A Long Walk On A Short Pier

I drove up to the Studio today, making a quick stop at the local branch of a big art and craft chain that's going out of business. The art supplies were cleaned out long ago, but all store fixtures are for sale, and I got some nice paper display racks very cheap. They will do nicely as drying racks for small and medium prints, one for me, one for Molly. I dropped them off in the Studio, then went for a walk.

I had heard that there was a big boardwalk art show in Ocean Grove today, so I walked down Main Avenue to find it. Mostly I was curious to see if anyone I knew locally was participating, and maybe promote my location at the other end of the road. But this was the professional art fair crowd with the standard folding tent-booth things, no one worth talking to. Since I was already on the boardwalk, I decided to continue north under the hot sun into Asbury Park and see Molly's show at Exhibit A. Passed the derelict Casino and other much photographed Asbury boardwalk ruins. I had never seen the gallery before, but I knew it was in the 5th Ave Pavilion, so it wasn't hard to find. It's a nice big space. Other than Molly's drawings and collages, mostly abstract work. As I left the gallery I noticed that the sky had darkened and I could feel a few drops of rain... and I was about 1.5 miles from my car. At first it was barely felt. As I neared the city limits of Ocean Grove the drops were more frequent, but it felt good on the still hot day. Still a block from Main it turned to a heavy sprinkle, but once I got a few blocks down Main the shade trees gave me some protection. Then the rain was gone, either it passed or I had walked enough to get out from under it. Between sweat and rain I was too soaked to do much work, so I went home.

It turned out that a heavier piece of the storm had knocked out power in my town, not to come back for several hours, but that's another story.