SketchCrawl Indy July 31st, 28th Worldwide!

Just a quick note; I found out about SketchCrawl from one of the local Indianapolis papers, and will be participating! Sunday is the Artist's Open House for the 2010 State Fair also, will be there from 4pm - 6pm. Will post photos from these events next week at some point.

-Joe

How I rode 30 miles downtown and back for a drink of water

(Note: I wrote this on Saturday night, just haven't had time to post/upload pics til now)

Today, I finally rode the full route from 86^th st. to IUPUI. It was about 30 miles roundtrip, took about 2 hrs. 15 mins. I wanted to do this on a day when I wasn’t working, so I wouldn’t be under time pressure yet. I drove my car, with bike in tow, to the 86^th st. Kroger lot, parked, and hopped on the trail around 8. This is later than I would take going to work, since I have to be at work by 7, but I just couldn’t get up that early today. 

Which brings me to the first learned lesson today; it’s VERY important to eat an energizing breakfast before heading out. I skipped it today, since I wanted to be out before the sun got too bad. It came back to hit me later.

So, the ride there went by pretty quickly. There wasn’t as much traffic as I was expecting, so I didn’t have to pass too many people, or weave around behind crowds. I stopped along the way to take photos to document a few landmarks on the route, specifically for the map I made. I saw a bunch of wildlife along the way, many ducks, geese, a few turtles, some beavers, and a hawk.

I took the Monon to the Canal Towpath, which was the slowest going part of the trip. This is the least-paved trail, mainly crushed limestone, and powdery gravel, so this limits speeds a bit. It is the most scenic route, at one point, the trail is surrounded by water on both sides, and there’s trees and wildlife all around. When the Canal Towpath meets the Wapahini/White River Greenway, going gets easier, since it’s well paved. I found a shortcut, instead of having to weave in and out of parking lots to reach the campus, I took Porte Allegre st. to New York, which cut down a bit on hassle. The trip there right around 14 miles, and took an hour.

This was my day off, so I surprised my coworkers by dropping by the office. I filled up on water, rested for about 5 minutes, and then hit the road back. By this time, it was starting to get pretty hot and sunny (high of 94 today), but I thought I could make it back in similar time.

This brings me to the second and third points learned today; even if you think you have enough water, bring more. I made it downtown on one bottle of water, but with the temperature increase, I ran out of water about 2 miles out from home on the way back. In Broad Ripple, I started to feel a bit dizzy with the heat, so stopped in at the CVS on the way, and grabbed some trail mix. Third point; always have an emergency energy snack (trail mix, granola bar, etc). This was good, since it gave me some energy, but also a bit of a sugar rush, and mixing with dehydration, this caused me to feel a pretty lightheaded, around the 28-mile mark. I had to move off the path, and lay down on the grass to catch my breath, and regain my balance, for about a minute, after the first bridge on the way home. As soon as I got back to the car, I walked in to the Kroger, and picked up some much needed water. The ride back took 15 minutes longer, since I was so tired out, and a bit dehydrated. I suffered some sore legs, but other than that, and much sweat, the ride went well.

All in all, the ride was a success, and proved that biking to work will be feasible for me (when the weather conditions are decent). Next time I’ll be sure to bring more water and snacks! I'll be updating my route map with more photos I took along the way shortly).

In other news, my mom is coming to visit tomorrow, and to see K’s show that she’s in, so that’ll be fun. Tomorrow is also drop-off day for the fair, and I have everything ready to go.

-Joe

Two days off work

So, this past month or so at work, people have been taking time off, which is as it should be. However, during a three-day period, 4 of my co-working superiors were out at the same time. This, in addition to hourly staff calling in sick or late, left the office a bit short-staffed, and left me a bit overworked. Luckily, I had planned about a month ago to take some days off after this point. My boss had been concerned that I hadn't requested any time off. "Really, you'll be okay to work the whole summer? You sure you don't need to take some time off?" He was basically telling me I "needed" to take some time off, so I picked out two days at random, to have a 4-day weekend.

In fact, I had taken a week off earlier in the Spring, to go on our 1-year Anniversary cruise to Mexico. And I try to save up enough PTO (paid time off) to take a week or two to visit family around Christmas. I wish I was able to transfer "Sick time" to vacation hours, as (knock on wood) I hardly ever call in sick (as evidenced by my 80 hrs of sick-time...). K will be in classes during the day, and in the musical at night, so I've pretty much got two days on my own.

