Catchin' some zzzzz's

Well the two of us fired the train on the weekend. It was brutally hot and we both passed each other like two ships in the night. Arrive 15 minutes early for your 6 hour shift to be given stoking pattern, any shared thoughts and then you're solo. The firing went well and as often happens with a train you scratch your head as to how to hold it back. We held the kiln at cone 9 for 10 hours and then the cooling - 11 long painfully slow hours to 1488F. We just couldn't stay awake to get to the desired 1450. Near the end we both needed sleep. Heidi took her nap on a couple of chairs. The couch is the usual napping spot but it is close to the kiln and hotter than hell. I crashed in the grad kitchen on the couch. We emptied and filled this 5 gallon cooler of ice, water and lemonaide twice during the firing. We open the kiln tomorrow.