As if to prove a point, the HWL project got completely rained out on Sunday. It was to be a short but powerful day of chalking. I was going North from Battery Park past the World Trade Center site to Chamber Street. (Getting to pass by the green building, 7 World Trade Center, on the way).
I expected it to be a somber day, I am still powerfully affected by being around the WTC site. The contrast and similarities between imminent danger (terrorism) and future danger (climate change) would have been interesting. I will write more about that when I actually get to draw the line up to the site… (The line goes through the center of the site).
I met up with a journalist from The Discovery Channel. We were to bike over the bridge to the west side to start drawing the line. Unfortunately the bike she was going to borrow had a flat tire, so in honor of our French cameraman, I let her ride on the front of the tricycle most of the way. On the flats and downhills it was not a bad deal, although at one point she was taping and asking me questions and I got completely winded because I was talking and pedaling pretty hard. It was quite a laugh that I was ferrying her around on the trike. We certainly got a lot of looks, and when we got into the city we got some honks and rude driver attitudes.
We got down to where we were going to start chalking and were waiting for my filmmaker, Justin, when the sky opened up. The weather had forecast rain in the early afternoon and then clearing for a few hours, I was thinking we could get some chalking in between the rains. Unfortunately it just kept coming down. We waited around for a couple of hours and finally decided we should just postpone (I will tack it on to the beginning of the 8/11-8/12 weekend). Justin asked me to talk a little bit about what was happening on camera. I explained that process of getting ready and the disappointment (after mentally and physically preparing for a big day) of not getting to do the line. I didn’t fully realize the impact until I started talking about it - and I almost cried! Seriously, I don’t think it was that big a deal, since I would still get to draw the line, but I was really really tired, and I guess I had really put myself in a certain frame of mind.
Anyway, it has been postponed, I waited out the rain and then biked the whole kit and kaboodle back over the bridge (lifting the filled chalker onto the trike is damn near impossible by the way) and put it back in the studio to go out again in a couple of weeks.
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