sisu

Blue skies smiling at me

He loves, and she loves … Tiny and Earl clowder the light fantastic this afternoon as foggy overcast gives way to "blue skies smiling at me."

Even as Tuck sands and paints and climbs ladders to the sky to spit and polish our humble home by the sea.

The mountain comes to Mohammed

It takes three tugboats to guide the chemical/oil tanker "Mount Rainier," sailing under the flag of Cyprus early morning, into the Chelsea Creek.

We love the layered, foreshortened image above — taken from our front steps — where the turning tanker seems to be squeezed into the tight space — actually a watery expanse of about 1/4 mile — between the McArdle Bridge that runs from Chelsea to East Boston in the foreground and a secondary span of the Mystic River Bridge between Chelsea and Charlestown in the background.

The working waterfront never sleeps.

Now the curtain opens on a portrait of today*

Serendipity. In our ongoing project to capture the decisive moment when Tiny sits up on her haunches and catches a "ball" — in this case a twig — in her two paws, pattycake style, we've stumbled upon some magical moments you don't know you're getting till you check out your "contacts" back in the "darkroom," i.e., click on the "Play back images" button. Above and below, classic Tiny "Ecstasy of St, Teresa" moments atop the dining room table.

The bulk container "Golden Glory" out of Panama picks up the sun's first rays early morning at Eastern Salt across the street.

Where'd that twig go?

*Blogpost title from "Chelsea Morning" by Joni Mitchell.

When the going gets tough, they get out the candles

The Full Cold Moon sets this morning far right just as the salt piles of Eastern Salt across the street pick up the rosy fingers of dawn.

"This is the worst disaster we've faced for decades," says a local mayor in a WBZ-TV Boston interview broadcast this evening. "More than a million homes were left without power," says another. The ice storm snuck in upon our area on cat feet under the radar Thursday night. Our own venerable Down Easter Goomp in York Harbor was among the hundreds of thousands of our fellow New Englanders who've been without power for 48 hours and still counting. He was able to fire up the generator to keep things reasonably warm but was unable to cook or telephone or get online. His cell phone wasn't working, but fortunately, our dear bro and sis, who live about 45 minutes away from the Goompster, both checked in with him this afternoon. It was a great moment to be together for one and all. Family values rule.

Down Chelsea we just got a lot of rain, a fortunate result for us of the heat-island effect of the big city just to our south combined with the heat sink of the ocean to our east. But for so many of our neighbors inland to the west and north along the coast, it has been a Katrina-like period of unrelenting hardship in the face of Mother Nature's wrath. No word from Al Bore Gore. Not really given much news coverage nationally, thanks to the fact that it can't be pinned on George W. Bush, we imagine.

TigerHawk was on the road with his daughter for prep-school interviews in our home town of Exeter, NH and Andover, MA during the worst of it:

Last night, the TH Daughter and I drove from Princeton up to Exeter, New Hampshire, where she will, in theory, interview at a school of great repute later this morning. As everybody who lives in the Northeast can surely imagine, the drive was miserable. It rained, a lot, for the entire six and a half hours. By the time we arrived at the "Inn by the Bandstand" — a cute little bed and breakfast in the center of town — everything other than the salt-covered roads had a brilliant coating of ice.

Now it is a little before six in the morning. I awoke thinking that the room was awfully cold, but then I thought that perhaps that was a New England bed-and-breakfast thing and that there was a very nice comforter on the bed so we had planned for this. Then I realized that the lights on the tiny little Christmas tree by my fireplace were dark, and I thought "huh, I wonder if they are on a timer." Then it occurred to me that the power is out. Moreover, I judge from the temperature of the room and the condition of my computer's battery that the power has been out for several hours.

We were wicked delighted at the way things turned out:

Exeter the school did not have any more power than anywhere else in the region, but a silly inconvenience like no electricity does not shut down a New England boarding school. The admissions office was dark and cold in temperature, but the people inside were bright in attitude and warm in spirit and carrying on with business as usual, but for the winter coats and candles everywhere. I let myself imagine that there was a day when Exeter must have conducted all its admissions interviews by candlelight.

As we wrote in the comments:

My hometown, Exeter, NH. In my day, it was boys only, and said boys were the center of us dreamy-eyed girls' lives.

Wondering whether the weather difference between Exeter and Andover will influence the TH daughter's decision when the two acceptance letters arrive?

Will she choose Andover for its easier clime or Exeter for the challenge of it all?

