Getting Dusty Again

I was back on Governor's Island today for our annual Downtown Boathouse picnic.

Yesterday was SO COLD, I wore my merino wool unders today and- depite the weather being similar...?? I was too hot!

Oh well.

Since it appears I am incapable of going anywhere without paint, but today was not a day for oils, I brought my new Luchetti sketchbook and some pastels.

Last Sunday on my overnight shift on the hotline I brought my Luchetti Via (the little Luchetti) and some pastels and I did a mini made-up landscape which I haven't posted anywhere yet. I have missed working in pastel but haven't wanted the commitment of a full painting.

The sketchbook is perfect. It's filling a gap I have been looking to fill for a while now.

Both my Luchettis are hot press and this paper seriously will take anything.

This is a one-hour painting, 8x16.

I used those Sennelier pencils I got last year and my travel set of Nupastel.

Next time I'm bringing Unisons, oh yes I am.

I primed the paper with clear gesso which is very nice for pastel- it's a rough surface, different than regular white gesso.

The surface texture was good but I struggled with the white of the paper... I never work on white with pastel.

Those Senn pencils are hard-pastel and are kind of only good for blocking in those under-layers...well, my experience with them, so far. Nupastel is softer and has to go on top of these senns.

I do not consider this part of my personal 50 plein air a year goal... that's for standalone oils only.

When I got home I had this BRILLIANT! IDEA! to mix raw pigment right into the clear gesso for a nice toned-but-still-transparent-ish surface for pastels.

This is freaking brilliant.

I have so much raw pigment because of egg tempera.

It's nice when mediums cross over and help each other.

I think of soft pastel, oil paint, and egg tempera as first cousins.

I have used grated pastel dust in several egg tempera paintings, now egg tempera helps my pastelling!

******

The picnic was fun and it was nice to see my friends.

Martin drove the golf cart loaded up with everything back to the ferry when it was time to leave.

Kedrin sat in front with him, we piled so much stuff onto that golf cart.

Aimee and I sat on the back- on our knees on precariously secured bungee-bins and held onto the cart for dear life.  Martin avoided most of the potholes. Sharp turns were another story....

It was more fun than a roller coaster could ever be- and possibly more dangerous- who needs Six Flags when you have the boathouse?

******

My friend M still wants to be friends.

I had to... once again.... try to explain with a psychology article why offering unsolicited advice is not a good thing and is NOT helpful...I'm honestly still not sure he really gets it.

He also said no one ever told him this before- so it really might be a new concept to him which explains why he's so fucking dense about it.  So, I have to give him grace and move on.

But I won't tolerate it anymore in our friendship.

In other relationships I just tell people outright I'm not looking for advice or analysis, and it's always fine. No conflict.

I also have to remember I have the benefit of the hotline training and experience (which seriously is HUGE)- being around more people than he is, and the caliber of people I am around is generally very high-quality, intelligent, very educated, and especially on the hotline- very emotionally intelligent. 

While I have stated my requirement, I also will give him grace and the chance to... not do it anymore.

He says he understands I don't like it. (Finally, how many times can you tell a person...)

Fuckin A, it's a good thing this is a text-only relationship.

I couldn't do it in-person.

Trash River

Last night right after work I went down to the boathouse to paddle some laps.

Now I guess I can say I have been there this month.

I haven't been on the water for a while...... the river was trashy and windy and choppy.

The dock is trashy too- probably no one has been there since the storm this past weekend, and the river is still spewing up tons of trash and wood.

I put a couple lights on a Prowler and knocked out 12 laps in exactly 1 hour and 40 minutes- it's about 9 miles in distance. In that water especially, it's quite a workout. It was a tough paddle but my system needed it. And I wanted to make sure I can still do it. I still have the stamina and strength.
And I'm not sore.

Despite having been off the water for a while, and also not being as physically active lately as I normally am, I was fine.  The river suddenly calmed down considerably for my last three laps.

I also felt sorry for all the runners, like I always do, because I get to be on the water and that's so much better than running!

The water is quite warm right now too, as is expected.

I appreciated the helpful signage in true boathouse fashion, though my cool drawing on the whiteboard got erased.

This is the nature of whiteboards, I suppose.

I think there are more than sharps on the dock right now, the north side is really bad.

A door & a long line & sunset

I wasn't allowed to take a picture of Daya's room, understandable since nothing was put together yet, and I hope she sends more pictures.

In the meantime, she did send a picture of her door.

It is a well-decorated door, except that it is missing Bob.

I let Daya know about this oversight.

After all, Bob basically got Daya into Juilliard.

(At the interview she was asked about an inspiring movie and hers was... What About Bob..)

*******

This week is the last weekday shifts of the public program.

