And the waiting is coming to an end.

Ahh, the joys of government employees, while at lunch on Thursday I get a call from the inspector, yes the inspector I spent 2 and half days waiting on calls me to tell me he missed me Thursday morning.  Which i find odd since I was in there trimming cups.....can we call bullsh*t?  I can but didn't because I sure didn't want to give him another reason not to show up.  Alright lets get this done mr. inspector,  and he did.  YES YES YES, he showed up on Friday, and performed his inspection and we......wait for it.....wait for it.....passed.  Whew...


Hell of a build up I know, at least I think we passed, no red tags and the electrician who pulled the permit didn't get any bad news.  So on Monday I'm going to call up the power company and have them come out and tie me.  I finally get to fire some pottery soon it has been  too long.  So that's the end of the electrical saga, I hope because if it's not I'm gonna go fishing and build a gas kiln.  That's all for now kiddies I shall leave you with something to look at.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.....

Ah the joy's of waiting, wait there is no joy in waiting.  Started yesterday off with happy news the code inspector will there some time "after noon", oh yay do happy dance.  What should I wear? how should I fix my hair? oh oh the studio is a mess how will I ever get it cleaned in time with my singing, dancing, small woodland creatures taking a union authorized day off?  Well I didn't have any answers to those questions so I hauled off to do some paperwork (joy), and work on a sculpture that has been staring at me from the corner of the shop for a month (literally staring at me with six pairs of eyes, got to be kind of creepy, shivers).  And so off to work I went, always with an ear tuned to the outside for that tell tale sign of a motor meaning my wait was over.  Or was it?  After a lovely 9 hours of waiting I finally realized it was 5 o'clock, and I had been stood up.  Yes me the intrepid dirty hairy potter had been stood up...who would do such a thing, who could pass up an opportunity to bask in my presence?  Yes my ego was crushed, so I swept up the pieces, grabbed the super glue and made a collage with it, but it looked to angsty so I used it as a frisbee for the dogs.  Now I'm told to wait again.  Sigh...no way jose I go things to do, that inspector won't fool me again.  At least that's what I tell myself while I wait.
On another note here are some pictures of that sculpture.

Woo Hoo almost

Friday my electrician had a guy come over and check out the work we have done before the code check gets done, and everything checked out almost, turns out we were misinformed on the size of wire needed to go from the meter to the panel.  Curse my need for 200 amp service, but it was taken care of and hopefully the inspection will be called for on Monday and I will have new power at the shop, which would be really nice to be able to turn on the lights as soon as I walk in and be able to fire my larger pieces without the risk of transporting them 45 minutes by car.

On a note of work I will here some things that are in process so you can see that yes I am working and now blowing clay dust up your nose.

Electricity

So for about the past month and a half I have steadily been wiring up my studio.  This process actually started back in april when I being the naive potter guy went in to my local code office and asked politely for a permit so that I could put a larger kiln in my shop....That is where it all went wrong.  I was directed to zoning because they have to see if it's allowed, okay I thought just a separate meter on a separate building what could be so difficult about that?  Sigh alot apparently, seems that because I sell my work I would have to apply for a variance and that would be reviewed by the planning commission who would then decide if I would be granted the variance and what conditions yadda yadda yadda. 
Alright I thought I will do this give me the paperwork and they did, I filled it out turn it in with the required monies that they oh so love and get told the planning commission will meet in a month.  So one month of dreading what will they say who will show, will I get my variance is really not a way to spend in your own head.  I go to the meeting, and wait for 2 hours while lawyers make too much money photocopying phone books and presenting b.s. reasons for why this shed or this house would not be right for said community.   Once those 3 yes 3 cases were done I was granted my variance in 30 seconds, if you ever get the chance go to a planning commission bring some drinks and snacks it is cheap entertainment and you will gain a new hatred for lawyers.
Alright variance is set, contact the power company see if they will replace my overhead with underground and hook up the shop.  Sure says the power company guy...dum dum dum....not a problem....uh oh.  Yep I should have known when a power guy says not a problem there will be a problem.  So spend a month wiring my shop, installing two meters (one for the shop and a new one for the house)  get the guys to put the riser in place and the crew comes out to run the underground power machines a going, I step out and get "Hey You Know that this is your shell drain for you septic, this power run will tear it up and will cost you about 3 grand to repair." Sigh. okay so how do we miss that mister power guy.  Alright so overhead it will be, which requires a new investment of in materials, losing the old investment because we know everybody wants to take back a meter box that has it's knockouts knocked out.  And now down to the final time I hope.
Going to call the code office and schedule an inspection on my wiring and then the power company to tie me in...I hope it all goes well because I'm not sure I want to do this anymore just to burn dirt.

If it goes bad I'm converting those old electric kilns to gas and wood or i'm gonna go fishing.

My First Blog Be Gentle

So this is my first blog, i figured it was time to make the jump from facebook where I'm limited as to who can find me to this much larger and new to me set up.  In the following pages I shall keep you enamored, bored or entertained with stories of the life of a fledgling ceramic artist trying to make his small studio and business grow into a little bit larger small studio and business.  I will post works of mine works of fellow friends and artists and rants about this and that for it is a blog and isn't that what one is suppose to do with a blog?  Enjoy and please tell your friends to join so that they can suffer along with you.