Mark, my younger brother, has defied death for the second time in as many years. Yesterday his heart went into ventricular tachycardia (beating at a rate of over 300 times per minute) while he was alone at home watching TV. Within seconds he became unconscious and would have died minutes later. Fortunately, the internal defibrillator that he had implanted after his last episode shocked his heart back into a normal rhythm. He survived with no ill effects. According to the doctors, he has an extremely healthy heart (zero plaque) but the electrical system that regulates his heartbeat is subject to the occasional death-inducing hiccup. Until now he has held on to the hope that he might return to his career as a commercial airline pilot. Now it is clear that will never happen and as if to add insult to injury he will not be able to legally drive a car again for 6 months. Our family is extremely thankful that he survived once again and we are reminded to live each day to its fullest.

Memorial Hall commemorates Harvard classmates who fought on behalf of the United States Army and Navy in the American Civil War.

It houses Sanders Theatre, Annenberg Hall, the Memorial Transept and Loker Commons, home of the Cambridge Queen’s Head pub.

Because of construction at Union Square I now take a detour which takes me past the hall everyday.

Yesterday’s snow storm made for some lovely snowscapes.  Pictured above is one framing the partially frozen Concord River. 

Rest in peace sweet Nala.

This afternoon Jeanine and I attended an operatic recital given by soprano Julia Massicotte at the New England Conservatory of Music.  Julia is the youngest of three daughters of dear friends from our days in Indianapolis. We attended church with the Massicotte’s as well as Bayside summer family camp. We joined members of their extended family for brunch ahead of the concert and Kyle for a robotically prepared dinner at Spyce afterward. Although I am no particular fan of opera, Julia’s performance was magnificent and I have little doubt she will evolve into a future diva. I captured the range of emotions she expressed while singing in an album that can be found here.

Sadly, Nala is nearing her final days. Perhaps the dumbest dog I have ever know, she has been a beloved member of our pack since we moved to Boston. By dumbest, I mean lacking in most attributes normally associated with canines. She would make for a perfectly fine cat; aloof, unmotivated by food, indifferent to affection, can’t be bothered to come when called. Still we love her. For some time now she has had difficulty breathing and there is little doubt that we will have to intervene soon to ease her suffering. Today she spent two hours outside, barking her head off at invisible would be intruders upon her domain. She has taken to laying down in the snow, probably to make breathing easier and to long naps during the day.

This photo of Jeanine was taken by her sister while the two were on vacation together in New Mexico last month. She texted it to me while I was in Argentina with Nico and I made a mental note that I would like to post it when I returned. While we were navigating from natural wonder to natural wonder, Jeanine and Susan seemed to be following a path from restaurant to restaurant and museum to museum.

Ever since I made the wholesale switch from Canon to Sony a couple of years ago, I have not purchased a new camera lens. The one lens I have missed from my Canon collection was a 135mm prime, one of my favorite lenses of all time. After being rumored for almost a year, a Sony version was finally announced and went on sale at 10 am this morning. If not for meetings at work, I would have put my order in immediately but had to settle for getting in the queue by noon.  Sigma has offered a compatible version of this lens for some time but it is something of a monster and quite heavy.  While on the topic of camera equipment, an odd thing happened the other day.  Jeanine asked if I would be interested in photographing an important event for her.  I said yes.  She then suggested that Nico be a second shooter.  When I told her I no longer had a second camera body to loan him she was outraged and told me I should buy another.  I thought it important to document this conversation for future reference.

Ohio is home to a company that was recently acquired by Formlabs and where I spent the day learning more about the operations here. My experience at Truevision, a small mid-west-based company that was acquired by a fast-growing high-tech company on the West Coast, was very helpful in understanding the post-acquisition dynamics present here. As is often the case in such scenarios, there is a sense of isolation and diminution of mission. I was able to suggest a number of ideas to improve the situation and gathered important feedback to take back to Boston. I also had a chance to get elbows deep in the processing work done here. I took many photos but given the proprietary nature of the work done here, I will only post this one of the entrance to our clean room.

Evidence of soccer fouls often takes the form of bruises.  The one pictured above is the result of being grabbed from behind by one of the Argentinian defenders.  It did not hurt when I got it and it does not hurt now but it has been interesting to watch it as it changes shape and color.

During my recent trip to Argentina, I had the distinction of being the oldest man on our team (60 years old). It was a little daunting to face opposing players who in some cases were 20 years my junior. Today, I received photos taken by one of our fans which included a nice sequence in which I dispossessed one of my opponents of the ball. Not a terribly glamorous play, but one which represents the kind of small contributions I make to my squad and an unflattering reminder that I need to drop 20 pounds before the start of the spring soccer season.

While at Laguna Torres last week, I was able to get quite close to this ?falcon? for a nice photograph. The Katabatic winds were gusting and he was happier on the ground than in the air. While I was stalking him, our hiking partner, Ray, was stalking me. Having both photos tells the whole story.

I was delighted to receive this photo today from our fellow Patagonia hiker, Ray Himenez. We exchanged pictures from our respective cameras and I think he may well be the better photographer. The introvert in me enjoys solo trekking and communing with nature by myself. I must admit, that I had an even better time sharing this climbing adventure with Nico and Ray. None of us were big talkers and we could go for hours without saying anything. Once we got to camp, however,  it was nice to have the conversation and companionship.

Jeanine was invited to speak to the Concord Rotary Club this evening. She choose to speak about “What it means to be open,” in the context of Open Table. I was not there to hear her but happy to receive this picture of her while speaking. One of the things I admire most about Jeanine is her ability to speak from the heart and connect with her audience. She has a gift for relating to people in a very deep way through her stories.