The Tug Chronicles commence

In December 2010, in the stairwell of the Event Space building in Queens, New York City, doing my best to speak over the band at my step-cousin’s wedding, looking out the window at the endless rows of roofs beneath a purple night sky, I purchased a tug boat in Alaska.

I had just finished renovating and selling my house in South Philadelphia – a record of which can be viewed at www.slowbuild1205. At the suggestion of a few, I have decided, as best I can, to describe the events that led to the purchase of said tug boat – henceforth referred to as “Adak” – as well as put down in writing the events that follow.

I sit now in the Greensaw Design & Build offices at 820 N. 4th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The temperature in the past few days has knocked on the door of zero. Marsha has brought in oatmeal cookies, thick with butter and sugar. Phil and I work in the shop to construct a wall we will put up to increase storage space above the woodworking room. Heath, hooded, lines out a subcontractor.

We are in the process of becoming, here at Greensaw, the company I established in December 2006, an employee-owned co-op. This weekend we will go to a cabin in northcentral Pennsylvania and, for two days, don our wigs, unsheath our quill pens, and become writers of a constitution. This is my family in Philadelphia – but another story entirely, the record of which can be read at http://www.greensawdesign.com/blog.html.

Meanwhile I’ll keep checking in over here. Who the hell knows what will happen.

Photos:

At Wharton Esherick House - December 2010

Very good cookies in that green container - 25 January 2011

Queens NYC - December 2010