Fast at Fifty

A week ago, with friends and family,
I celebrated my birthday - for the 50th time.
It was a great day, with lots of folks over for barbecue and cake.
I enjoyed swapping great stories with several gondoliers.
Bring up "falling in the water" with a bunch of guys who make their living
on a boat and you're sure to hear some fun stories.

One of my great friends is Steve Atkins, who is the father of gondolier
Simon in my Newport operation.  Steve wrote me by far the most creative
and researched birthday cards I've ever received.

I asked him to send me the text so I could post it, because really,
something like this deserves to be appreciated by everyone.
With any luck it might just go viral.

Here's the birthday message to me from Steve Atkins
on my 50th anniversary as a person:

My dear friend Greg,

You've now lived for 110010 years, as far as binary goes.
The Romans would have said you are now L.
That looks nice and clean and probably significant to them.
In base 10, you're 50, and that's significant to much of the modern world, but what's a year anyway? And why aren't we counting those first 9 months?

Today we have arrived at roughly the same place in our solar orbit where you were when you were born. For lack of a better name, we could call this place February 21st. In the northern hemisphere, we call this neighborhood of the solar system winter. Counting the day you were born, you've now been here 51 times, but it kind of feels like, other than orbiting the sun 50 times, maybe you haven't really gotten anywhere.

After thinking about that for awhile, and thinking that must be wrong, I did some research and some math, and based on the rotation of our galaxy and the speed at which it is hurtling toward this ominous sounding thing that I didn't even know about before called The Great Attractor, it turns out that in your lifetime, you've actually traveled 914,286,753,091 miles. I know that's not a nice round number like 50, but... all I can say is congratulations!

And no matter where or when you go in the future, I'll be glad to be your friend. Don't feel old, feel fast!  (and well traveled indeed)

Happy Birthday,
Steve Atkins

So to my friend Steve:
thanks for this great, thought provoking piece of well-wishing.

To my friends who were at my house on the 21st:
Thanks for being here to help usher in the big number.

To those who couldn't make it:
I hope to see you soon, and thank you for your friendship - it's worth more to me than you know.

And to anyone who might be racing against me in the upcoming US Gondola Nationals:
Watch out! I'm fifty, and I'm fast!

Falcate

Moments after hauling out the Lucia, I looked back at the boat
and noticed an artful shadow of the beautiful gondola that was
brought to the U.S. back in the 60's by the Curci family.

I've used the word "crescent" plenty of times.
A "Moon Shadow" title was considered, but I knew that millions of
Cat Stevens fans would find my post, only to learn that it had nothing
to do with his hit song from the 70's.

Finally my wife (who is a lot more intelligent than I am)
suggested a latin-based word:
"falcate" - which describes things of this shape.
From eucalyptus leaves, to dolphin's dorsal fins,
a thumbnail moon to every Venetian gondola.
They all have that falcate shape.

The same moon-shaped shadow can be seen in the post
"Shadow in Providence", with a remarkable rear-view-mirror photo,
deftly taken while driving.

And while we're talking about shadows, an interesting gondolier's
shadow was photographed and shared in the post "Shadow".

Falcate.
It's a new addition to your "gondola vocabulary".

Truck Noodle

My friend John Kerschbaum operates gondolas on the St. Croix River
in Minnesota, but each winter he drives south, explores the deserts of the South-West, and then comes to Newport to row with us for Valentine's Day.

This year he arrived, eager to see the new gondola, and amused by the photos of noodle stickers plastered on both sides of the bow.

I saved a fusilli souvenir and stuck it on John's truck to take home with him.

as I write this, John has just arrived home in Minnesota after a long drive,
and is most likely sleeping quite soundly - warmed by the fire in a wood-burning stove as the snow falls outside.

 

The "Truck Noodle" - no truck should go without one.

Dolphin and Trident

photo by Candace Benson

Cavalli are the impressive brass fixtures that decorate gondolas
and a few other rowed passenger vessels from Venice.

Most cavalli are designed on a horse theme - which makes sense
as "cavalli" translates to "horses".
There are some deviations though.

Here we see one version of the "dolphin and trident" design.
Taking a closer look, you might think that the "dolphin" looks more like
a serpent-like sea monster, but what we're looking at here is an example
of how the ancients saw dolphins.

Two Boats and Two Cameras

photos by Candace Benson and Isabella Mohr

Two boats, two couples, two cameras.

On Valentine's Day we sent out several cruises
with staff photographers on board.
At one point Jakob and I ended up next to each other and the fun began.
Well, really, it began when he started catching up to us and we had a little rowing contest.

I'd call it a race, but there was also some clever maneuvering
(that means I cut in front of Jakob before he could blow past me),
and some spinning (a result of the maneuvering).
Our couples enjoyed the experience even more than we did,
and our photographers caught some of it in freeze-frame.

Jakob approaches on the "Lucia".

Jakob catching up with Candace snapping away.

Here's what it looked like from our boat.

 

 My photographer expresses herself.

The purple-striped remo in action.

 

We had a ball out on the water.

 

Beginning my "maneuver".

 

Spinning the new boat as the Lucia cruises by.

 
It was fun to blow off some steam and get those gondolas moving.
I was also happy to take the new boat and do something other than
slow and easy cruising.

Just the Photo - Two Ferros, One Gondola

Stripes Reflected

photo by Candace Benson

One of our staff photographers caught this image of a striped remo
reflecting on blue water as the pupparin known as "Contessa"
passed by on Valentine's Day.

Recovery

"Happy National Gondolier Recovery Day!"
This was the funniest and most accurate facebook post I'd read in a long time.  Mike Bixler - a gondolier from The Gondola Company in the San Diego area posted it.

Barring any bad weather, Valentine's Day is the busiest day of our year around here.
The weather could not have been better here in southern California.
Chocolate was melting and gondoliers were getting sunburned faces.

The 14th was a banner day, and the 15th, a Sunday,
was pretty darn busy too.
I chose to celebrate Gondolier Recovery Day on Monday.
Coffee with some of my favorite gondola company owners,
conversations with some others, a nap in the afternoon.

Valentine's Day is behind us once again.
I'll reflect further in the Jacuzzi.

It's Here!

 

Happy Valentine's Day from the Gondola Blog.

 

I'd write more, but then I'd be late for my first cruise!