Real Live Fireplaces With Real Live Chimneys Rock! - Home, Home at The Lake....

Word of the Day

Englishification - The alteration, while speaking a language other than English, of an English word to make it sound like a word in the language one is speaking, or attempting to speak.

For the last few mornings, this morning included, I've had to drag my winter coat out of the closet in order to take Gypsy outside. Cold! 29°F right now. I haven't resorted to putting on my gloves as yet but it's a comfort to know that I do have gloves in the pockets of my jacket. Of course, it will warm up later on today but I don't think they expect temperatures to rise above the 50's. I shouldn't really whine too much. I'm not having to shovel snow or deal with power outages. I've been rather stubborn about turning on the furnace too. I don't like canned heat. Sucks all the oxygen out of the air. Makes me feel claustrophobic.

If I were at The Lake, I'd have a fire in the fireplace to take off the chill and warm the heart. Unfortunately, due to the EPA fanatics and their rules and regulations, you can't build a house these days in Arizona with a real, live, functioning fireplace that burns real live wooden logs. And if you actually are lucky enough to have a real live fireplace because you bought an older house before the EPA stuck their little noses into everything, you can't actually burn wood in your fireplace without getting a fine on most days during the winter months. Talk about dependence on foreign oil? The only fireplaces that anyone is allowed to put in these days here in Arizona are the ones that run on propane or gas. And I have to say, having had one of those fake fireplaces in our last house here in Arizona, a fake fireplace just doesn't cut it. It's on the par with an artificial Christmas tree. Looks nice but.... I miss the smell of a real live fireplace fire with crackling logs and sparks. Oh well...I guess I'll just have to wait until we get back to The Lake again. In the meantime, I'll just have to put on a sweater.

Murphyism of the Day

Cocks's Comment

A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quickly strangled.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

Any transition serious enough to alter your definition of self will require not just small adjustments in your way of living and thinking but a full-on metamorphosis.

- Martha Beck