Sometimes we make really cool stuff at work. This is a retired early prototype for an important part of our printer. It was dubbed the “flux capacitor” by an employee who saw parallels to the fictitious technology which enabled time travel in the movie “Back to the Future.”
As I left for work this morning, I noticed a very unusual ice formation hanging from the standing seam metal roof on Maya’s tiny house. The ice actually curls back towards the siding as it hangs from the roof. I wish I had more time to take a more interesting photo.
I requested that Jeanine photograph me in my hazmat gear as I prepared to investigate the asbestos tiles that cover our basement floor. Our new house was built in 1952 when asbestos was a commonly used component of such tiles and the mastics used to secure them. As long as the tiles remain intact they pose no risk. Removing them, however, must be done very carefully. As a teenager, while working on my parent’s house, I removed asbestos pipe insulation with no protective equipment and probably inhaled 1000 times more than I will when it comes time to remove the tiles. Given my prior exposure, I am taking extreme precautions to limit any further damage to my lungs.
In a rather anticlimactic fashion, we closed on the sale of our home today. Having granted power of attorney to our real estate lawyer there was nothing in particular for us to do but wait. Technically speaking, we are now without a home since the closing on our new house has yet to happen even though we have been granted occupancy.
Spreading our move out over the last two weeks allowed us to tackle the project in manageable size chunks and to complete it as a DIY project for a total cost of $100. After hours on the phone with no less than four Comcast customer support representatives last night, I was able to suspend internet/TV service at our old address and establish service at our new one. With both heat and internet operational, we are living large. On my final visit to our now-empty house, I took a few photos as a future reminder of our time there. My shop never looked cleaner or bigger and I can’t wait to start building out my new one.
Earlier this week we made an important speed breakthrough at Digital Alloys. Today we added size to the mix. We are now in a position to demonstrate high-speed metal printing at scale. There is still much to be done before we have a commercially viable product but this is another critical milestone for the company and was a very exciting day at the office.
My attempt to sneak up on this blue heron this morning resulted in his rather abrupt departure. Even so, I was able to get a nice shot of him flying away up the river. When I get more than a minute to address none critical house issues, I will plane down the door to our future patio area so that it does not emit a loud groan each time it is opened. After days of trying to repair our oil-fired furnace and unable to find anything wrong, I had to relent and call a furnace repair person. After arriving, he solved the problem in less than five minutes. There was nothing wrong with the equipment, only the operator. I had set the thermostat to the HEATING mode. Because of the way it was installed, it is necessary to set the thermostat to the EMERGENCY HEATING mode to fire the furnace. Live and learn.
My team has been making excellent progress at work. We have improved printing speed by 30x since last month and believe we can go faster yet. The timing is good, as we are about to begin seeking a “C-round” of financing and our business case only improves with faster printing speeds.
No good deed goes unpunished or so goes the saying. An example to back it up. When I received two copies of a 60 gallon, 4HP air compressor that I ordered for my new shop, I immediately checked to see if I mistakenly ordered two. That was not the case. I then called the online merchant from which I purchased it. They confirmed that I had only ordered one and only been charged for one. I then contacted the manufacturer to report the double shipment. The remainder of the story is too lengthy, cumbersome, and irritating to recount. Suffice it to say that I have spent countless hours on the phone with various parties and a month storing this behemoth in our new garage. Today, I reached the limit of my patience when they wanted me to be present during a 4-hour window for pickup and to provide multiple copies of the bill of lading (recall we do not yet have internet, or wi-fi, or printing capabilities at the new house). I told the manufacturer that I was going to leave the air compressor outside for them to pick up. If it was still there in the morning, I was going to sell it and keep the profit. Two hours later it was gone.
Our kayaks, topped on Maya’s Audi, have joined her tiny house on our new property. Maya has suggested we construct a rail track so that we can do a torpedo style launch from the house. I think we may opt for a more traditional approach to putting in. My work for the day including decommissioning the tiny house 50amp circuit at our old house and installing a similar one at the new house to provide power for charging my car.