Not many volunteers signed up, so I figured I'd go down and help out.

I spent the whole shift on patrol, and it was a good thing because otherwise everyone would have gotten stuck out of bounds against the wall. It was a harder patrol job than I thought it would be, but I got a lot of good exercise!

We had good clouds.

LOOK AT THIS LINE omg...

This photo was taken at 6:15pm, last boats should go out at 7, sunset was 7:38.

With the help we had for the shift plus the length of this line, this is about an hour and a half line.

I was SO GLAD I was not Keyholder responsible for making the decisions...

But if I was, I would have wrist-banded the whole line right at the start and avoided this altogether.

S didn't want to do that though, and since he was keyholder I said ok, I'm going on patrol.

At 7:18 there was still a LONG line with 20 minutes until sunset, and we tell people to stay out for 20 minutes.

I paddled to the dock and told S... hey, sunset is in 20 mins, we can't put all these people in line on the water.

I said I'm not going to be on the water with the public after sunset, it's not safe.

And I'm glad I wasn't the one who had to tell the many people who had been waiting that they couldn't go on the water.

I did, however, clear out the embayment nicely because I'm good at that.

DTBH 4th

I do not do the hotline on Saturdays or 4th of July.

But our scheduling person has a sparkly influence glamour or something, so I was on the Saturday 4th of July Overnight!

It worked out well with logistics and timing though and I didn't mind.... because it was a great day at the boathouse!

Because of the overnite shift, I missed the many 250th celebration happenings on the river in the morning.
It's ok, I didn't really mind.... I did see pictures of some very cool ships.

When I arrived I saw that Martin bought many new toys for the boathouse- including pool rafts and inflatable sprinklers...we tried putting one of the pool rafts on the jousting platform but it got lopsided and started to sink......

After being in the river, I was relaxing...the manager from the restaurant next door came over and asked if I would like a frozen margarita?

Um, yes please!

I'm pretty much off alcohol except rarely. 

My system doesn't like it anymore, but I could not say no to that!

Judy and I took the sunfish out!

That was... interesting.... because there wasn't enough wind.  

It was still fun tho.

Sailing! ---sort-of!

This year we were not allowed on the water for fireworks- 250th celebrations and security.

Stiil a great show!

Apparently, Jersey City likes to compete with the neighboring shows- and they do a great job!

Boofers!

This weekend was our whitewater kayaking trip on the Lehigh River, hosted by KCCNY, the Kayak & Canoe Club of NY.

Oh my gosh.

It was SO fun!

On Saturday we had theory and drills for river safety- defensive swimming, wet exits, boat-dancing to practice hip snaps, crossing eddies, ferrying, learning about reading the river. 

It RAINED ALL DAY.

Seriously, it was so, so cold. Aside from the cold rain, the day was awesome.

We had a good campfire back at camp with everyone.

Camp pics & boat fitting:

My tent.... i did miss my hammock but the tent was fine.

My tent was mostly water-proof, except around one edge.

We all thought the dry spot underneath was funny.

Aimee did bring her hammock.

On Sunday we did a for-reals river trip. It was all Class 1, with 1 bit of Class 2 rapids at the end... they call it "graduation rapids". In the morning before lunch we practiced ferrying, high bracing, and low bracing. 

We learned the pry stroke, which is used to move sideways. 

I have a particular bad habit to use a reverse stroke to turn sharply, which isn't good because you do lose all your speed momentum.

That's not good on the river!
So I need to really get in the mindset of doing a forward sweep instead- which of course is more difficult. I can do a good sweep stroke, but I need to practice. It's like we learned this whole vocabulary of strokes and maneuvers- but practice is what brings the fluency and proper use. 

But I'm a rank beginner, so it's ok.

However- I BOOFED A ROCK!

I was SO EXCITED about this!

And Jason- one of the instructors- said my eddy crossing was "sick"... I know it was good, but also I think I had some beginners' luck!

We divided into 2 teams after lunch.

At lunch there were meat sticks for the meat-inclined people- and there was much talk about the love of meat sticks from the people who... love them.

One of our instructors is named John.

And I guess earlier there was a joke where someone said "Do you need a hand, John?" but it was..... mis-heard, to much laughter.

And that's how we got to be Team Meat Stick and Team Hand John.

Despite being veg, I was proud to be on Team Meat Stick!

Team Meat Stick:

Team Hand John:

The class picture:

Whitewater kayaking is very, very different than the sea kayaking I am used to.

Some of the skills are transferrable though, and I was glad to have previous kayaking experience... otherwise I think I would have been overwhelmed.

There were people in the class who were brand new to kayaking, and they did well, which was impressive. It's not easy and there is a very high level of physical stamina.

This is something I definitely want to do again. 

It really was awesome.