Joyce Lee on sun 16 may 04
Johnny B said:
If you always depend on that one instrument (bubble level) to get the =
job
done by itself........ if the bubble level fails....... or you don't =
have
it around........ you won't have the skills to safely land the pot
........uh....level the wings in the chuck ........ uh........ you know
what I mean ."
-------------
An attribute which at times pleases me unduly
is a helpful though faulty memory that
has been known to allow, nay encourage, me
to re-think whole areas of experience .... so that
I perhaps don't appear as much of a flake as I
might otherwise....
John's statement reminds me how quickly I've
forgotten my own experience with the
Giffin Grip. I had more or less learned to re-center
and trim, with or without chuck, chuggin' along,=20
doin' fine........ when I read the Grip ads in CM.
Read the ad to #1, most likely knowing full well
in a more devious moment that he, an appreciator
of fine and appropriate tools...... would INSIST
that I add the Grip to my growing collection.
I did. The hunky UPS man delivered. Praise
be! The Grip was as advertised and the
one tool that I was able to use immediately after
reading the instructions, without needing an
additional Short Course in how-to, written in language=20
that I could understand. =20
Now having two wheels .... also at behest of
#1 In-House Support Engineer .... I decided to
keep the Grip positioned on the Brent. Thus,
for a long period....... a long, long period...... I
never tried to trim without the GG...... and=20
lost the necessary skills to do so. Worse yet,
I hadn't a clue until I took a workshop from a
great back-to-basics well known potter .....=20
didn't have my grip with me ..... AND
found that I could no longer trim without my
meant-to-be Backup Tool, the Grip. Awkward.
Messed up several pots destined to be bisqued
that afternoon. Had to re-throw and try again,
delaying the firing until morning...... everybody's
firing.
I loathed that feeling of being less than I'd
expected to be. =20
Long way, Johnny B., to say that I agree with
you. Our lives may not be at stake if we don't
keep our skills current, but our egos may well
be.
Joyce
In the Mojave where son planted another
fruitless mulberry, transplanted cacti, sprayed
new rosebushes, and generally helped rid
the scrub acreage of wind's eroding forces.
Sooo I cooked a meal.... I think first real meal
in six months .... or longer..... nice afternoon.
Daughter-in-law has a most tender heart so, as
on most such days, I watched a movie with her
that I normally wouldn't even notice, but which
she would love..... Cheaper By the Dozen.
Lots of chuckles and I managed to refrain from
saying how much better the original version was
with Clifton Webb, not to mention the book..
.... even funnier.
Now I'll
have a glass of the vino and watch an old Cheers
if I can find one.... or better yet that movie with
Mary Steenbergen and Rip Torn ...... years old......
where she's a writer who moves to the swamp
in Florida/Georgia, probably the Okeefeenokee....
on the edge of which I once lived... where I
learned the difference between a king (I think)
and a coral snake when sons started bringing
them home ..... king came in peace, as I recall,
and coral was deadly. Thank the fates that
the only coral snake they fetched to the house
was already dead..... I fretted about residual poison,
but they're both still about, eating ribs and corn
at mom's table whenever offered......=20
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