The family gathered today to bid farewell to our old house and to say hello to our new one. We started by making one last walk through all the rooms of our old house and recalling stories from the past. The kids relitigated why Maya got the bedroom with the fireplace and private bathroom while the boy’s bedrooms had neither. We then walked to our new house traversing our beloved field one last time. The distance is just over 1 mile as the crow flies, 2 miles as the car drives, and about 1.5 miles walking. When we arrived at the new house, Jeanine performed an ancient Native American spiritual ritual called smudging in which a bundle of sage is lit and carried throughout the home allowing the smoke to permeate the new space. This was prefaced by giving thanks to and honoring the Bartlett family who owned the house before us. It was followed by a visit from the Concord Fire Department in response to our smoke detectors going off. They arrived in under five minutes in full fire fighting gear on a big red pumper truck with the sirens blaring and the lights flashing. Let’s just say that we have made a dramatic entrance into our new neighborhood. Jeanine has now earned something of a reputation for setting off smoke alarms in our new homes. When we moved into our first house as a couple, she thought it would be nice to cook a turkey on our move-in day to feed our friends who were helping us. She placed a wet cheesecloth over the turkey which came into contact with the heating element and caught fire.
Earlier in the day, Maya and I moved the tiny house to our new home. Things were going smoothly until we arrived at our new driveway where a telephone poll necessitated a wide turn and I managed to get the rental truck stuck on a tree stump. Fortunately, I was able to use my chainsaw to extricate the truck and after a few repositioning moves we were able to enter the driveway and position the tiny house in a very nice setting. The video below shows the departure sequence which utilized a ramp to come off the leveling blocks.
Although we have been moving our belongings from our old house to our new one over the past several days, today is the day when we make the final transfer and begin living out of our new home. Before picking up the U-Haul truck that will carry the last load, I swung by the new place with a car full of more fragile items including all of my camera gear. Right on cue as I was unpacking my telephoto lens, the cardinal pictured above perched on a branch just outside one of the picture windows and I naturally proceeded to take a picture through the window. I could not help but feel like this vibrant little bird was welcoming us to the neighborhood and was very pleased to make his acquaintance.
I spent most of the morning and early afternoon loading our rental truck before both Maya and Kyle arrived to lend a hand with an extremely heavy granite tabletop. Working collaboratively we came up with a clever approach to moving it without putting ourselves at risk of injury. That same focus on safety was absent while I rushed to pack the last items into the truck. I took a step back only to discover that I had run out of truck bed and began falling. Somehow, I managed to pivot and get one foot on the ramp and then another even as I was falling off of that. Luckily, Maya was standing at the base of the ramp holding a 4’x8′ piece of 2-inch thick foam core insulation panel. I crashed into her and grabbed the foam core which I used to cushion my contact with the driveway. It shattered into a half dozen pieces and I walked away unscathed. The kids suffered more trauma than I fearing I had been very badly injured which would have been the case if Maya was not standing in exactly the right spot with exactly the right thing in her hand.
This was a Thanksgiving like no other. Our entire family tried to observe CDC guidelines and avoid further transmission of the Covid-19 virus. My brother Mark delivered a home-cooked feast for our mother who is not allowed to receive visitors in her senior living residence.
Nicolai cooked up a storm for his roommates in Sommerville including the buns pictured above and a reportedly overcooked turkey.
Kyle ordered a Chinese takeout meal and enjoyed it with his girlfriend at his new apartment just a 3-minute walk away from where Nico is living.
Maya enjoyed Friendsgiving with her roommates in Medford.
Jeanine and I, celebrated together with two surplus Open Table Thanksgiving meals which were really quite scrumptious. We will gather as a family on Saturday when the weather is forecasted to be pleasant allowing us to spend time outdoors.
Until we renovate our new house, the garage is going to be my makeshift workshop. I still have a little more unboxing to do but it is already operational and I was able to complete a number of small projects today, the first of which was the installation of a lock for the garage door.
Using a 15 foot U-Haul truck, I moved my entire shop to our new home in two trips today. Our plan is to complete a major renovation of the house over the coming year so I am setting up an interim shop in the garage. All of my major tools and storage racks are on wheels so that I can reconfigure them as needed to best utilize the limited space. On Friday, I will rent the same size truck and we will move a basic set of furniture and personal effects to the new house where we will live until the renovation work begins. The balance of our belongings are going into the POD we rented and will be placed in storage until the house project is completed. To say that I got a good workout would be an understatement. I decided to check my e-mail before taking a long hot shower only to discover that Comcast had discontinued our internet service 4 days prematurely due to a software bug in their online “Easy Move” tool. After 3 hours of extremely futile conversations with four different customer service representatives, I finally got service restored and will have that shower now.