In celebration of the end of the spring rowing season, Maya’s club team hosted a family regatta at the CRI boat house. Friends and family were invited to ride on the launches to observe racing from just feet away. Even more fun, was a chance to take our own stab at rowing on the Charles. The “barge” seats 16 rowers and 8 coaches, 3 abreast. It is the classroom for novice rowers and we were put through a lesson with our daughters as instructors. I picked it up pretty quickly but came to realize just how difficult it is to remain perfectly synchronized with others in the boat. A lot of trash talk was exchanged between our barge and the second one until our lesson culminated with a race that left them less talkative.

Let me explain how is is possible to start the day contemplating a trip to Iceland and end it with the purchase of a bicycle.

I would like to take a quick photo excursion before I start my new job. Iceland is on my bucket list and early June offers good weather and relatively few tourists. Waterfalls there are abundant and beautiful but most good photographic angles require that you setup in the water. Thus began my search for a pair of hip waders. I started in Concord with our local fly fishing outfitter. They had chest waders but they were overkill for my needs. They sent me to the Natick Outdoor Store which had waders but only a left boot in my size (don’t ask). Next, I was directed to Dick’s Sporting Goods which had both rubber and PVC waders in my size. After trying them on, I decided there was no way I was going to trudge into the wilderness with these things on. Perhaps REI, which was just around the block, would have something more minimalist. They did not. They did, however, have bicycles; plenty of them with many on sale. Even so, I could not find a hybrid in my size that was not painted like a Hells Angels motorcycle. Now smitten with the notion of a new bike, I headed over to Wheelworks in Belmont where I found what I was looking for. Why then does today’s post not feature a picture of said bicycle. Because I encountered something even more interesting when I returned home. This hummingbird must have collided with a window because I found him resting on our deck this evening. I find birds much easier to photograph when they are semiconscious and not flying, so I took advantage of the opportunity. Fortunately, the little fellow regained composure a few minutes after I got the shot and flew away.

My plan for a six-month sabbatical between jobs did not even survive the first month.  A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a recruiter who shared an opportunity that was so compelling that I had to put my other options on hold. Today I accepted an offer from MarkForged, to head their engineering team and will start on June 15th. The tiny startup has developed a very exciting product with the potential to dramatically change the way mechanical components are prototyped and manufactured in low volumes.  The company reminds me of Truevision, the company I co-founded in my twenties and where I enjoyed the most enjoyable years of my professional career.  Present is the same level of energy and enthusiasm for a product with the potential to change an industry.

Jeanine was the keynote speaker at the Concord Carlisle Class Act Awards Ceremony this evening for an audience of three or four hundred students and parents. The awards recognize community service and the spirit of volunteerism. The high school senior class in aggregate has donated more than 34,000 hours of service to the community. She spoke at length about her grandfather’s service (he is pictured on the left) and also surprised me with a short story about my own community service as a young man (I was a “hugger” for the Special Olympics; my job was to hug athletes as they crossed the finish line). She used the story to make a point about how we receive more than we give when we volunteer.

I spent a good deal of time today doing spring cleaning. I decided to attack the stacks of paper which include my earliest engineering work, scanning them to my computer for preservation and more efficient storage. Pictured here is my very first design as an engineer at Bell Laboratories completed some 30+ years ago. I drew this electrical schematic by hand on graph paper (in those days engineer’s did not have their own computers). Looking back on it now I am inclined to admire it more as a piece of artwork than a breakthrough in videographics.

Several years ago I purchased a used camera stand (a device for positioning a camera at any height or angle relative to a subject) for my photo studio on Craig’s List. I got a phenomenal deal because no normal person would buy such a large and heavy stand for use in a home. I had to shorten it by several feet so it would fit in my 8ft tall basement. It has always been something of a pain to use because it is just too large for my setting. Today, I replaced the aging casters with new ones that include a pedal lock. That allowed me to remove 10 pounds of locking mechanisms. I shortened the lateral arm by more than a foot which dropped another ten pounds and allows me to navigate much more freely. Finally, I removed a 20 pound ballast weight that is no longer necessary due to the shifted center of gravity. The stand is now perfectly sized for my use and glides effortlessly on its new wheels. Pictured here are a subset of the parts I removed during surgery.

After their harrowing qualification yesterday, Maya and her CRI crew placed first in the Eights final today. At her request, I took an overhead shot of her boat from a bridge that spans the race course. As is customary, her team celebrated their victory by tossing her into the river. A small price to pay for the gold medal she returned with. My sister took the photo of me below. Tell me if you think I enjoy watching Maya race.

