Serious Wood

Current mood: hot

I know what you're thinking but you're wrong.

We have a fireplace in our family room. When we were looking at houses I remember saying to both Travis and our Realtor, quite specifically, "I don't want a fireplace." I mean seriously, poeple, we live in the desert. For what under the heavens do we need a fireplace?

Let me add to that the fact that I am an idiot.

We looked at every piece of crap in and over our price range. Let me tell you, I think there was some underground movement to keep us from looking at any homes which did not have stinky carpet or a rot spot in either the kitchen or bathroom. After about what I would safely estimate as about 75 houses, we reluctantly agreed to look at the one we eventually bought.
Art, the Realtor, told us he had found something which was newly listed and he was sure it was the right house for us. When we saw the address we immediately declined without even seeing the picture. We didn't want to move into that area. No real reason, just didn't want to. He eventually prodded us to look after another we were liking a lot took a contract.

When we got here we walked from the entry hallway to the family room and we knew. We hadn't gone six feet in and we both knew. And, there, quietly looming in the corner- a fireplace. My mother oohed and aahed over it and was driving me nuts, but the longer I stood there, the more I liked it. It wasn't so much about the fact that it was a fireplace, but rather the structural and archetectual appeal of it. It looked very interesting.

It was spring by the time we moved in; too late for a fire. The following fall we had a few small fires, more to say we had lit the thing up than anything. Usually we would get a fake log to light for the evening while we watched TV, but occasionally we would buy a small bundle of wood. Travis deployed in early December of that year (and when he left, I stopped lighting the fires because the ashes were just something else I would have to clean up) and although we don't usually put up a tree when he was/is gone, we did that year.

When the tree was up and lit and I had all my candles going, it seemed unfair somehow to the fireplace to not light it up. The room seemed to need the fire. So, one night in the third week of December, I built a fire and lit it. I laid on the couch with no TV and no kids, with my candles lit and the tree lit and the fireplace lit and there, under my fuzzy blanket was the moment my love affair with the fireplace began.

It was so relaxing to just be in this room with the fire going and nothing else going on. I am not sure, but I think the appeal is in the quiet distruction of the fire. It is very theraputic to deconstruct something, especially when there is benefit or reconstruction to follow. I think that is why I enjoy chopping food so much. I am completely removing something from its previous form in order to build something wonderful. Fireplaces offer a similar benefit. The wood deconstructs through burning and the warmth heats my home. This is a win/win.
Last year, Travis came home from Iraq at the very end of November. It was fireplace season. My mother was here for his homecoming and she and I went to WalMart to pick out oodles of wood for our burning pleasure upon his arrival. She commented as to what a royal pain that was. See, when I grew up, my father worked construction and had access to all the downed trees. He would take his chainsaw to work, zap through what he wanted and bring it home in the bed of his truck so we would have wood to burn at the house. She had little to do with it other than to help unload the truck. So, she began to look through the paper and call around to find some wood.

Eventually she found a landscaping company who offered a cord of wood for a price she found acceptable. She gave that to us as an early Christmas gift. We LOVED it! We burned and burned to our hearts' content, always trying to obey ozone action days and no-burn days.
Once the season was over, we re-stacked what was left and for some reason it looked like we hadn't burned any of what she gave us. We still have a ton of it left, stacked up behind the shed in the back yard. It is November again. Mid-November. I've been buying fake logs to burn. There have been three used thus far. Why am I buying these logs to burn when I have 3/4 a cord in my back yard? Well, that's an easy one. We don't even have our heaters on yet. There's no need to have your heaters on or to burn real wood for warmth when your house is still 73 degrees when you wake up in the morning. The fake logs don't give off any heat, they only add ambiance.

So, until we chill out and cool down, I am stuck. I can't fully enjoy my family room right now. I know it seems like I am whining, I am. I know the warmth of the Southwest can be in some way attributed to global warming or global climate change or whatever, or it could just be a warm year. All I want is a couple of good cold nights so I can burn a real fire in my lovely fireplace.

Is that too much to ask?