For a couple of weeks now, my team at Digital Alloys has been working to perfect a heating system for our printer. Today, we were able to register a small victory when we heated this block of steel to its melting point. The system is essentially an upside-down induction cooktop.
Nicolai is due to return home tomorrow after covering 11,000 miles over the course of 6 weeks on his cross country road adventure. He has traveled coast to coast visiting family, friends, and soccer teammates. One of his goals was to figure out next steps in his teaching career in light of the dramatic changes that Covid-19 has introduced into his profession. He has an offer from CCHS to teach World Cultures for the fall semester and has been approached about doing private tutoring for small pods of local students. I am not sure where he took these photos but he noted that the smoke in the air was from a forest fire.
Kyle prepared a lovely dinner for Jeanine and I this evening. We had freshly picked sweet corn (which is as good as I have ever tasted), roasted potatoes, cheeseburgers, grilled chicken, and a green bean and asparagus salad. He cooked in large enough quantity to provide food for the next week which is a real lifesaver for Jeanine who is up to her ears in work challenges.
For the last two years, Jeanine and I have been on the lookout for a new home. Although we have enjoyed living in our current one, it is twice the size we would like for our rapidly approaching retirement years. We wanted something in a natural setting with an exceptional view above all else. For 16 years we have thoroughly enjoyed the view of our field every day. Our new home is situated on the Sudbury River, located just around the bend in the photo below. Our view across the river includes wetlands and a hill covered in deciduous trees (think autumn splendor). Looking upriver to the right is the long view featured in a photo from earlier this week. These views can be enjoyed from inside the house because of how it is situated on the 1.8-acre lot. The house was on the market for a total of 9 days and our offer was substantially over asking price to win a bidding war with two current residents of Conantum, the Concord neighborhood where the home is located. Our closing date is tentatively set for October 15th.
Ikebana, “arranging flowers” or “making flowers alive” is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. The tradition dates back to the Heian period when floral offerings were made at altars. Later, they were placed in the tokonoma (alcove) of a home. Ikebana reached its first zenith in the 16th century under the influence of Buddhist tea masters and has grown over the centuries, with numerous distinct schools extant today. The arrangement pictured above was created by my mother during a Zoom class which she participated in along with my sister who organized the activity. She never ceases to amaze us with her artistic talent which apparently does not extend to photography. I may have to request that she take another picture without the fire alarm, nature sign, and lighting sconce in the background.
This image is of a component we will be using on the latest revision of Digital Alloy’s metal 3D printer. I thought the tooling marks left from the machining process were quite beautiful.
Despite our decision to postpone house hunting until the market returns to something approaching sane, I found a property that features an incredible river view. We will be bidding against several other interested parties and I put the chances of our coming out on top at 25%. Once again we will be grappling with the same question we face on every home that we like. What is a view worth?
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A couple of videos from Nico’s Instagram account. To see the second one, click on the right arrow in a circle located on the right side of the frame. It is scarier than the first. It should be noted that one parent will lose sleep thinking about these very risky exploits. The other wishes he had the skill and courage to join in the fun but shares the concerns of the responsible parent.
Maya and her college roommate, Lauren, pose in the home they have rented for the fall semester. They will be joined by four other Olin students in the three-floor house in Medford. Maya has elected to extend her internship at Formlabs rather than to attend the fall semester at Olin under the current Covid-19 restrictions. Maya chose Olin for the project-based, hands-on, collaborative learning approach, much of which cannot be realized while adhering to the schools appropriately conservative temporary safety policies. Jeanine prepared a nice meal for the girls which we shared with them while visiting this evening for the grand tour.
The master bedroom in our house has a 128 sqft walk-in closet which opens to a sitting area that is 90 sqft. The latter is separated from our bedroom by an open double-wide door frame and offers little practical utility. Today, we decided it would make more sense to integrate these two spaces to create a spacious 218 sqft walk-in. I spent the better part of the day working on deconstruction. In order, I removed the carpeting, padding, and carpet tack strips in the sitting area followed by the door, door molding, door frame, and floor molding. Finally, I removed the drywall from one side of the wall. Tomorrow, I plan to remove the remaining drywall and wall framing.
It has been more than three years since I last visited the Fruitlands Museum. This evening, I revisited the campus with my drone as it is only accessible by prior arrangement due to Covid-19. While perched upon Prospect Hill where the museum is located, I also initiated a long-range flight down to the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge located on the Nashua River. I was careful not to encroach on the adjacent Fort Devens Range Control, a 5000-acre military training ground which I assumed was off-limits to drones. The Fort Devens ranges are used for live-fire training with pistols, rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, grenade launchers, and mortars. The complex’s tactical training areas can be used for land navigation, orienteering, field training exercises, and airdrop.
