Smokin'

You guys are great and I thank you for all your kind comments and rallies around the flagpole. I'll get back into the swin of things and hopefully I won't lose all my readers before I do!

While I'm writing this, I'm listening to the sound of chain saws and yellow lights are flashing in the windows as crews take down the downed trees on the end of the street. I'm glad I haven't been without power since Saturday. We know the drill from the winter - first they have to shut off the live wires, then the tree crew has to come, then  utility guys from 8 states away have to get in and rewire the street. So I'm thinking at least another 12 hours for these poor people.

Us, we're living large with TVS and gas fireplaces and microwaves.

And yet, my greatest wish is for a firepit.

Mr. Pom thinks I'm nuts since we never sit outside. Why not the porch, I suggest. Now he really thinks I'm nuts as he explains about smoke and ceilings and someone falling into it. Phooey. Who needs a realist? Actually my neighbors across the street have one and when they light it, the currents are such that all the smoke ends up in my living room. Don't know how, it's really quite a distance. So I guess I will attribute our smokelessness to our stance against acid rain and make them feel guilty. Hah! But wouldn't you love to be sitting there? Think of the s'mores in your mouth....

Some of the Pom sisters were talking about going camping. I was jumping up and down with my hand in the air to  join them, but then remembered that the October weekend they are planning for is when we are going to the lake to see our friends' newly enlarged cabin. When they bought the cabin about 12 years ago, they specifically wanted a rustic log cabin, with no central heating, a big wooden stove, no dishwasher, no washing machines, etc. That lasted about two years when they discovered that when they used it for apres skiing, it took 5 hours to get the house above freezing with only the stove, and that draining all the pipes was too much of a project so they weren't using it in winter at all. A few years ago, they put in central heating and one of those doohickeys that call you if the temp inside the house drops below freezing.

Now they've decided that they do need an extra bathroom (man, three families with 6 kids in total sharing one bathroom seriously cut down on my trips, I can tell you that!) and they finished the basement with bunkbeds. Rustic appeal at 35 can lose its luster at 50, so last year they went whole hog and had an addition put on - more baths! more bedrooms! Washer dryer! Bigger kitchen! Suddenly, the little log cabin is a lot more "house-like". If they install a jacuzzi, I'm there (the outdoor big barrel tub is cool, but there are bears...)

So for now I'll have to settle for my gas fireplace and make s'mores over the stove. But I'm working on Mr. Pom. We could put the firepit on the patio outside the porch, even if it is a few steps down. We'd have to make sure no one went out the porch door quickly and we'd have to keep Fluffernutter away from it because that dog is so dumb she'd stand in the firepit if she thought she could catch a few crumbs from the s'mores.

Then we'd have a hot dog.

Get it.

Really, I should quit while I'm ahead.