How Two Hours Solved a Four-Month Problem.

I’ve been avoiding the arch bricks for three months. Today I worked out the puzzle in two hours, and I could cry from relief. I was able to find the stacking pattern fo the kiln bricks for the arch, I had all mixed up. Before, with all the bricks piled together, the task looked like it would take a few days. I have been putting off the task until I have the time. The weather has been raining and I was also using almost every excuse I could to procrastinate. I’m going to be honest, I do this a lot. I was reviewing the kiln project and progress in Claude A.I. to see how things could be inched forward.

It was pointed out to me that there were only three types of angled bricks, and if I were to look at them closely, I would be able to separate them into three piles. The ones I was unsure of could simply be measured with a digital protractor. To the eye of a kiln builder, this would have been very easy to do. However, for me personally, I just needed a little more practice. The last time I handled the bricks was three years ago on the take-down. The deconstruction happened in July, so it was quite warm out, and so much attention was not given to what the bricks looked like. I simply took images of the arch and how the bricks were stacked, then took it down. I attempted to keep all the bricks that came from the arch on the same pallets so they would not be mixed in with the other sections of the kiln.

Once I had the three piles, it was then recommended by Claude to simply make one row of stacked bricks around the form I had placed in the ware chamber. I was not to worry about whether they were slanted or not, but just use the brick to follow the form underneath. It took a few tries, though once one side was done, all I needed to do was repeat the other side, and everything seemed to fall into place. I was so relieved as this problem was solved in the matter of two hours and not two days as I had originally thought.

The next task will be to stack all the bricks in rows on the form to do a dry run, and to be sure I have all the bricks needed before I dunk them in a china clay and sand slurry to seal up the arch as I lay in the bricks. The lesson from all of this would be to break tasks down into smaller parts and steps, and once you start doing the steps, the knot that looks impossible starts to untangle. The rest of the kiln should move along quite quickly now that the arch is figured out. Much of the planning and thinking is done, and now is the time for the manual labor.

If I were living yesterday a second time: I would have sorted those bricks three months ago instead of letting the pile intimidate me.

Things I am grateful for: A.I. that helped break down an overwhelming task into three piles and one row at a time. A digital protractor that removed the guesswork.

Days remaining if I live to 86: 12,732

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