Five by Five & SchietWetter

PlattDeutsch for “Shitty Weather”

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

So I tackled Chapter Five and only ended up with one alternate image (#3). I quickly moved on the Chapter Six, trying to hold onto my momentum. I mean, I had directed my daughter to feed Juney and I had a nice stretch of 45 minutes before I had to start making the kids’ dinner. And a small part of me had been looking forward to Chapter Six, because it only consisted of three slides. With a title of “Elements”, I figured I could find at least a few more images that capture the intensity of the tugs under the duress of dramatic weather conditions. But I actually struggled. I have seen Lenny’s work over and over and over again. For the most part, I continue to enjoy looking at them. But when I was given the full control over choosing, all of a sudden I felt like there wasn’t a lot there that fit the topic. Perhaps Lenny had felt the same way. Perhaps he had intended to return to the tugs but had been at the mercy of the weather forecasts. Or something else had come up. Or he had lost his inspiration or motivation? Perhaps he had tired of the project. Perhaps…

I don’t want to force things. I want to work with things as they are. I went back to Jan Stacy’s writing of Chapter Six and read it over again. As I reached the very end of the section, there it was:

“Note: Pictures here of men working in storms, snow, throwing ropes, yelling orders, ships and tugs being toosed (sic) around by waves…”

I can’t dream up those images. I can’t board a few tugs in crappy weather and take the photos myself. The images just aren’t there. I poured over all of the digitized slides, searching for a image that perhaps, upon Zooming in, might reveal something of what is described in the Note. I came up short. Should this Chapter stand as it is, unfinished? Should I take it out or combine it with another Chapter? I am going to have to sleep on this. I mean, give it several days of sleep. I did manage to add two images taken on a wintry day but they do not think they capture what Jan and Len had intended to, what some North Germans would call, “Schiettwetter.”