I was greeted at London Gatwick Airport early this morning after an all night flight by Queen Elizabeth. A pleasant way to start the day after a very turbulent flight and sleepless night.
I then traveled by car for 1.5h before arriving at one of Formlabs key manufacturers. Located well outside London in the most improbable setting, nestled into farmland, this very high tech company is doing great work for us and I had highly productive meetings which ended by late afternoon. While waiting for my taxi to the airport, I put up the drone for an aerial view of the bucolic setting.
Pictured below is Rose, one of the highly skilled artisans who help make our product.
This evening I leave for Europe and Asia on a ten day business trip. To avoid the expense of airport parking, I took the commuter rail to North Station and walked from there to work. Nicolai dropped me off at the Concord train station on his way to work and also took the above image of me with my full travel kit (45L pack plus camera). I will try and document my travels from the road.
At work we threw a surprise party for my boss, the CEO and founder of Formlabs, to celebrate his eighth work anniversary and by extension the eighth birthday of the company. He was definitely caught off guard and it was a very fun, if fattening event. Joining the party was his wife and new baby. I was able to steal the baby for a few minutes and also got a nice portrait of him. I handed him back to dad just moments before he threw up.
It is a fairly rare occurrence when Jeanine comes to me requesting that I take a photo of her. That was the case after she returned this morning from a 13 mile bike ride during which she had to repair her jammed derailleur. She was extremely proud of her greasy hands as was I of her newly developing bike repair aptitude. While she was riding, I was playing soccer and spent more time on the field than my current conditioning justified. Despite having a short bench, we managed a decisive 4-0 win over Wayland.
On the advice of our local weather forecasters, we decided to spend the afternoon at Plum Island for what was predicted to be the last “beach day” of the season.
It was a very relaxing afternoon as we absorbed the sunshine and the smells and sounds of the ocean.
Maya joined a few of the other interns at Blue Origin for some mountain hiking. Looks like she also scored a dog fix in the deal. Her mother and father were very happy to receive these photos because we know how genuinely happy she is despite what continues to be a demanding work load. Note to Maya; please try to secure the full resolution versions of these photos.
As is my habit, I tend to sell my photo gear as soon as I upgrade to better versions. For sale as of today is my Sony a7R III (pictured above and below). I have replaced it with a Sony a7R IV which sports a higher resolution and much improved ergonomics. Camera bodies depreciate rapidly whereas lenses can actually increase in value. My new camera arrived just ahead of planned trips over the next two months to Europe, Asia, and Central America so the timing could not have been better.
I had enough time yesterday on my drive back to the Raleigh Durham airport to stop at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens on the campus of Duke University for about 10 minutes. I could have stayed for hours and will certainly do so the next time I get to Durham. On this occasion making my flight was the higher priority.
On some level, I was not thrilled about the prospects of flying out of Logan airport on the morning of September 11th. It certainly made me reflect more deeply about all who were traumatized that day 18 years ago and all those who have paid the price since. Nonetheless, I have been very delinquent in visiting our new office in Durham, North Carolina and today I was finally in a position to do so. We currently have two floors of the building pictured above with ambitions to lease it all. Recruiting top talent here has proven very successful and I have high expectations about the work that will be done at this location. I enjoyed a tour of the facility and time getting to know the team better before a same-day return to Boston.
Since I started commuting to Formlabs I have had to endure construction traffic on Cambridge Street where the new King School and Cambridge Street Upper School (CSUS) have been under construction since 2015. The 250,000 square foot, $160M building will be home to 850 students. That’s a bill of nearly $10K per student for the next twenty years. Yikes! Despite the cost, it certainly is beautiful, especially when illuminated at night as was the case during my evening commute.
Normally when I photograph Nicolai on a soccer pitch he is one of the players on the field. This evening, I had a chance to see him in action in a different capacity, as Head Coach of the Concord Carlisle High School JV Men’s Soccer Team. They were playing Boston Latin High School which is not too far from my office. It was a lot of fun watching Nico coach a team he once played for. He is an absolute natural and I have little doubt that coaching will play an important role in his future. A set of action photos from the game can be found here. The game ended in a 0-0 tie despite the fact that CCHS dominated possession and really looked to be the better team.
