Problem Solved!

Since the Great Welder Meltdown that happened Independence Day Weekend, I have been dithering about how to get the welding done. Well: not just dithering. The plumbing; the stack; the arch form; I worked around the problem for as long as I could, and tried to work up my courage to call Augusta Tool Rental. Everyone kept telling me welding was easy, I'd be able to figure it out no problem. Still, I was intimidated, so I put it off and put it off. 

Last week a friend of ours was visiting, an elderly gentleman of Ivy League background. I showed him the progress I had made on the kiln and explained the obstacle: welding the frame. I told him I was thinking of just renting the equipment and figuring it out myself, at which he shook his head: "No, no, my dear. That's for the other folks."

"The other folks, Bob?"
"Yes, the ones who do that type of thing."

There was no use explaining to Bob that I have always endeavored to be one of those other folks, the ones who know how to do things, and anyway I realized that as wrong-headed and snobbish as the comment sounds, he was right in an essential point: there are people for whom 16 two-inch welds of iron bits would be nothing, no more difficult than throwing a board of mugs is for me. I knew welders existed, of course, but that was when the lightbulb went on that it makes no sense to struggle and dither when I could just get it done, in an hour. It's okay to have help.