I am not at liberty to say much about this photo I took at work today other than the fact that it represents a major milestone for the company. My time at Formlabs was largely devoted to the people side of the engineering organization which I enjoyed immensely. It must be said, however, that I have been really having fun being in the technical trenches again. This is the kind of work that has me up at 4 AM with new ideas in my head and ready to race to the office.
For the last several weeks I have been slowly replacing all of the polished brass faucets, drains, towel bars, toilet paper holders, and knobs with updated brushed nickel replacements in all four of our bathrooms. Today I removed the sliding glass doors from one of the showers and replaced it with a set of shower curtains on a brushed nickel curved rod. I posted the shower doors on Craig’s List and they were out of the house by late afternoon.
While out doing errands this afternoon, I decided to photograph Warners Pond from the air. I have done this in the past but never from the backside. Had I arrived a few minutes earlier the sun would have been illuminating the foreground as well as the island; a project for a future date. I used the earlier part of the day to replace all the towel racks, robe hooks, and toilet paper holders in the house with ones matching the new faucets I installed a few weeks ago. This transition from brass to brushed nickel finishes certainly makes the house feel more up to date.
With the kids all living on their own now, I had surprisingly few photos of them to select among for my favorites of the year.
Today I am looking back at my favorite landscape photos of 2019. May 2020 be as bountiful.
Two days ago a three million dollar home in our community burned to the ground. Located on 13 acres overlooking the Sudbury River, the 120-year-old home was built by descendants of presidents John and John Quincy Adams. Located in an old part of Concord with no fire hydrants, firefighters quickly exhausted the 30,000-gallon cistern supply and had to truck water in from over a mile away allowing the fire to engulf the entire structure. Ironically the Sudbury River is less than 1000 feet away but down a very steep hill. The swimming pool could have provided another 30,000 gallons but was not used for some reason. This afternoon, I flew my drone over to survey the damage. An excavator was already on the scene to begin the cleanup.
I said goodbye to my childhood home for a second time today. The first time was when I left 40 years ago to begin my career at Bell Laboratories in Indianapolis. I was filled with mixed emotions on that day; happy to have graduated to adulthood, sad to be leaving my parents and siblings and the place I grew up. Today I drove to Schenectady, NY to retrieve all remaining items of artistic and/or sentimental value and to leave it ready for the new owners who will take possession next week assuming the closing goes off without a hitch. The house was built in 1908 by Percival Lewin in what is now designated the General Electric Realty Plot Historic Neighborhood (locally known as the “GE Plot”).
The GE Plot is an area of approximately 90 acres just east of Union College. Originally an undeveloped tract owned by the college, it was sold to General Electric at the end of the 19th century to help the college pay off a debt. The company’s executives subdivided it, laid out streets according to a plan (see an updated drawing of the plan made by my mother below) inspired by New York’s Central Park and built houses on the land, with covenants requiring a minimum lot size and house value. This was done to create a neighborhood that would help attract executives and scientists to Schenectady when the company was still in its infancy.
By 1927 approximately a hundred houses had been built for some very notable residents:
This evening we hosted a two-generation party for high school friends of our children and their parents. It started at 7pm with dinner and continued until 11pm with various games. It did not take long for the kids to migrate down to the basement where the activities included some form of beer pong and darts.
At work, we use a high-speed camera to photograph our metal printing process. At 60,000 frames per second, it is an excellent resource for understanding what is going on. Due to the extremely bright deposition zone (white-hot molten metal), the rest of the image is underexposed so much that it is not visible. To overcome this limitation, I thought I would try using one of my camera strobes to illuminate the entire scene. The idea worked perfectly allowing us to see the contact tip and deposition line for the first time albeit for just a couple of frames.
Christmas morning is the one day each year we get to enjoy Jeanine’s famous popovers. They are a very special treat and once again she made them to perfection. I was in charge of grapefruit preparation and frying of the bacon, two tasks that take more dexterity than knowledge of food. The rest of the morning we continued with our tradition of sequentially taking one item at a time from our respective Christmas stockings. This took well over two hours and netted me a pair of reindeer antlers and a red nose among many other lovely gifts. The opening of Secret Santa gifts was pushed into the afternoon. I drew Maya this year and she received a small shoulder purse, Yeti thermos bottle, and a DMM (digital multimeter) from her father.
It would not be Christmas Eve without Zeppole Balls, a tradition that dates back to my childhood and to my father’s before me. Maya prepared the dough and I was tasked with the frying. The boys, normally night owls, went to bed before we even started and will be lucky if any remain by tomorrow morning. Maya recommended setting up a time-lapse video of the process which can be viewed here. Jeanine’s sister Susan is spending the holiday with us and we will be joined later in the week by her friend, Jean.