Standing next to me in this 2008 Concord United team photo is John Bemis. Twelve years my senior, we only played soccer together for two seasons before he retired his cleats. Even so, we developed a friendship that endured off the field. He is possibly the warmest and most caring person I have ever known. This morning, Jamie, his wife of 40 years was struck and killed by a car as she crossed Thoreau Street in Concord. The 91-year old woman driving the car drove on for some fifty feet before coming to a stop and it took rescuers twenty minutes to extricate the body from under the car. Jamie will be remembered for her philanthropic work and as the founder of Gaining Ground, now a nonprofit organic farm that grows vegetables and fruit with the help of several thousand community volunteers and donates all of this fresh food to area meal programs and food pantries. John will discover how deeply loved he is by all that have come to know him.
The latest chapter of Nicolai’s cross country travel adventure has taken him to Glacier National Park where he hiked the Highline Loop Trail yesterday. Generally regarded as one of the most scenic hikes in America, the trail follows the Continental Divide and is sometimes called the Garden Wall for reasons which should be obvious from the photo that Nico sent us. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, I had planned a 10-day vacation in Morocco and Portugal shortly after completing my first 100-days at Digital Alloys. Two days prior to my departure, all flights in and out of Morocco were canceled. It has now been close to 9 months on the new job and I have taken just 4 individual vacation days and that was so I could provide consulting services to Formlabs. It has become apparent to me that I sorely need some time off and the imminent expiration of my American Airlines frequent traveler miles has only served to compel me to start planning a getaway, either with Jeanine or solo.
Located just two miles from my office is Mary Cummings Park, one of the great public parks of Greater Boston. This over two hundred acres public park on the Burlington-Woburn border was created when the Boston City Council accepted Mary Cummings land in 1930 to be kept forever open as a public pleasure ground. Adjacent to Mary Cummings Park itself is another 100 acres of protected conservation and recreation land, including a 75-acre parcel known as Whispering Hill, now owned by the City of Woburn and held as public parkland and 25 acres which is part of the Quail Run Conservation land. Now that they are on my radar, it is safe to say that I will be spending many a lunch hour exploring these parks.
It has been more than 13 years since I last posted a picture of a snail. I suspect it has been that long since I have seen one. I encountered this little fellow on my noontime walk. He is about a half-inch long and I found him stuck to the underside of a broadleaf. He was not all too happy with me when I turned the leaf over to facilitate the shot exposing him to the bright midday sun. He quickly slobbered (not sure what the proper name is for snail propulsion) his way to the edge of the leaf and climbed over to the shady side.
Earlier this week, Kyle turned twenty-eight. Today we celebrated with a special meal prepared by Jeanine followed by a yummy lemon cake served with mango sorbet. We missed having Nico at the table; at last check-in, he was headed for Mount Hood in Oregon. Kyle has settled into working remotely and all the challenges that come with it. Like us, he has decided to postpone his plans for buying a home in anticipation of significantly lower prices and better inventory next year.
I spent the better part of the day decluttering my workshop which included burning off enough scrap wood to build a small house. Jeanine suggested I use an antique copper cauldron that we own as a fire pit rather than selling it on Craig’s List as I had originally planned. It turned out to be a great suggestion allowing for a very compact and controlled burn.
When the boys were little, I made them a right-angled bunk bed out of cherry and birds-eye maple. When they outgrew sleeping in the same room, I converted the bunk bed into two twin-size beds that we have used ever since for overflow guests. Now that we are downsizing, we really have no need for them and although they are quite beautiful, they are so heavy that no sane human being would ever purchase them. Instead of trying to find them a new home, I opted to deconstruct them and harvest the very valuable cherry wood. Kyle and I nearly killed ourselves carrying the beds to my shop but once there, it was not that difficult to salvage the cherry although it did take the better part of my morning. When I set out to write this entry, I looked through my photos sure that I had photographed the bunk beds in all their glory. Sadly, no such photo exists. All that remains now is one of the headboards, pictured above. I will leave it intact as a reminder of both the project and of Kyle and Nico when they were both young rascals jumping from the top bunk to the bottom one and then to the floor.
While attending Mont Pleasant High School in Schenectady, NY, I was oblivious to the circumstances surrounding the death of one of my classmates over the summer break between my sophomore and junior years. Yesterday, during my mini-reunion with Cathy Conway and Tom Metzold, I learned a few details which motivated me to research the full story.
On July 22, 1974, 16-year-old, Susan Carmel Zanta went missing. She was on summer vacation staying with a friend’s family at their Cossayuna Lake cottage in Argyle, NY. Her friend’s boyfriend was visiting and she did not want to be a third wheel so went out for a walk from which she never returned. Police dragged the lake and searched nearby woods. Eight days later, a farmer looking for a stray cow found her body in a cornfield. She had been beaten, raped, and hit on the head with a rock. This is the information that I learned yesterday. As tragic as it is, the rest of the story only gets worse.
