On sleep patterns, troubleshooting kilns, and inventory problems.

Today was a down day. My sleep pattern was off due to working night shift at the big paper factory. I overslept a bit, so then I was up for most of the night. I have been in this type of situation before, and being awake all night means I might go down a few rabbit holes working on ideas, researching, reading, or discovering new things. Last night was a little interesting as at around 1:00 a.m. I received a text from someone with a stalled gas kiln in California who needed help.

The artist sent in images and video of his gas updraft and how it was firing. I knew right off what the problem was, and after some back and forth we managed to get the kiln temperature to rise again and, in a few hours, make temperature. It’s amazing what technology lets us do nowadays, and I was so glad I could help save a kiln load of pots. After I watched a few videos on kiln building, I then got hungry around 4:00 am. It sure is nice and quiet being awake all night on your night off.

This morning I slept in until 11:00, then went and unloaded the car of all the pots and folding shelves. I cleaned the shop a little before bringing everything in. I packed up and got ready to send out the Milk Cup collection to those people in my quarterly Collectors club, then took my wife out on a date. We went out to eat and had a nice time relaxing after having two local shows back to back for the last two weeks in between work. After writing here, I need to sleep for another two 12-hour days at the paper factory.

I need to start making work for the October shows, as I will need a lot of pots to fill spaces for three events right in a row, and then after that I need to prep for the Christmas show. It is hard to believe that the end of the year is on its way so fast, and as a maker who sells things, I need to be done earlier than normal to build an inventory. I am terrible at building an inventory of pots and many times wait until the last minute to throw and fire, but with so many shows so close together, I fear I would not be able to pull off a fast make session on time.

If I were living yesterday a second time: I would have woken up earlier the day before so my sleep patterns would have been more normal.

Things I am grateful for: Quiet times at night when I can think.

If I get to live to be 86, I might only have: 12586 days left.

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