Bottom line, when the going gets tough, the Exonians don't start mewling and keening and whining for someone to bail them out. When the going gets tough, they get out the candles.

"Just ready for a post-election break"

Tiny poses with the White House Christmas card in the countdown to supper yesterday afternoon. Nice colors all around.

"YEAH, IT’S BEEN A LITTLE SLOWER THAN USUAL, writes the Professor:

I’m taking a semi-vacation from blogging this week. Still online some, but less than usual. Email in particular, isn’t getting the usual attention. Just ready for a post-election break.

The view from the front porch early morning as the faux Alps across the street at Eastern Salt catch the sun's early rays.

Yah. That's kind of how we feel of late. 'Been reading a lot of stuff — with an eye out especially for rumblings of burgeoning Palin power — thinking and discussing with Tuck and Goomp and our sis but not writing so much. We hear tell our old love Fred Thompson may be getting the Alaska Governor up to speed on foreign relations and such:

There's some low-level buzz among the Palinisti that Fred may already be quietly tutoring Sarah on FR and federal gov't waste (he wrote the book). Jeri Thompson has taken a leading role in Team Sarah, a group of mostly women that's supporting Palin, and there's speculation that Jeri has persuaded Fred to help mentor the governor.

One thing our friends on the other side of the aisle — and their fellow travelers in academia and the media — are missing big time: Sarah isn't just for evangelicals and social conservatives.

Update: More election-break opportunities, with and without backbones, at Modulator's Friday Ark #220.

It was a Chelsea morning

"Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I saw" were the sun's early rays dazzling the pure white cranes of Ice Type Handymax bulk carrier "Lowlands Opal" out of Panama across the street at Eastern Salt here in Chelsea-by-the-Sea.

" . . . and a rainbow on the wall, Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you, crimson crystal beads to beckon." Grape-family member Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus cuspidata) trips the light fantastic on the great retaining wall behind the house.

"There was milk and toast and honey and a bowl of oranges, too, And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses," but who needs Joni Mitchell's "milk and toast and honey" when you've got Eggs Bennie with Hollandaise Light Fantastic, the latest entry in our Cold Turkey Cookbook. What to do with the egg whites when you separate out the yolks for the Perfect Hollandaise? We whipped 'em up to stiff peaks and folded the meringue into the basic Hollandaise for a sensuously pale yellow, fluffy concoction that's fun to eat. Excerpts from an imail conversation:

We: I checked out online to see if anyone else had tried it. Someone had and said it was wonderfully light. And it is.

She: What made you decide to try that?

We: It came to me in a dream? Actually, it was the ease of beating egg whites, which I've become used to in making my broccoli and spinach MOOSES (MEESE?), with my adorable new KitchenAid Immersion Blender.

Enhancing the creative process with new technologies in our own Experimental Kitchen.

She: LOL. I must say, as much as I love Hollandaise, it always sits in my stomach like a pound of butter, for two days. Lightening it up sounds like a stroke of pure genius. God works in mysterious ways, yes?

We: And don't forget your cream of tartar.

She: Sis, trust me on this one. You can forget cream of tartar. Not necessary.

We: Really? But I don't WANT to forget it. It reminds me of "eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog."

She: Well, we ARE the Weird Sisters. Our cooking should reflect that.

"For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."

"Duty, honor and country," McCain's core values

Cranes and salt pile frame a glorious sunset across the street from Chelsea-by-the-Sea at Eastern Minerals early evening. The sometimes too sober Fred Barnes says McCain will win; the ever clueless Mort Kondrake says Obama. Fred cites "duty, honor and country," McCain's core values as explicated in a superb WSJ editorial this morning. Johnny's core values were the very thing that finally allowed us to 'learn to stop worrying and love John McCain" back last February. Our sister, our dear blogfriend Miss Kelly and our own gut are chanting "Landslide."

"I would never leave you for another man, or woman"

The Coast Guard helicopter that came out of the blue to hang suspended over Chelsea Creek across the street for a "vertical delivery" yesterday won every heart and mind of neighborhood families enjoying Eastern Salt's totally awesome Maritime Festival. Its rotors' turbulence roiled the waters, stirring up half-remembered miasmas of the mind. Teresa Hummel photo.

"This is really sick," we wrote our sis re a UK Independent article headlined "Attenborough alarmed as children are left flummoxed by test on the natural world":

Less than two-thirds (62 per cent) identified frogs.