On July 25, 1974, police took Kenneth Arnold Yarter, a 23-year-old, 6’ 1” tall waiter into custody for questioning because he had been seen with Susan on the day before she was reported missing. He consented to a polygraph which concluded he had knowledge of Susan’s whereabouts. He then underwent further interrogation throughout the night during which time he claimed he was physically coerced into confessing to the murder and rape.
In 1977, the NY State Court of Appeals, overturned his conviction, ruling that his confession to the murder was obtained through duress and he was subsequently released.
In 1980, Yarter was convicted of kidnapping in connection with a rape in Pohapcong, NJ, and of rape in Easton, PA.
On July 19, 1991, with 5-10 years still left on his sentence, he was accidentally released from a New Jersey correction facility when the institution switched from a manual to a computerized record-keeping system. The error was discovered and reported by Susan’s mother who had been diligently keeping tabs on her daughter’s rapist and killer.
Yarter then traveled to Florida where he told a fellow tourist that he had killed a girl in New York but escaped punishment because police had tortured him. That fellow tourist turned out to be a British police officer, who reported the statement to authorities. At about the same time, in mid-August, 1991, St. Petersburg Beach police determined that Yarter had held two 18-year-old female Canadian tourists captive for nine hours, alternately raping them. They issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of kidnapping, rape, and robbery. Yarter fled to Las Vegas where he was apprehended a couple of days later.
After being sentenced to 50 years in the St. Petersburg Beach rape case, Yarter was returned to Nevada to continue serving sentences for various crimes there and in Pennsylvania.
In December 1995, he was extradited to New York to be tried for the rape and murder of Susan Zanta.
In September 1996, Yarter agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in Zanta’s death and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. He is currently incarcerated in the medium-security Dade Correctional Institution in Florida City, FL with the earliest possible release date in 2026.
Pictured below on the left is Susan’s father, Raymond C. Zanta, speaking with police 2-days after her disappearance. Ray served in World War II for two years. He operated Ray’s Barber Shop on Chrisler Avenue in Schenectady for 64 years. After Susan’s death, he became a local legislator and advocate for victims’ rights. He was posthumously awarded a Liberty Medal, the highest honor bestowed upon an individual by the New York State Senate.
UPDATE: Yarter died in prison at the age of 72 in June 2023. May he rest in the agony he inflicted on others.
In 1976, I graduated from Mont Pleasant High School in Schenectady, New York. This evening I enjoyed an early diner with two of my classmates, Tom Metzold, my wrestling partner, and Cathy Keehu (Conway), the sister of one of my wrestling teammates. We dined al fresco in the North End while catching up on the last four decades. Cathy lives in Hawaii now and was in town visiting a friend. Amazingly, she seemed to be aware of what many of our high school classmates are up to now and it was wonderful and sometimes sad to hear all of the stories. Tom, retired now, lives in Westwood and we have managed to connect with each other about once a year since moving to the Boston area.
I returned from downtown just in time to join a family birthday Zoom call to celebrate my mother (92), Kyle (28), my sister-in-law Maire, and brother-in-law Stephen who were all born in the month of August. The call included a slideshow that I prepared which can be found here.
As if this wasn’t enough excitement for one day, I arrived at the office this morning only to discover that the power to the building was out. It was another two hours before a power line crew was able to undo the work of one industrious but now very dead squirrel.
The countertops in Maya’s tiny house were installed today. It is one of the few jobs that she subbed out since it requires specialized tools to cut the Quartz material. Once the faucet and sink plumbing is completed and the induction cooktop is connected, the kitchen will be officially open for business. Pictured at the very back of this photo, provided courtesy of Maya, is the vanity counter and bowl style lavatory sink. Yet to be built is the vanity cabinet that will sit below and cover the on-demand water heater and associated plumbing. There still remains much work to be done on the interior, but the day is rapidly approaching when she will be able to start living in her very own tiny home.
Since the arrival of Covid-19, I have increasingly taken to having outdoor “walking meetings” in lieu of using my office or a conference room. This trail is located just a few steps from our building and offers a natural and shaded setting for conversations with members of my team. Born of the pandemic, it is a practice that I hope to continue when life returns to normal.
The cornfield behind our house has grown nicely and I imagine it will only be a few more weeks before it is harvested. The plants are approaching 10 feet tall and the corn cobs are generally about 6 inches long. Regrettably, this variety of corn is destined for animal feed and not the sweet corn we enjoy so much. That said, you can rest assured that I will be doing a taste test in the coming days.
