Woody would be proud. Apparently Arlo Guthrie and friends will be riding on the City of New Orleans to raise money for musicians and clubs who lost everything in this year's hurricanes. More detail over at Bear's.
In other news (OK, it's not news) I really don't feel like being at work today. I did work from home Friday, on the theory that all my sniffling, sneezing, and other symptoms were due to being out in our incredibly poor air quality. Work is close to the major airport, and the pollution level seems mugh higher here. SUre enough, I felt much better on Friday than I had on the days before. Though even at home I've been sniffly: it wouldn't be such a problem but it's hard to erg when you have to stop and blow your nose every three hundred meters.
On Saturday, we rowed in the Tempe Holiday Boat Parade. I'll post pictures if any come out well. In his penchant for ever-increasing over-the-top-ness, this year Rudder managed to wangle the use of the rowing barge the city uses to train novices to row. It has eight rowing stations down wither side (for sweep rowers, obviously, with one oar apiece) and a catywalk down the middle for coaches. We had it manned by ten rowers, three of whom had never rowed before, but who were instumental in designing the decorations. At the stern was Santa (7' tall, inflatable) in his sleigh (foam) full of presents (plastic wrap over a plastic piping frame). In front of him were three windsurfing sails, each "manned" by an inflatable penguin, and there were lights strung all over everything, as many as the generator could handle. Santa was wearing an enormous Hawaiian shirt and a tinsel lei, because our theme was "Santa on holiday".
We won the human-powered division for I think the fourth time in the parade's six-year history; last year we didn't enter and the first year I'm not sure if they had a human-powered division. The first two years, Rudder decorated a double, then we did an eight and year before last, I think, a four. Unfortunately, we had no competition this year. Usually there are four or five kayaks entered. Of course, they couldn't have hoped to compete with the mighty juggernaut that was our barge this year, but then again, there's no reason the dragon boats or the Hawaiian outriggers that row on our lake couldn't have competed. (I'd think a dragon boat, especially, would be fun to decorate.)
The one disappointment was our prize. Last time, the city gave us a basket of things (we surmised) they had left over from donations to other events: certificates for a night's stay at a fancy local hotel, dinner at one restaurant, breakfast somewhere else, lunch at a third place, and so on. We divided them up among the rowers who participated, and later gave the hotel stay to someone who had trailered our boat back from Masters Nationals, so it all worked out nicely. This year, the parade was run by a local merchants' association, which you'd think would mean even more sponsorship, but apparently not: the prize was a basket with two jars of salsa and some chips.
Good thing Rudder does this just for the fun of designing and building the decorations.
Posted by dichroic at December 12, 2005 01:36 PM