Slippers and PJs and Snow

It's been so long since I fired, the details seem new to me. I got up at 5-ish this morning (that part's not unusual) and immediately - before feeding the cats, or making coffee, or anything - stumbled out in my bedclothes to brick up the small opening I left in the door of the kiln to let the moisture escape from my bisque firing. It was snowing lightly. I had forgotten the smell of steam coming off brick and the whisper of the burner. I had forgotten the warm feeling of accomplishment that still accompanies firing: I am powerful! I am forcing alpha quartz to become beta quartz! (Later, in the glaze firing, I will force beta quartz to become cristobalite, but that's later.)

Pre-coffee thoughts, I guess.

By tradition I clean house and studio during firings. My house could use a good once over or perhaps a quick run-through with the Alpheus and Peneus rivers, my studio is still very tidy. Since my big clean up and reorg last month, I've been setting the timer for 5 minutes at the end of each work day, and putting everything back where it belongs. So much nicer to work in an orderly space! Of course, I can do that, right now: it's still winter. Time is leisurely because there are no deadlines, no orders, no shows. Ask me in June if I am still tidying the studio every day.

My to-do list, then:

• Clean house
• Figure out this video camera that a friend lent me. For Kickstarter, I need a video, and while I haven't a clue how to operate a video camera, or how to turn the contents into something watchable, how hard can it be? 
• Throw bowls. I haven't thrown bowls in forever, and I woke up this morning with a powerful yen.