Here We Go Again

Tonight was scheduled to be the first night of the second set of woodcut classes this summer in Belmar.  Got an e-mail response from the director when I came home from mowing the lawn, providing me with a requested roster of students, in the form of scanned copies of all the enrollment forms.  That works.  Left me with just one problem- every weather report said that a huge rain storm was scheduled to pass through my area in the late afternoon/early evening, just when I'd be needing to drive to Belmar and unload for the class.  At least I was able to load the big and delicate stuff early (the stuff that can't get wet) in the afternoon.  But everything was packed against the weather, so no problems there.  Still a big concern- Belmar has a history of flooding in the rain.  Had a storm almost keep me from getting to the opening class of woodcut there a few years ago and only my habit of going early got me there that day.

So no surprise, the rain came, showed no signs of moving on, so I left plenty early.  Both main road into town Route 35 and the back roads to the south west have a history of problems, so today I decided to try route 71.  No good- within one block we got detoured back to where we had come, the road was closed.  OK, let's try route 35.  Police cars were blocking many of the side street leading from 35 into town, but 35 itself was open and clear, at least as far as 10th Avenue, my planned point of entry into town.  That and Main Street also remained open, so I was able to get to get to the Boatworks by a reasonable time.  Rain was still falling steadily, so I skipped my traditional slice for dinner and unloaded a few things that could survive a few drops of rain.  The class room had 3 small tables set up, 6 chairs, but I figured we could use more table space, so I used the time waiting to bring  in an extra full size folding table.

My first student showed up about 15 minutes before our start time, and I had the expected 6 students all in place by the start of class, so I figured all was right.  But when I went through the list I found one of my 6 was not among the names I had been sent today.  She did have a print out of her online registration, which seemed to indicate that she was paid up, and the other paid student never showed, so we had the room and I figured we'd get it straightened out later.

Class went on as usual.  Started with some exchange folios (emphasis on relief and traditional prints), and some examples of my work (supermarkets, boardwalks), all of which are intended to show the range of possibilities with the medium.  No demos tonight, but I did take some time to show the kinds of paper I'd have available for the class, and the kinds of tools we will be using .  Cut everyone a block of wood (by now the rain had stopped and I could safely move the stuff inside) and gave some general advice for drawing their ideas.  That took us up to about the end of class, so I answered any remaining questions and told them I'd see them again in 2 weeks, which is our next scheduled class.

All that was left was to clean up.  Packing materials when it's not raining goes a lot faster than when it is raining.  Same for loading and unloading a car.  And driving through Belmar for that matter.  I will have to go back tomorrow to turn in some paperwork and see if I can figure out what is going on with my roster, but that's a problem for another day.