time entry-level teaching position at Concord Carlisle High School. He is pictured here departing for his first day on the job this morning. He has also been offered the position of Head Coach of the Men’s Junior Varsity Soccer Team beginning in the fall. As it stands today, he is planning to permanently relocate to the Boston area and do his Master’s Degree locally rather than at Colorado College where he has been accepted into their program. We are thrilled to have all three kids within a stone’s throw.
I rarely use my iPhone as a camera but have been doing so increasingly with the Xs model I recently purchased. Today I experimented with the portrait mode while waiting with colleagues for our monthly town hall meeting to start. One day phones will replace cameras entirely but not yet.
The combination of wind, ice, and fluffy snow made for some interesting patterns on the field and utility lines behind our house. Temps yesterday were in the single digits. Two days from now they are forecasted to be in the high 50s. Is anyone still doubting that global climate change is real?
For the second time in as many weeks, I arrived home with 1 mile of range left on my BMW i3. The last time it was anticipated because I did some additional driving beyond my normal roundtrip to Somerville. Today it was a function of the brutally cold temperatures that affected my normal commute. My round trip distance is 38 miles which meant that my range today was 39 miles. The car is rated for a range of 81 miles. When I left this morning at 6:20AM the temperature was 1 degree F and when I returned at 8PM it was 3 degrees F. I am not at all pleased with this situation and have contacted BMW and will be insisting they replace the battery. Loss of capacity over time is to be expected. Reduced capacity at low temperatures is to be expected. But getting less than half the advertised range in any scenario is simply not acceptable.
We received our first snowfall of the season today. The base was light and fluffy with an icy top coat. I opted to wait for the lowest winds of the afternoon to start clearing the drive. Blowing fluffy snow in high winds is generally an exercise in futility. The denser top layer required me to advance rather slowly which stretched the job to nearly two hours. Later I put the drone up for an aerial view of my handy work.
With a major storm set to hit later this evening, I spent several hours doing maintenance on our snowblower. Always best to have it ready to start on the first pull. The afternoon was devoted to building a platform for our newly resized queen bed. The box springs I adapted last week were a placeholder. The new platform will allow for better air circulation and a firmer base. Hopefully, it will also be less “squeaky” when placed into harmonic motion.
As I approached a flock of birds feeding on the grounds of Paul Revere Park, they all took off at the same time making for an interesting foreground to the Zakim Bridge.
An all-day offsite meeting of the Formlabs leadership team concluded with dinner at the home of our CEO and co-founder. Significant others were also included and it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Within the last 3 months, the company has added a new Head of Engineering, CFO, Managing Director/GM of EMEA, and a GM of a soon-to-be-announced business unit. A fantastic time was had by all and it was really nice getting to know all the new members of the team.
Today I introduced a new approach to Performance and Compensation Management to the Engineering organization at Formlabs. I did so in a series of four one-hour meetings with groups of approximately 30. I am most comfortable addressing audiences of this size and they are also more comfortable asking questions. By the end of the sessions, I was seriously exhausted and was beginning to lose my voice. Afterward, I received a good bit of positive feedback which made the effort completely worthwhile.
Maya is headed to Boca Raton to join several friends from Olin College for a week of fun in the sun. I dropped her off at about 6:30 am before heading into the office. I have encouraged her to make a return visit to the Kennedy Space Center. It has been 14 years since we took the family there after visiting Disney World.
