Visibility Nil

Last two mornings, going in, river fog thick as pea soup, both mornings I'm early enough to go below the floodwall and scout pieces for The River Wrack show. It's coming together. The pieces dictate what they will do. Still need some rope, with which to hang. What I think of as the river pedestals, trunk-cuts of firewood that are debarked, tumbled and bleached, are lined up along the river as chairs by the night-fishermen. I invent a device, you'll need two, for rolling these rounds the 100-150 feet to the cut-bank of the first terrace. One end is a stout spike, then a shaft, maybe two or three inches, then a stop plate to keep the rope from sliding off. The only extra equipment you need to carry is a Sharpie marker. Find the center point of both ends and mark it (using any straight piece of wrack). Drive the spike home with a rock or something heavy, two loops of rope about 8 feet long, you're in business. Positively Egyptian. None of them that couldn't actually be carried, with maybe a break half-way, but how cool it would be to roll them. We'd have to get this on film. I need to fabricate the invention, the second generation of which has a pulley. Kim, can you help me here? Your expertise in off-the-wall inventions exceeds mine. I'm not too proud to ask directions, though I don't mind being lost: like that mountain man said, I wasn't really lost, I just didn't know where I was for a few weeks. Noon Smart Talk at the museum and I introduce Donald Pollack, excellent reading considering the lousy acoustics in the large open gallery, and then questions that went on forever. D and I, the Deputy, take Donald and his wife Patsy to lunch and spend an hour talking. I feel a bit guilty, because in my capacity as janitor, it's my responsibility to clean up after the event and instead I'm taking the talent to lunch. While he was signing books, though, B shows up, D sees the opportunity to set the desk top, another three man job and there are only two of us, B pushes the point, that we could do it now (then) and I'm oddly conservative then agree, sure, we could do it right then. And we do, we stand the fucker up on it's dolly, B footing, D rolls it into position, which we had discussed, this is like a heavy weight ballet, back into position and then tilt the rock forward off the dolly, swing up to our waists and set it in place. Perfect. The perfect crew. We three, I think, could do almost anything, the 'comfort level' is off the scale, the trust is complete, we know exactly where we are and what we are doing, we set the desk top in maybe five minutes. There were a lot of assumptions made, thinking back, later. That B would foot the piece somehow, that D could dolly it around, that we three could lift it into place, but a waist high lift is nothing, and we accomplish the task as if it were nothing, between book-signings, god, we're good at this.

Tom

Three crows squawking at the house,
I grant them space, they demonstrate
'open mind' and I applaud what they do.