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.

For me, a tent represents an escape from my daily routine, an opportunity to enjoy nature, and something I look forward to very much.  I am wondering how my perspective would change if it represented my permanent home in an urban setting?  A stark reminder of my good fortune.

Several weeks ago I listed our custom-made king-size bed on Craig’s List as we continue to prepare to move into a smaller home. As I thought more about it, I decided that it made more sense to simply downsize the bed. In total, I spent about 6 hours on the project and am pleased with the outcome. I was even able to salvage the box springs. Pictured here are the after and before.

No picture today.  Instead the text of an interview with Jeanine published by the Concord Journal.

As the federal government shutdown continues, local food pantries have stepped in to help furloughed employees make ends meet.

Open Table, a nonprofit organization that offers community dinners in Concord and Maynard and food pantry services in Maynard, has been preparing for an increase in families seeking support, according to Executive Director Jeanine Calabria.

Calabria said she had started to see an increase in families attending the organization’s community dinners at their Jan. 3 dinner at First Parish Church in Concord.

“We did have a couple families in anticipation of (missed federal paychecks) come Thursday night,” Calabria said. “And they let us know that there are more families planning to come.”

Calabria said before the shutdown, the nonprofit had prepared for a decrease in attendance due to a newly defined service area. While community dinners are still open to all, pantry services were reduced to 23 municipalities surrounding Maynard and Concord.

“Initially we were expecting 20 percent fewer customers, but now we haven’t seen that,” Calabria said.

During the shutdown, roughly 800,000 federal employees nationwide have either been sent home or made to work without pay.

Calabria said that Open Table expects demand for its services to increase after the first missed paycheck, Jan. 10.

“We’ve actually reached out to Hanscom and have been working with people there to get the word out and let employees there know that our services are available,” Calabria said, referencing Hanscom Field, one of the larger federal employers in the region.

With funding for most military personnel secured through 2019, Calabria said the anticipated increase in attendees was from civilian employees of Hanscom Field and their families.

In addition to their dinners and food pantry services, Calabria said that Open Table would be holding a special pantry service for federal employees on Jan. 19, should the shutdown still be ongoing at that time.

“We want everyone who needs us to know we’re available,” Calabria said.

 

“A wise man named Confucius Berg once said. A team that eats Chinese food together, builds a better 3D printer together.”  So started the e-mail reminding members of one of our product teams of their annual team Chinatown dinner.  The food and ambiance were both wonderful. I had to leave at the two-hour mark just as our CEO and his wife arrived and the real party seemed to be getting started.  The drive home proved to be an exercise in careful battery management.  The cold temperature and extra trip into Chinatown left me with only one mile of range when I finally pulled into our drive.  I was tempted to take a lap around the neighborhood to discover what happens when the range reaches zero but thought this unwise given how cold it was.

Pictured is one of three boats which caught on fire late Tuesday night.  The other two sank.  My morning walk took me to the Charlestown Marina where I paused to capture the scene.  Fortunately, there are no reports of injury.  Property loss is reported to be $1,000,000.