I don't want to schedule everything I'm going to do on my time off, but don't want to waste/mismanage the time either. Tommorrow (Thursday) is supposed to be pretty rainy, so biking is likely out of the question, but I'll probably bike on Friday a bit. Other general "to-do" stuff:

• Update blog/website
• Clean/organize studio
• List some junk for sale on eBay
• Sketch/draw/paint
• Compile work for upcoming shows (State Fair drop-off is Saturday) 
• Catch up with family (via phone)
• Plant some annuals in the front yard/garden
• Get A/C in car checked out (after 5 years without, it's about time...)
• Visit IMA
• Haircut
• Catch up on videogames (Got at least a dozen games I've bought, haven't had time to play)
• Catch a $1 movie at the cheap theatre on Washington (prolly Iron Man 2 or Splice)
• Rent some DVDs from Redbox (gonna try the 'Free' codes found here)
• Excercise
• Meditate
• Read (right now in the middle of Neuromancer and Wastelands)

 These are just a few of the things I might do, like I said, don't want to thoroughly schedule my time-off, but now squander it either.

Any ideas on how to spend time off are appreciated, and I hope to return to work refreshed next week.

-Joe

2 upcoming shows, new fish, more biking

Good news; I’ve heard back from some of the art venues I’ve been looking into. I’ll be showing my work at the 2010 Numa Arts and Cultural Fair, in Westfield, IN. This outdoor art festival will be on Saturday, September 18, from 12pm – 10pm.There will be 35 participating artists this year. This is the first outdoor festival I’ve participated in, so it should be pretty fun. I’ve done indoor festivals before (Oranje, in 2008), and had a good time. I think an outdoor atmosphere will be more laid back, and easier to talk with visitors. I’ve got my own setup that K designed, and we built together, that works really nice.

I’ve also heard back from the 2010 Indiana State Fair (August 6 – 22), and will be submitting 8 works (3 drawings, 2 watercolors, 3 acrylic paintings), and participating in the Plein Air Day (August 14), where artists are invited to create a piece during the day on-site, to be displayed and judged at the Fair. I haven’t heard from any other artists who have shown at the fair, but thought I would take a chance.One of my buddies will be showing at the fair, and possibly doing a demo at Numa, so that should be fun.

The main reason I was interested in the fair, was because K’s great-great Aunt AJ would always talk about her friend who showed her work at the fair. AJ was 104 years old at the time, and would talk about how she helped her friend haul her hand-woven baskets back and forth to the fairgrounds, and what a good opportunity it was. I decided that I should give it a shot this year.

So, in addition to getting together, matting, and framing work for these upcoming shows (still waiting to hear back from one), I’ve also been keeping with the biking training regime. Just today I rode 11 miles, from home to the Monon, and back home, to see if I could add that to my 12 mile route. It would add about 5.6 miles, or 25 minutes, to my hour-long commute. Since I already have to get up and start biking before sunrise, I’m still planning on driving to the Monon entrance off of 86^th st. with my bike on the rack, and then parking and biking the 12 miles down from there. I’ve gone the full way on this route, but not in the morning hours yet. The past week has been alternately low 90’s/thunderstorms, but hopefully mid-week next week I’ll be able to bike commute to the office. I’ve also saved my route on Google Maps here, have added notes and places of interest, and will update it with photos from time to time.

I added a back rack to my bike, a handle-mounted water bottle holder (since my bike's frame is too oddly shaped), and a homemade rear fender from recycled water bottles (following the instructions found in this video). It'll do for now, didn't really want to put any more money into my Wally-World bike just yet...though I'm thinking about upgrading to some clipless pedals if I can find a cheap-ish pair, which would make my commute a bit more efficient.

I got some new aquarium fish, Petsmart is having a pretty sweet 50% off sale on many of their more popular fish, and I picked up two fish from our local specialty shop, The Reef. From The Reef:

• Malayan Halfbeak
• Blue-Eyed Gertrude Rainbowfish

From Petsmart:

• 2 Corydoras catfish (1 bronze, 1 albino)
• 2 Black Kuhli loaches
• 1 Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami

The 50% off sale is until the 25^th, so if anyone wants to stock up on any fish, now’s the time to do it.

Well, gotta get back to putting together more work for the shows. I've also got a good-sized watercolor underway, will post it when finished. Fingers crossed that I hear back from the last show here soon!

-Joe