This morning I started my sixteenth season with the Concord United soccer club. We travelled to Raynham where we secured a 5-0 win getting things off to a good start. I play a wing midfielder and have never kicked off a season in such poor shape. The combination of a demanding work schedule and various procedures related to getting rid of my kidney stones contributed to a summer break with little exercise. It is very clear to me that I am going to have to make a serious effort to get back into soccer shape if I am going to pull my weight on the team.
For the last several years, the shower in our master bathroom has suffered from a progressively increasing drip when turned off. I was confident that this could be rectified by replacing the four washers and seals used in the main valve body (pictured above). The challenge was getting it out. First, there is no water shutoff for the shower which means that it would require turning off water to the entire house. Although this is easy to do, the risk of breaking a pipe during this operation is very real and would result in no water for the house until it was repaired. Second the handle had 31 years of corrosion on its internal spline making it next to impossible to remove. Ultimately, I needed a torch and fairly large pry bars to remove the handle. Once liberated, I had to fight different battles with each of the four threaded joints inside the valve. The entire repair took the better part of the morning but was well worth the effort.
Later in the day, Jeanine and I joined Kyle for lunch and a long walk around Fresh Pond where we encounter this bumper crop of mushrooms.
All the items pictured here were found within a 10 foot radius in our backyard early this morning. It never ceases to amaze me what you can find when you simply take the time to look.
For someone who thought she would be dead after complications from surgery, I would say my mother is looking quite alive. Earlier this week she moved from a hospice care unit into an assisted living residential facility. Little by little she is gaining weight and I am confident it is only a matter of a few months before she returns to ballroom dancing. She sent this iPad selfie to family and friends today as if to announce “I’m back.”
When I returned from a walking meeting with one of my colleagues today, I found this caterpillar crawling up the back of my neck. After recovering from the surprise, I paused to photograph this future butterfly with the camera on my phone. It is absolutely amazing to me that evolution would produce a set of fake eyes to help intimidate would be predators.
Maya started a four month internship with Kent, Washington based Blue Origin today. She will be designing systems to test and validate the sensors used on their spacecraft. When I spoke to her about her first day, she reported being somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of new things she will be required to learn in order to complete her project. I have total faith she will meet the challenge. She spent the weekend settling into her new living situation which included taking her new roommate to the hospital twice for a severe illness she contracted while driving cross country with her father.
Before leaving for home this morning, I took a few minutes to photograph portraits of Mayela and Stephen’s “children.” Peachy is seven and Banjo is three. The pair are the most delightful dogs you will ever meet. Well behaved, frisky, always ready to play or snuggle.
Earlier in the weekend, Mayela went fishing using Peachy for bait but did not catch anything.
Atop 2,690 foot Goodnow Mountain in the heart of the Adirondacks is the 60 foot tall Aermotor LS-40 tower with 7’x7’ metal cab. It was built by the NY Department of Conservation in 1922 and staffed until 1970 when fire towers were gradually phased out. It offers a spectacular 360 degree panoramic view of the Adirondack range and can be reached on a 4.5 mile roundtrip hike with an ascent of 1,100 feet. Mayela, Stephen, Jeanine and I made the hike after a 2.5 hour car/ferry ride from Vermont to Newcomb, NY.
In addition to the views from the top, there were several interesting views along the trail as well.
This morning Jeanine’s sister, Susan, joined us for a visit to the Burlington Farmer’s Market where we met up with my sister, Mayela, and her husband Stephen.
Stephen is currently doing a stint as a traveling cardiovascular access nurse. Mayela has joined him from North Carolina for the summer. They have rented a quaint water front cottage on Lake Champlain in the town of North Hero. There we spent the night after a day full of exploring, fine food, and a wonderful fire on the beach.
After work, Jeanine and I drove to Burlington, VT to visit with her sister Susan and our friend Jean. We arrived shortly after 10pm and promptly retired. It has been a very long week for both of us and we were happy to be getting away for the extended weekend holiday.