It seems impossible. Even if they are out of touch with nature, haven't these kids ever seen "Sesame Street"? Can you say Kermit the Frog? 'Guess that being green is even harder than we thought. And here's the irony of it all:

Experts blamed the widening gulf between children and nature on over-protective parents and the hostility to children among some conservationists, who fear that they will damage the environment. They said that this lack of exposure to outdoor play in natural environments was vital for children's social and emotional development.

"They don't understand beauty, let alone recognize it in unexpected places," noted our sis.

Christian and Susan, two for the seesaw, beautiful people —madonna and child —who light up our life blessed us with their presence for 24 hours starting midday on Saturday. Talk about energizer bunnies. Woo hoo. So much fun, so little time. Sissy Willis photo.

"All I want to say is … you are THE MOST gracious hostess ever was. We have our rough spots, but at the end of the day … Sisters, sisters … I would never leave you for another man, or woman":

Caring, sharing ev'ry little thing that we are wearing.
When a certain gentleman arrived from Rome
She wore the dress and I stayed home.

When the helicopter hovered and the froggy-footed man descended, tears of ecstasy flooded these old eyes and set this hoary heart to skipping a beat or two. Teresa Hummel photo.

"Where did you get that dress, it's awful, and those shoes and that coat, jeeeeez!"  TH photo.

Eastern Salt imaginator Dan Adams and his stunning bride Marie were there, of course. They asked us in fun how long she could be referred to as a bride, what with their having tied the knot just last June or so, if we're remembering correctly. "One year," we replied. "Then you can call her anything you want." Oh, gosh. Battle-of-the-sexes jokes aren't so funny when you're young. May their life together be blessed with love and understanding. TH photo.

We love these guys. They lend the light fantastic to any gathering. Such magic. TH photo.

Paul Lamb, dock manager of Eastern Salt and Leo Mahoney, the Father of All Chelsea Salt Piles, brought gravitas, a great hawaiian shirt and a superb bowler hat to the day's festivities. TH photo.

Say cheese. City Manager Jay Ash — wicked tall with sandals, right of center — presented the Coast Guard with a totally awesome Chelsea Clock in recognition of all they do to make our shores safe for democracy. TH photo.

Company president Shelagh Mahoney with her papa and the next generation smile for the cameras. Sissy Willis photo.

Wow are we lucky to have the dog folks, Kayem, as a local sponsor. Yummy!!! TH photo. 

Well look at that! A sign featuring a photograph of one of the salt mines (left) and one of our own photographic images of the working waterfront (right) inviting Maritime Festival goers to walk around the corner and visit the "Landing Salt" exhibition. SW photo

There's that ubiquitous woman with a camera, Teresa herself, chatting with the guard lady at the "Landing Salt" show, with Ken and Tuck in the foreground studying a satellite image of Eastern Salt and environs on the gallery floor. SW photo.

Teresa found, as we had a couple of weeks back, that that lovely guard lady at the Pearl Street Gallery had become enchanted with the show, learning for the first time in her life where road salt comes from and how it gets to market.

We broke bread — and sipped the bubbly — together last night with our party of six and this morning with the usual suspects left over after an extended wee-hour marathon. Deep, dark and delicious. These gatherings are not for the faint of heart.

Update: Teresa's take here and lots more pictures with captions here.         

"Comparing him to Obama, though, I LOVE the big old lug"

Chelsea Chamber of Commerce automobiles go tire to tire with earth-moving equipment across the street at Eastern Salt as respectable local business people take off on a cruise of Boston Inner Harbor to embrace for a few hours the "ephemerality, cacophony, multiplicity and simultaneity of Everyday Urbanism.

"I think that the years of captivity truly rattled his brain, as it would," writes our imail correspondent, taking the ball of Daniel Henninger's rhetorical "Is John McCain Stupid?" and running with it:

I think he's an idiot, in many ways. Comparing him to Obama, though, I LOVE the big old lug.

That's pretty much where we've been as of late in this disingenuously who-me? race-bating race from Hell, from the moment in December of 2006 that we got a glimpse of the cynical heart of darkness that is Barack Obama's game plan. That so many of our fellow Americans are buyin' his snake oil reminds us of how nothing changes but the date. McCain's new "Celeb" ad linking Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Barack Obama was a breath of fresh air to those of us on the right side of the aisle. The shock, shock and outrage of our friends on the other side of the aisle told us the McCain folks had hit a nerve.

