Otter's Outings

5/28/2020 So, it's a weird time, but today I want to tell you about the gear. It is a bike gear, but this isn't a post about bicycling.  In the summer of 2017, I went on a bike ride from Cumberland, Maryland to Pittsburgh, PA.  I know, not a post about bicycling, but on that ride, I met Rachel Sager, the forager mosaicist.  To hear more about that adventure, check it out here:  Riding the Rails . A year later I found myself in Rachel's studio for a mosaic class.  I knew nothing, it was raining and there was a crazy student named Sheri that I would completely adore by the end of it.  Again, this is all background on how I got involved with this gear!  For the story of dancing, rain, coal mines and foraging, head to this spot:  Mosaics Adventure . I fell in love with micro-mosaics that weekend.  The big installations are fun, but I love working tiny.  When the opportunity came up for me to complete a gear to send back to the Ruins (...

At times I find myself with a free Saturday in New York City. I love trying to turn these days away from home into something practical. This time I hit the jackpot with a shoe making class in Hoboken with Rebecca.  Not to blow the headline, but I made these shoes!  They are vegan leather and incredibly comfortable.  We went from patterns, to sewing to construction. It was a great day and I learned loads!  10 hours later, I knew more specialized vocabulary that I could have imagined and I was terribly proud to wear these to work the following Monday. Wall Street has never been that cool. "The Mullet" The sole and the last. The overwhelming vegan leather options! Cutting out the patterns. All the components! As beautiful on the inside as they will be on the outside. Rebecca on a very unique sewing machine. This tool reminds me of a dinosaur or alien.  Jury is still out, but what a great tool! Looking like a shoe!...

8 January 2020 2019 appears as a colorful smear.  Maybe paint, maybe a little blood, definitely some mosaic grout.  It is as bold and abstract as anything from my art history courses, but I made it.  And now I can say we made it.  I'm now part of a we, but today still stands with value.  The first float of the year will likely always be solo due to temperatures of both water and air, but I love it.  It is 5 hours in the car of a book, music and sightseeing.  It is 4 hours on the river of complete solitude.  Once I say goodbye to Big Mike (my favorite shuttle driver of all time) I have 10.5 miles of open water, cliffs, gravel bars and me.  That doesn't sound like a big feat, but 4 hours of silence with yourself can be a bit startling in this very connected and on demand world.  I had temptations to turn on tunes and I fought it.  Fought to instead turn my ears to listening to the numerous critters making their way through dead win...