Closing Out 2013

We are a couple of days into the new year, but there's still some business from the old year to be finished.  There are my holiday cards of course.  The past few days I've been finishing my fall semester grades.  All have been calculated, some have been submitted, and the rest I'll take care of tomorrow.  One thing had to be done today, pick up my recent show in Red Bank.

The date had been on my calendar, and I got an e-mail reminder a few days ago.  Potentially complicating things today was weather, for days a significant snow storm was predicted.  The good news is that almost everyone agreed that actual snow wouldn't arrive in the area until very late afternoon or early evening, and the gallery's preferred time for pick up was early afternoon.  And this turned out to be right.  Very cold and windy all day, but no precipitation when I set out around mid day.  Saw a couple of empty street spots on the first block of Monmouth St, but decided to pass them and see if there were any closer.  Turned out no, but I went around the block on the next street through, and when I came back they were still there.  Parking still wasn't easy.  My current vehicle is relatively short and makes tight turns, so parallel parking is usually simple enough, but it becomes more of a challenge when the street is very narrow by modern standards, barely room for each lane of traffic to squeeze through the endless parked cars.  And even though the block was clear in both directions as I began backing into my space, quickly other vehicles charged in from both directions, feeling no need to  give me the space to complete the move.   And then there's the buses- it seems that every NJ Transit bus that passes through Red Bank takes this two block stretch.  I saw at least four in the few minutes I was outside before and after picking up my art from the gallery, including two having to pass each other in opposite directions.  (only possible because one used a wide driveway- no parked cars there- to get the few extra inches of street width to pull this off)

But in the end I got my space, pushed my hand truck (still one of the best investment I ever made) and packaging stuff down the the gallery, packed up my art, loaded it up, and got on my way home.  Felt a few flurries while pushing my art back to the car, but no weather dangers today.  The storm did arrive as scheduled.  As I write this the air is thick with snow, being whipped around by the wind so much that very little has accumulated on top of cars.  Got nowhere I have to go tomorrow, so this weather is fine with me.