"I have a blogpost in mind but haven't found the mental space to pursue it," we further imailed our sis, following a blow-by-blow accounting of a day of wall-to-wall cooking in preparation for the après ski  part of Saturday's Eastern Minerals Maritime Festival:

She: What is rattling the cell?

We: Having to do with that walkable neighborhoods thing and a ridiculous Chelsea Record article about Eastern Minerals' Maritime Festival. The first paragraph is right out of the liberal playbook.

She: Oh, no. Is the Record panning it already?

We: And I quote: "Chelsea's working waterfront can often seem like an unfriendly, uniniviting place." They introduce the concept with boilerplate anti-salt and then go on to praise the events: "Heavy machinery, mountainous piles of road salt and large seagoing ships are among the drawbacks that make the waterfront a less than ideal place to go for a stroll or take a leisurely walk. However, that will change this weekend as the Eastern Salt Company plays host to the Sixth Annual Eastern Salt Maritime Festival."

The search for beauty in unexpected places that is the essence of our worldview and the paradigm of Everyday Urbanism eludes the close-minded, inside-the-box thinkers of what we have called the "permanently angry folk of the Chelsea Green Space and Recreation Committee, who 'demand' that Eastern Minerals 'find an alternative site for the salt' and 'any remaining salt be covered with a solid structure, as required by state law.'" Chelsea Record reporter Joseph Domelowicz, Jr. appears to have bought their story, no questions asked. One man's drawbacks are another's romance of the sea.

More about "walkable neighborhoods" — ours is "Very Walkable" and Goomp's Camelot-by-the-Sea" is "Car-Dependant" according to Walk Score's algorithm —and how they may make you fat or thin as soon as we come up for air.

A vertical delivery on the salt dock

Everyday Urbanism will out. "Between 12 and 2 pm next Saturday the USCG will perform a vertical delivery on the salt dock" across the street from us here at Chelsea-by-the-Sea, emails Dan Adams re the highlight of Eastern Salt's Chelsea Maritime Festival 10 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 2:

A helicopter hovers high over the ground, and USCG personnel repel down cables onto the dock … It should be a really spectacular demonstration and vision.

"The newest and most powerful tractor tug in Boston is Leo," according to Professional Mariner. Leo will be dockside across the street for tours August  2 for Eastern Salt's Chelsea Maritime Festival.

We're hoping for the totally awesome repro of Darwin's Beagle with state-of-the-art innards for sometime next year, but while we're waiting, the "newest and most powerful tractor tug in Boston," Leo will be lying alongside Eastern Salt next weekend for interested boarding parties:

Boston’s traditional tugboat company, Boston Towing & Transportation, has had to make room this year for an expanded, refinanced and revitalized competitor — Constellation Martitime, acquired by Foss Maritime of Seattle in 2006 …

Out at the end of Pier 1 in Charlestown, near the autoport at the end of Terminal Street, just north of the Charlestown Navy Yard, it’s beginning to look like a Foss Maritime satellite yard with half a dozen green and white tugs tied up around a couple of work barges, one of which houses a maintenance facility and offices. What’s left of the old Constellation fleet — tied up around the corner — is totally eclipsed by the newer and more powerful green and white Foss tugs. While a couple of new Foss tractor-style tugs get the headlines these days, a handful of very capable twin-screw tugs are also there to do the heavy hauling.

Most of them are being renamed after stellar constellations, except the newest and most powerful — the 5,080-hp z-drive tractor, Leo, which arrived in Boston in mid-March already bearing a constellation name. Leo and another Foss tractor, the 3,000-hp cycloidal-drive tug America (just renamed Orion), were both towed around from the West Coast as dead ships, arriving with a disfiguring coating of ice at the tail end of winter.

Boston Towing, with 13 tugs including two LNG-capable, z-drive tractor tugs, still has the majority of ship-assist work in this mid-sized port — estimated to be at least 75 percent market share — but Constellation, backed by an aggressive parent company eager to build itself as a national brand, is sure to be coming on strong in the near future.

We're totally into the USCG these days, our nephew's beloved's being a member of the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Tahoma of cocaine-busting fame. Our exhibition at Pearl Street Gallery just up the street from Eastern Salt will be open for tours during the festival, and for friends of sisu there'll be food and drink at Chelsea-by-the-Sea following the formal event. If you're in the area —or if not, feel free to go out of your way — please stop by.