......

IT HAD ONLY BEEN DECEMBER for seven hours when I climbed out of bed on this cold and cloudy Saturday morning.  ("Be at my house by 8:30," Janie had said, and my bags and boxes of recycling had to get to the recycling spot prior to that.  [It was while unloading the third box of already-been-read newspapers that one lens fell out of my glasses, necessitating a hurried trip back home for an old pair before heading to Janie's house*]).

So then I rode with Janie and her husband Lavern and eight or ten boxes filled with pottery to the home of Sue, who's got herself a wood-fire kiln that she helped to build. I was eager to experience this build-a-fire-to-fire-the-pots event!

Now, Reader Dear, I already mentioned that it was cold, did I not?  However, I had dashed out the door without much thought to the degree of chill in the air.  My friend Janie had on a down jacket and warm hat and gloves.  I was not so warmly dressed.  Alas, it proved to be the overriding factor during the next four hours of my life!   Nevertheless, I was ready to get started, and Sue showed up shortly to offer instructions. 




First thing, Sue and Lavern really raised the roof!















No sooner had they opened up a space for Phil to climb in, than Phil arrived to climb into this kiln! I soon deduced that Phil was the expert here.  He gave us instructions throughout the process:

1. Unloading the boxes of pottery and grouping the pieces by height.
2. Wadding each and every piece.
 (And here, Reader Dear, I insert a few words on wads) 
a. Wadding involves rolling multiple small balls of sandy clay to attach to the bottom of each pottery creation in order that it will not end up baked tightly to the shelf upon which it rests in the kiln.

b. All pieces require a minimum of three wads.

c.  Lids require special-attention wads.

d. Wads cannot be formed or attached while wearing gloves.

e. When there are umpteen pieces of pottery to go into a   kiln, something like a gazillion wads must be formed and attached.

f.  When the weather tends toward frigid, fingers forming wads freeze fast.

g.  Any fun aspects of wadding diminish as fingers freeze.

As wadding went on, Phil spent his time inside the kiln skillfully loading the shelves.

When I finked out early and called an end to my first experience at helping to load a wood-fired kiln, Phil was loading his final shelf.  It was twelve and a half hours into December and I was really into the hot coffee that Lavern brought along when  he came to provide a ride home!

(A fire will be built, and others will stoke it throughout the night tonight-- 

[You will have to imagine it, Reader Dear (the wadding stint caused me to wimp out on this aspect of wood-firing!)])

...... 

* I only mention this triviality because this 

variety of happenstance seems to be a peculiar 

affliction of me alone!  I beg you to tell me it's not so,

Reader Dear!