Maya is scheduled to give a presentation at work about her tiny house later in the week. Her recent work on it has been centered on the kitchen cabinetry which she designed, fabricated, and finished entirely by herself. Her design exploits every cubic inch of available space including the toe-kick area and is a masterpiece of execution. At full extension, the alignment and 1/8″ reveal between drawer faces is perfect. In all honesty, I do not believe I could have matched this level of precision despite my many years of experience in the shop. On Wednesday, the quartz countertop is scheduled to arrive. Once in place, the sink, faucet, and induction cooktop can be installed rendering the kitchen open for business.
Tonight’s dinner featured tomatoes grown by Jeanine. Placed on Italian bread with a slice of mozzarella, basil, and balsamic vinegar, this is one of my favorite foods, made all the more delicious when prepared with fresh ingredients. It was a nice treat after spending much of the day working to replace the weather stripping on the front doors of our house. I also joined Jeanine for a 3 plus mile walk to visit what she described as a murder scene. It was indeed a gruesome sight, the result, I believe, of a Great Horned Owl killing and eating a Barred Owl. The meal took place on a horizontal tree limb and one could see feathers littering the ground everywhere beneath it.
Working in high tech can be both thrilling and terrifying especially when you are developing a product or process that has never been done before. Above you are looking at the result of years worth of effort and a major breakthrough for my team at Digital Alloys. We successfully printed the pyramid pictured above in H13 tool steel. More importantly, it was printed with a closed feedback loop and no human intervention. Today, we crossed the threshold of believing we could print with metal to proving we can print with metal. Over the course of my career, I have enjoyed perhaps a dozen or so such monumental milestones. I have learned to recognize them for what they are and pause to enjoy them.
Sadly, in a week where we were poised to purchase one of two properties, neither deal has come to fruition. The cliff house in Nahant went to a higher bidder and the final Kent Cottage price was just too high to make a proper renovation financially prudent. While we will keep our eyes open for new opportunities, in all likelihood we will put off buying a new home until next year when most experts believe it will be a buyer’s market rather than the seller’s market we are in now.
Pictured is the Ellingwood Chapel, a Gothic Revival structure built in 1920, located in the Greenlawn Cemetery on Nahant. I did a practice commute this morning before putting in our final offer.
The painting of the exterior of our house was completed today. The workmanship was excellent and we are very pleased with the outcome. Regrettably, when I made a final inspection, I noticed that significant damage had been done to the slate tiles at the edge of the roof. This damage was caused by incorrectly placed ladders. The owner of the company, Union Painting, was quick to acknowledge responsibility and discounted our price to offset for the repair work that will now be needed. Despite this admitted significant issue, we would still strongly recommend this company to others.
Nicolai has been working his way across the country on a combination vision quest/traveling amputee soccer training camp/golf outing/family and friend reunion/vacation/camping adventure. We are thrilled every time he checks in to let us know where he is and what he is up to. By the time you are reading this post, he will probably be in southern California with plans to work his way up the coast and thru the national parks. We look forward to the photos he has been posting on his Instagram account which are every bit as good as any photos I have ever taken.
After 2 years of looking for a smaller home for our retirement years, we have arrived at two choices that could not be more different. Last night, we put an offer in on Kent Cottage. It is located in Burlington, walking distance from my office and includes 22 acres of beautiful wetlands. The home requires a top to bottom renovation and is located in the center of an otherwise commercial area. This home only makes sense at the right price given home much investment will be needed. Still, it is oozing with potential and the thought of doing a full restoration is very appealing to us. If our offer is not accepted, we will put an offer in on the Nahant home we visited over the weekend. It is situated on 1 acre and overlooks a beautiful ocean cove. The house would need extensive updating but the “bones” are good. The downside here is that access to the island is through Lynn which is hard to get to from just about anywhere.
Earlier this week, our yellowwood tree, pictured in the background, was struck by lighting. Approximately 1/3 of it was laying in our front yard with the remainder of it seemingly unaffected. I spent the better part of two hours this morning lopping off branches and making a very dense pile of them in the driveway. I used my cordless chainsaw to make quick work of the larger limbs which are stacked in a different pile. If the root system was not damaged, it is possible that the tree will survive, and if it does, a good chance that it will fill back in the lost areas. Only time will tell.
Nahant is an island just north of Boston connected by a causeway to the mainland. Before the roadway was constructed, it was only accessible at low tide, when a natural land bridge emerged from the water. Jeanine and I spent the better part of the day touring the island after revisiting a home we are thinking about purchasing trying to get a sense of what retirement would feel like in this tiny community. The house we are looking at is in major need of renovation but priced as if move-in ready. As we prepare to make an offer, it is unclear if we will be able to negotiate a more realistic price or if we would be better off putting a bid in on Kent Cottage.