I am attending an in-house Six Sigma Green Belt training class which meets every other Thursday for the entire day. Today we covered process capability and learned about Cp and Cpk indexes. We were asked to create a data set to work from. The instructions were to build a paper plane and to launch it towards a target six feet away. The target was calibrated in distance from the floor in inches. The objective was to hit the 60 inch mark as consistently as our plane would allow, recording 30 attempts to use for our analysis. We were told there were no rules so I opted to make a pneumatically launched space capsule (a blow dart gun by another name). For the Six Sigma folks out there our “aircraft” and launcher produced a Cpk of 1.75 which is an extremely good result. Of course the purpose of the exercise was to gather and crunch the numbers, but it was fun applying a creative solution to the underlying design challenge as well.
Most Formlabs employees (~500+) generally attend our regular Town Hall meetings, either in person at our Twin City facility or by videoconference form around the world. Today’s presentation was more entertaining than usual when my colleague’s dog joined him on stage in an attempt to coax him into a game of fetch.
I am selling one of my camera lenses and a prospective buyer asked to see sample photos from it at each end of the zoom range. It was rather fun selecting my favorite shots to make good on the request. Above is the telephoto example, taken in Cuba. Below is the wide angle example taken on a winter hike to “the Wave” in Arizona.
It is bad enough that I have to avoid no less than three construction zones that are on the most direct path from home to work. Now, I need to take a detour just to pull into the parking lot at work as well. Combined with the back-to-school traffic increase that happens every fall, my commute times are reaching new records. The new Audi has made things a little more tolerable . It is a joy to drive and I look forward each day to the massage function built into the front seats.
I was up with the sun and decided to get an aerial photo of Camp Taconic. Pictured here is the lower portion of the camp which extends two fold to the right where the athletic fields, dining hall, tent city, and remaining camp buildings are located. Jeanine and I opted to sleep in our tent rather than in the cabins. We both had a great night’s sleep after a full day of activities. Our only regret was that we did not bring the kids who would have seriously enjoyed the weekend. On the way back to Concord we stopped to look at a number of properties for sale. At a minimum we need to find a parcel of land for Maya’s tiny house. In the limit, we might consider building a retirement home in the Berkshires.
A Formlabs tradition since inception is Summer Camp. Held this year at Camp Taconic in the Berkshires, it is a weekend family retreat that is filled with activities for everyone. Included here are a few sample photographs with a complete collection to be found here.
I was invited to the home of a colleague last night to enjoy a lamb kabob barbecue and dine with fellow Formlings (official name for Formlabs employees) visiting from our office in Budapest. I met his delightful family including their pet hedgehog. As should be clear from the photo, dad was really the main proponent for adding this little fellow to the family.
This is Nicolai’s first day on the job as Concord Carlisle High School’s Junior Varsity soccer coach. He will be running tryouts for the fall season today. Nine years ago he was on the other side of the whistle hoping to make the JV squad. Below is my post from that day.
Nicolai spent the weekend in tryouts for his high school junior varsity soccer team. There are many kids vying for a small number of remaining openings. For the first time, Nico’s skill and determination may not be enough to compensate for his inability to run as fast as others. Of two things I am sure, however. First, Nico is putting every ounce of his strength into these tryouts. Second, that the decision of his coach will look past his disability and only consider his effectiveness on the field. For many years we struggled to work past small minded officials who could not imagine that Nicolai would be able to play or contribute to the beautiful game. He has since proven to the entire local soccer community that he has game and the question now is no longer one of discrimination or exclusion. Our fingers will remain crossed for him.
Nico did make the squad and went on to demonstrate that he could hold his own and be a real asset to the team.
I purchased a camera lens on Craig’s List today and met the seller at MIT over the lunch hour to consummate our transaction. We met in the Electrical Engineering building where the SCR-615B Radar Antenna pictured above is displayed. The MIT Radiation Lab played an instrumental role in the development of radar during WWII.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
