Alberta’s 100th Birthday today. With all the kids starting back to school most of the celebration parties were adults only until this evening but there is a lot of community partying going on tonight all across the province. There is a huge fireworks display scheduled for 10 oclock to bring it all to a big bang finish.
We celebrated today by picking up our new kiln. We stopped in at Plainsman Pottery Supply right after lunch with the trailer and Larry loaded us up. Once at the studio we removed the packing and then took the kiln apart to move it into the studio. As we mentioned it is another 16 cubic foot ConeArt Shimpo kiln. It weighs between 6 and 7 hundred pounds so we tookit in in five pieces. A little disappointed because we thought the new ones would have gas struts to help with the weight of the lid. That is the way they are illustrated on the web site and in the catalog, however ours came with the "Rube Goldberg" counter weight system we have on our other 16 cu ft. It works but it sure isn’t an elegant design. We were happy to see the new controller location though. It is moved up to the top of the console and angled so you no longer have to bend over or get a chair to program the unit. Also the electrical connections have been tidied up. All in all it is a very nice looking kiln. We got it all reassembled and ready for the power to be installed. Photos tomorrow.
The situation along the Gulf Coast continues to weigh on our minds. At times like these you wish there was more you could do….but other than contributing to the Red Cross, from this distance there doesn’t seem to be any thing we can do, so we sit, and watch, and wonder with the rest of the world why it is taking so long to rescue those poor displaced Americans from New Orleans and the rest of the coast states.
Last night we wrote a few emails to provincial politicians suggesting in all seriousness the province donate a Billion dollars from the many billions in surplus funds we will have this year (the last guesstimate before the hurricane was 9 to 13 Billion) to the hurricane relief efforts. After all, the misfortune of those in the south will only make our provincial coffers swell as fuel prices go ever higher. The surplus could top 20 Billion dollars!…So far…no comment from any one….happy birthday Alberta….how much money was spent on fireworks tonight?…how many meals and clean water rations would that have bought?….just curious….
nite