Although it was officially billed ("officially" being the emails that we circulate to each other during 'official' work hours) as the dinner party paddle, once on the water it turned out that it was Tom's birthday! In grand style we followed the current up to the Socrates Sculpture Garden in Queens and had a gourmet treat of whatever everyone managed to pick up at the last minute at the local organic market.
Tom brought his son Ben along while another boatbuilder Fong, promised to join once his latest creation becomes seaworthy in about a month. Still time for a full season...
Fong brought up the great idea of having an asian style tea house on a small outcropping near the hell's gate. Only paddlers would be able to get there and it would have to be a traditional chinese or asian ceremony. I'm envisioning a water tight portable gong-fu travel set (I'll be sewing that for at least a month...) and maybe a costume. Since I'm not asian, I figure just looking like a homeless tropical fish (kayaking gear) is probably ceremonial enough. Otherwise I'll need to rent a kimono. Thankfully Robert is a documentary filmmaker and it might be captured for all time.
The big giggle this time was the canned tangerines. Initially brough because of my bachelor-fabulous kitchen standards, it was elevated to new heights when passed around like snuff among baseball players. We had to fight off the scurvey somehow...
Then perhaps feeling the modern surrealist context of the sculpture gardens Robert plucks a tangerine, seemingly from the water, looking as if he had plucked a still wriggling gold fish, held it aloft ofer his open hell-mouth and let it swim to it's own watery demise. It could only be followed up by the news story that had come out in the new york times that day of three teenagers who managed to surpass all existing slapstick comedies upon running aground off Coney Island. Yes, that coney island...
And all's well that ends well. We got back in time to watch the sun set behind the perfectly clear sky and twinkling buildings of the manhattan skyline.
