A lot of wandering about thinking of all the stuff i will need, that i can ram into my baggage; 3000 rivets,1000 self tapping screws, 300 wood screws, 100 little brackets, 100 metres of cable, 240 LEDs, two lighting controllers, toggle switches, 400 crimps, tins snips, edging tool, jogglers, ratchet, tapping hammer, pliers and my trusty 80 year old rivet gun….
Oooh, and some socks.
The 240 red, blue and white LEDs all light up,the propellor rotates with a golf buggy motor, the headlights are rewired with LED corncob lamps, there is a red uplighter and a klaxon in the cab. I paint a winged foot on the side in Rustoleum paint . The little grey and red trucks running into Hong Kong docks had Wing Yip transport written on the doors and a logo of a winged foot. Instead of warning signs , like ‘hot exhaust’ i paint ‘spicy tofu soup’ in Korean on plates and rivet them on.
. The convoy of cars assemble, and surprisingly overlooked by the police. We joke that if the government wanted to round up everyone who is a threat to decent society they just have to descend in black Chevy Tahoes and cart us away. Painted cars, cars with a ton of plastic novelties siliconed in place, cars with fur, a van with a bomb and folk with a political or religious axe to grind. All human life is here, in a parking lot in Tulsa.
Our crazy convoy tours Tulsa, noisily interrupting folks lives. It is good to meet folks from Houston, who have driven 10 hours to be here.’ Heroicar’ , that i built in Houston 4 years ago arrives. I built it in 13 days in a dark shed. The power cables have been cut so i rewire it, and the 200 sequenced LEDs and the flapping cape work once more.
After twenty 10-12 hour days the little spaceship’Zephyr’ is built.
The ‘spaceship’ is too big for the garage so i am outside in the hot sun whacking aluminium to make it fit. Storms keep passing, dumping inches of rain in minutes. 1300 screws, nearly 2000 rivets, 5 sheets of birch ply, 240 LEDs, 340 feet of cable and 11 sheets of 0.025 aluminium. I rarely see the city except to visit Walmart, or Home Depot to buy more screws, or hinges. I am happiest each morning sitting in the cool garage at sun up, with a bowl of granola plotting the day
