Surviving the Storm

The weekend was spent in North Carolina visiting daughter Kate.She is moving out of the house she owns,leasing it out, and moving closer to the bright lights of downtown Charlotte.I went down to help her tote, clean, fix, and shine stuff.By the end of the weekend we had a nice ,clean ,cat hair free house devoid of furniture. I wanted to stop in Asheville for a load of clay and to see Lori Therault's new studio so I made a reservation at the Motel 6 and headed across I-85 to Asheville late Sunday afternoon. It was a little later than I wanted to leave but it had been raining hard all weekend so I was sure it would quit soon. Well , it did quit raining. By the time I got to Spartanburg SC it was snowing a wet sloppy snow. How bad could it be ,I was 60 miles from Asheville driving 60 mph. In an hour I would be somewhere warm having a nice dinner. Then I started over Saluda Mountain on I-26. At this point the snow was turning to ice as soon as it hit and you could barely see the Interstate. Visibility was 100 ft and there was a single line of bumper to bumper traffic.Well 40 miles from town I was going 40 mph. at 20 miles out, 20 mph. 5 miles out, 5 mph. It was like I was caught in a curse where no matter how long I drove I was always an hour from my destination. By the time I got to Asheville dinner was no longer to be had near my motel but the room was warm. I got to Highwater the next day but skipped going to Lori's because the surface streets were so bad. The drive home was not too bad except for the last 20 miles of NC where you are coming down out of the Blue Ridge. I don't like that road in good weather but no real problems.

I did stop and see Sarah Culbreth and Jeff Enge at Tater Knob pottery near Berea for a few minutes. It's a little Mom and Pop country pottery that sells pots around the world.Great folks and worth the trip if you are ever down that way.

Sarah is presenting a workshop at Maplecreek the 21st and 22nd. I was at the first workshop she did out there a couple of years ago and I won't be missing this one.When I throw pots, I use a whole box full of tools. Sarah uses a pointed undercutting stick,a piece of kite string and a needle tool. Well, she really doesn't use the needle but she has one.The economy of running a business is not just handling the cash. Economy of motion and process are learnable skills that Sarah teaches well.Attend if you can.