Sunday October 9th through Saturday October 15th.
Houseboats! I may pop in from time to time. Let's say 1-2:30pm Pacific Time Saturday (today). I seem to be getting more work done sitting around there than sitting in front of the computer. I can sit and write, or draw, or both, or neither. I will also accept drawing subject suggestions, like "meat" or "Iceland." They will not be good drawings, but they still may appear here.
Sunday, October 9th, 2005.
I was just there. Cormorants, seagulls, pelicans. The pelicans were circling between all of the sail masts, looking for fish, riding the wind.
Monday, October 10th, 2005.
Here is a photo of the houseboat that is just behind the largish houseboat shown in the primary photo at top. It is small, and cute, and also impossibly cute. I've mal-adjusted the colors to pull out the details.
Also, got to see pelicans doing fish dives. They just fold up their wings quickly so they plummet to the water, sometimes leaving one wing a little splayed to aid in direction. A good friend suggested I wear a giant pelican suit to get closer to them. Anything is possible.
Tuesday, October 11th, 2005.
Three calls today.
1:37pm. Rusty, calling from Arizona. While speaking with Rusty, two gentlemen carrying large Radio Shack bags sauntered by. I caught a bit of the discussion but couldn't place the language. The shoes, I thought, were a dead give-away. "Shiny light brown clown shoes. Italian." Rusty indicated that there's a large Russian base in the area. "That's IT!!!" Fifty watts per channel, babycakes. Case closed.
1:40pm. Michelle. Calling from Toronto, curious about the weather and surroundings. She also wants me to make a drawing of "God." I'll work on it tomorrow when I'm out there again, today was all about writing.
1:57pm. Natalie. Calling from a car stuck in traffic, Atlanta. I was talking about some cardboard I had in my vehicular conveyance (thus making it look like a car campin' eyesore, more likely to attract the wrong sorts of attention), and Natalie wondered if I could construct a houseboat-like cardboard boat. I mentioned that there is a boat race, somewhere, in which all of the boats are made out of cardboard (looks like there are multiple boat races). She countered with the recent hollowed-out gourd race on the Detroit River that Martha Stewart was supposed to take part in, but did not.
Wednesday, October 12th, 2005.
Someone called, but then hung up when I answered, or I didn't get to it time and they were already hanging up. That's how it goes. A very quiet day except for a mysterious busload of high-school students flowing through the area. They were practicing being loud. The service sector awaits.
Thursday, October 13th, 2005.
Natalie called again. I think she's getting hooked on this. Meanwhile, while yesterday was a nice quiet day for working near the phone booth which started making me wonder why I don't just move my office outdoors, today totally squashed that notion. There's a small sitting area in the parking lot that is clearly tended to. I was wondering who took care of it the other day, since I figured the city could give a toss -- and today I got to "meet" the tenderer, a woman who started squawking to anyone in earshot about a rock that had been stolen from the area. Then a guy got on the payphone for about 20 minutes, smoking, talking, smoking. Across the street: twin chainsaws tearing up some offending foliage. A van pulls up opposite my space, it's a woman cranking NPR's mysteriously still-employed Terry Gross. ROCK OUT! Turns out she's a local real estate agent, showing a "lot" on the pier to two other women. I was going to ask her what a berth was going for these days, so I'd have somewhere to put my cardboard boat. Then a guy came to the booth and fiddled with his change for about five minutes, then another guy came around and picked up what the first guy dropped. A busy day for the booth.