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| My Friday night date |
I am squeezing in a firing so I can do a kiln opening during the Pottery Tour. I bricked up around midnight, candled the kiln for a couple of hours, and then started slowly turning up the burners. Not slowly enough, apparently! I also may have skipped a step when I made the cone packs - I'm not sure I poked vent holes in them. That could have been the deciding factor. I wouldn't be surprised - I was just so tired. Oooh, it'll be suspenseful, like The Girl on the Train! Stop by Sunday morning at 11 to see how much ware got splattered. Here's your map to the studios in and around Augusta. (Also, bring your map to The Quarry Taproom for 10% this weekend! Thanks Taproom!)
In the intervening years since my last cone pack detonation, I've become much more sanguine. Stuff happens, people make mistakes, I make mistakes, it is what is it. It was too late in the firing to turn back, turn off the kiln, let it cool and clear the debris, so I guess we're just going hope for the best. I am pretty optimistic, because of the placement of the exploded pack:between two stilts, hanging over the burner channel. It's too much to hope for that nothing is damaged, but perhaps it will be minimal. I'm flying without instruments on that side of the kiln, however, so will be relying on color comparisons between the two sides.
Lateral topic shift: in part I am sanguine about this because it is the least of my worries! Due to the vote yesterday, by next year at this time, I may not have health insurance. I won't go long about it - this is not Lori's Insurance Woes Blog - but the short of it is, the bill that passed the House yesterday allows insurance companies to price people with pre-existing conditions right out of their pools, while cutting subsidies at the same time. (And you should see the list of pre-existing conditions! I bet you have one, I know I do.) It would clobber self-employed people, unless they have a spouse with insurance through their employer. I mean, I get not wanting to pay hard-earned money to help other people - everybody likes to have more money. including me! But I side-eye people who happily accept benefits that others, like me, subsidize - public schools & state universities come to mind - but balk when someone else, like me, needs help.
To be fair, it seems like almost everybody hates this bill. The 17% must be the people who are always calling me "libtard" and "snowflake." (It passed the House anyway....hmmm. Add that to the list of things I don't get. )
Not that it matters whether I get it or not. I am learning to do what I can, and not be paralyzed by anxieties of what might be. It's like the exploded cone packs: What will be, will be. It is what it is.
Anyway! Thanks for letting me talk through my worries. Lots to do today to be ready for the Tour!
Mind like moon.
Sorry to hear about the conepack. That is never a good thing. I think most self employed people like us are very apprehensive about what just happened with healthcare.You are not alone. A good tip for force drying conepacks is to stick them in a toaster oven on low. Most have heating elements on top and bottom and dry them out pretty quickly in a pinch.
ReplyDeleteHa! Yes, I should have done that, for sure. AND poke vents in them! ANd also should have made them the day before, like a smart potter would.
ReplyDeleteNext time!