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First let me say, nobody fell off the roof! It was calamitous, but no injuries were sustained. Mostly. That we know of yet. We hope.

Okay, let me start again.

Last year we had big problems with our wood stove–it commenced to smoke up the house to intolerable levels and the wood wasn’t burning much.  We figured the chimney was in need of a cleaning.

Our friend, Steve, had the equipment, so up on the roof he went and discovered that it was the cap that was all creosoted up and not letting the air out. We ditched the cap, and voila` the smoke cleared, the house warmed, and after some days of literally dousing the cap with gas and burning it, it was cleaned, and then replaced.

We started, a few days ago, having difficulty with the wood burning. Since there wasn’t much smoke, we thought the wood had gotten soaked by the rains. But it never seemed to dry. Finally, this morning, the Contrarian announced that it was back up on the roof.

I shuddered and shook my head. “NO! No way are you going up there on that roof. We just got 4 inches of snow and there is ice underneath that.”

“Look,” he said, “there really is no choice here. Either I go up there and take off the cap, or this will get worse and we will not only be smoked to death, we will be cold while doing it. So either support me, or continue to help me be scared. It’s not like I want to do it.”

“Okay,” I muttered.

To make a long story short, he climbed up, scooted to the chimney, pulled the cap, and got down with no difficulties. We walked back into the house and were heading to the living room, when whoosh, and bam, he was flat on his back, having had his work-booted feet go out from under him. His back took the brunt, and then his head.

So far, all seems well, except for a stiff neck. He’s using a heating pad to hopefully head off further stiffness. He wore work boots because they were lighter and thus easier to swing up onto the roof and back onto the ladder. If you’ve ever done this feat, you know it requires a certain throwing caution to the wind and just doing it. Alas the work boots aren’t made for walking on linoleum when snow packed.

Ain’t winter just grand?

Yeah, we got four inches of the white stuff. Over night. I got up early this morning and cleaned the back steps off, and went around and cleared off the bird feeder. The chickadees and Juncos were puzzled where their food was. I didn’t see they had brought any tiny shovels, so I figured to assist them with a broom.

We anticipated that this might be the case, since the weather guessers weren’t even willing to do much in the realm of guessing as to what we might get. Anywhere from two to six. Nice range. Meaning anywhere from no problem to no moving for us.

So yesterday I zoomed off to the grocery store and got the vittles for the balance of the year. Mostly I got the ham and some fingery foods for New Year’s Day. The Contrarian is scheduled for a physical therapy session on Monday, but we’ll cancel if we can’t get out, obviously. We will probably get some sense of that tomorrow.

I’m okay if we are socked in for a couple of weeks actually. I have plenty to do. I’ve got at least five books backed up for review, so I’m doing a lot of reading these days. I should get back to knitting but so far haven’t had the urge.

I have biscotti and truffles and chocolate coated peanuts, almonds,  pecans, and walnuts to make. I’m cooking a lot. I made 41 meatballs this morning, finishing them up after the roofing adventure. I’ve got sauce simmering on the stove. I’m looking forward to that!

All in all it’s been a good day, except for the Contrarian’s upending. Cozy, we are.

Lots of good movies in the can. We have another disaster movie to see. This one is called “Ice Quake”. We saw one last week about a comet which breaks off a chunk and hits in Alaska and throws off the pole orientation and threatens our cosmic ray shield. But a big old hydrogen bomb in the Mariana Trench saves the day. Destruction galore! It was better than we expected.  

Nothing is better than a good old disaster movie, except for really bad sci-fi movies from the 50’s or so.

Well, enough of my babbling. It’s on to bigger and better things!

What’s on your mind today?