23 December 2009 Feed the stove carefully and it will still rebel

The first load of firewood we purchased is about 70% consumed. The remaining 30 % is too long, too thick, to fit into the stove safely, effectively, or at all. The snow fall that did not initially dampen it has now changed to steady melt and run-off, dripping accurately into every potential leak in the tarps covering the wood.


Tonight, the wood is just too large and too damp to catch effectively. It is slowly burning, giving off more smoke than heat, never quite sustaining a good burn. I suspect that I will spend much of the evening trying to coax it into full-fledged flame. There’s nothing to watch on television anyway.

Gloria had stained-glass class today; the owners had a bit of a party for the class. After she returned, we headed out for Greeneville. We had a UPS package to drop off, bought new, longer, heavy duty scrapers for each vehicle and a collapsible snow shovel for each. We looked, again, for stove gasket and gasket cement. That will have to be ordered on-line.

The next two stops were some distance further. We needed to go to the Post Office, and we needed to shop for groceries. The Post Office on 23 December is no place to enter willingly. A grocery store on the same date is guaranteed to be filled with shoppers. Add in stockers, kids running under foot, people blocking aisles to carry on conversations, and the grocery store becomes a place to try my patience sorely.

The last stop was a very necessary one; the Pathfinder needed gasoline.

We left home about 1315 and returned about 1545.

I’m not the most patient of men. Gloria will attest to that it asked. Shopping in crowded stores, kids running loose, blocked aisles are all guaranteed to irritate me.

Today was a good day. Not one of our stops required us to stand in line behind anyone else. At every instance when we wanted an open but empty checkout line or service window, it appeared. How lucky to be me today. (Well, how lucky to be me every day – I’m grateful for the people and things that make my life enjoyable.) But the odds of finding open checkers, open Post Office windows, are long odds in late December.

So I suspect that if I fuss with the stove long enough the damp wood will catch more fully and eventually I’ll be rewarded with a nice bed of coals to put more wood atop.

If anyone reading this is currently traveling or planning to travel over the weekend, I wish you safe and timely arrival at both ends of the journey.

A lot of people will become gloomy or frankly depressed as the holidays wind down and winter hits the nation more heavily. December doesn’t bother me. One of the best events of my life happened in December. Poe wrote, “Nevermore.” I’m quite content with “Evermore.”