The Inaugural Celebration is underway in Washington, DC and I must admit that it, again, feels a little weird to be so far away from DC with so much going on there. We’d really gotten used to all the fanfare surrounding the White House every four years.
This year is different. We listened on NPR to today’s concert celebrating the upcoming Obama presidency while we worked on the boat. First, I put yet another coat of paint on the middle portion of the two masts. Greenfield Pumpkin, a mild honey brown color that makes me think of fall in Connecticut and old houses. The concert started with president-elect Obama’s 10 favorite songs. Bruce Springsteen sang while I worked and then I hummed along to Copeland thinking what nice music taste Mr. Obama has. The tops of the masts, above the spreaders, are bright white. If I were a purist, I’d keep Mahdee’s masts below the spreaders brightly varnished but I suspect there is already way too much in the way of brightwork on the Mahdee to add masts to the list of varnish maintenance. Instead, a few weeks ago, I put a few coats of varnish on to seal the wood–I can always have “bright” masts in the future–and painted them a two-tone color scheme that should look quite pretty and “shippy.”
Later, David and I together continued our NPR listening, while installing the large thru-hulls in the transom for the engine and the gen-set. David on the inside working with huge wrenches to tighten the 2″ and 3″ bronze thru-hulls against the several inch thick oak blocking and mahogany planking; me on the outside pre-loading the wood with white lead paste to keep decay away and Tremco sealant under the rim of the bronze to keep it all water-tight. And then, pound, pound, pounding with a weighted rubber mallet to push the heavy thru-hulls into place I thought I would fall right off the ladder–but I didn’t. I had other chances to fall as I completed the task of putting the last little bead of sealant along the lower edge of the caprail where it hangs over the transom. U2 played on–In The Name of Love–inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. Tiger Woods spoke in tribute to the military–I didn’t know he was the child of a military officer. Ah, now it makes a bit of sense how this little black boy was on the golf courses as a toddler and grew up playing golf. All the military bases have golf courses; many of them quite good. Then, as I wobbled my way along the scaffold taking off the blue tape and admiring my work, the concert was over and the commentary turned to the Marine Corps Marching Band and discussions of favorite music of various presidents and how the band cannot play if the temperatures drop into the 20’s.
A nice way to spend a warm sunny California afternoon–hearing about the bitter cold of the capitol city expected in two days time. I was no longer feeling quite nostalgic or “left out” without tickets to a Washington, DC inaugural ball.
Today was a good day of work on Mahdee.