Earlier in the day I travelled to Medfield with my soccer team. I elected to give my injured hamstring a week off in the hopes it will be fully recovered for next week’s match. We pulled out a 3-2 win which advanced us into first place over Belmont who we face next week.

Jeanine and I joined my sister, Alissa, and her family to witness the graduation of her son and my nephew, John William, from Babson College. John has been a frequent and most welcome visitor in our home over the last four years and we hope his sister, Rachel, will follow suit when she begins her freshman year at Babson in the fall. At 52 my sister is still quite a saucy number and we were thrilled to join her and husband John for the momentous occasion.

Later in the day we travelled to Lowell to watch Maya compete in a rowing regatta. She coxed an eight in her first qualifier. With twenty yards to go and a commanding lead, her number one seat “caught a crab” bringing the boat to a complete stop. Recovering the oar from under the boat and resetting the crew took almost 30 seconds. So great was their lead that they still managed to place first by the narrowest of margins.

When Maya leaves for college, Jeanine and I have decided we will be downsizing into a more cozy abode. Even though that day is more than two years away we are going to need all of that time to divest of the things we have accumulated over a lifetime. Last week I sold 4 of our 6 bicycles. This week I am focused on old electronics, including my father’s turntable and my first video waveform monitor. Both technologies have been rendered irrelevant by advances in technology. Was there really a time when we listened to music by dragging a tiny needle through an undulating vinyl groove amplifying tiny up-down-left-right vibrations into sound?

The flowers given to Jeanine on Mother’s Day by the boys are now in full bloom. I spotted this one with a lilted pedal opening a window into the interior.  I elected to do a mirror image split in post-processing and to force the background to black.  Normally, I only edit for color correction and cropping but this image really lent itself to the approach and I like the results.

It has been 10 years since I started this daily photo blog and I was moved to celebrate the milestone with an anniversary cheesecake (which I plan to eat on behalf of the blog). According to my statistics page, this is my 5,836th post which works out to an average of 1.6 posts per day (in the early years, each photo was considered a post). Trying to keep the photos and writing interesting has been a great challenge, second only to the grind of producing a post every single day for a decade. I am motivated by my loyal followers which include immediate and extended family, friends, colleagues and the occasional wayward stranger. I have received many thoughtful words of encouragement and appreciation which sustain me on those days when I have little to say or show. Earlier this month I received an e-mail from a former colleague and friend. He wrote:

When it is hard to write or work has taken all the daylight, it is comments and feedback such as this which keeps me going. What started as a simple exercise to improve my photography has turned into a cherished family history and photo archive. To my loyal followers, spelling and grammar checkers, wildlife species identifiers, fact checkers, mystery decoders, angry family members demanding embarrassing photos be removed, trusted business advisors, parenting consultants, and all others who routinely visit this site, please know how much I appreciate your visits.

I had occasion to be in Cambridge this afternoon where the conference room in which I was meeting offered a commanding view of Boston and the Charles River. If you wanted a closer view of the Charles, you need only step outside where kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards are available for rent. It is nice living so close to the city but until construction on Route 2 is completed the traffic delays remain irritating.

Although she has appeared on this blog many times, I would like to pay a special tribute to my mother today. While I cherish the gifts I have that can be traced to my father, I have no doubt that it is my mother I have to thank for those traits that have most contributed to my success in life. My mind for engineering, physical dexterity, head for business, eye for beauty, capacity for work, and desire to forever improve, all come straight from my mother. All mothers give life to their offspring. Mine gave me a bounty of gifts for which I am eternally grateful. From the toddler above to the octogenarian below she is a rare beauty and wonderful mother.  I am looking forward to her visit next weekend.

The boys earned big points with their mother today by sending her flowers. Let’s just say that prior years have not been quite up to par. Not to be outdone, Maya prepared a strawberry-spinach salad with homemade dressing to accompany the omelets prepared by her father for a midday brunch. Scheduled to race twice today, Maya’s team elected to pull her quad from competition when the day’s schedule made it apparent that the rowers would not be able to survive back-to-back heats of quads and eights. She was disappointed but concurred with the decision to maximize her chances of winning the eights. My early morning soccer match ended with a 4-1 win, a nice change from the ties we had earned over the last two outings. I did not play in the second half after a slight tweak to my left hamstring but feel I should be back on the pitch fairly soon since I stopped before any real damage was done.