Cold hands, warm hearts

Update: Mea Culpa Nero

I may have been clicking the thumbsdown button on your blogs by mistake. I have also been using the ladies bathroom. Sorry for both, but I'm only going to amend one. It's so much cleaner. As for penance, click the bad thumb on me.

Devonsangel's response to MJ's blog about the cold front coming through tapped into some of my experiences this year. First, my best to you guys in the path of the storm. Stay warm.

My furnace is ancient. A friend, in spite of the estimate he gave, told me it would cost $8300 for a new heatpump and ductwork. You know we've all spent thousands on gaming, but this one just wasn't gonna happen.

I am from the rural North Carolina (no "that's redundant" jokes please) and absolutely love it. Another buddy told me of some old wood stoves at a scrap yard he'd seen.I went and there were two seventy's era Buck Stoves. Great units, but lacked a certain character. Beside them, was this smallish, rusted castoff.

Barely legible was a plate reading, The Virginian. I have since found out the company went out of business in the eighties. I think it is one of the last testaments to Sherman's march. It has got to be fifty years old, and looks like a cannon. Anyway, we got it cleaned up and inserted it to my fireplace. I paid twenty-eight dollars for it. They charge by weight.

You can do anything for a month, but after the novelty wears off, are you really willing to get up in the morning and stoke a fire in a cold house? The answer for me is yes.

For years, I just flipped a switch and I was warm. Now, I have to participate in it, and I feel I value it so much more.

Nothing makes you appreciate heat, like being cold.

I know this isn't particularly interesting, but I love my little stove. On so may different levels it has been a blessing.

I have photos I'll post later, before and after, if you will indulge me further.

Next week, my garbage disposal.