In John Steinbeck's short story The Chrysanthemums, he describes the Salinas Valley shrouded in fog with the tops of the mountains not visible so he calls this a "closed pot". Maybe this is related to Elisa when she gets the travelling knife sharpener/pot repairer man to fix some dents in her pots. She obviously finds these for him to fix so as not to disappoint him and out of compassion for him finding it hard to get some business that day.
