Fireplace

It's a fireplace kind of day.  Nothing but rain and freezing rain outside.  If the reports on social media are to be believed, it is quite treacherous out there.  I am grateful that I have no place I need to go and hopeful that the ice doesn't knock out the power.  But if it does, I have a fireplace.

Okay, so it's a fake electric fireplace.  But before you think that it will do me no good in a power outage, let me assure you that the electric insert can be taken out, making room for a real wood fire.

For most of my life, I have lived in a house that had a fireplace.  In one of those houses, the fireplace was the only source of heat.  I stacked a lot of wood in those years.  When Pete and I built this house, we installed a woodstove, a more efficient way to heat the house.  For many years, I put up with the wood chips and debris, the sooty ash, the sometimes smoky atmosphere.  But I always missed being able to watch the wood burning, so we finally removed the old Grizzly woodstove and enjoyed real mood-enhancing fires on winter evenings and weekends.  By that time, we were able to afford the oil deliveries necessary to heat our home, and the fireplace became an occasional pleasure.  Until the power went out, and then we worked full time to keep our family warm.

A few years ago, I got weary of hauling in wood every time I craved the ambiance of a fire.  So I paid a lot of money for an electric fireplace insert.  At first, it was hard to adjust to something that was clearly less than a real fire, but I've gotten used to it.  With a handy remote control, I can have instant ambiance!  The heater isn't enough to allow me to turn down the thermostat, but it's nice when I sit in front of the fake fire to read.  And there's a stack of wood at the ready on the front porch in case I lose power.

I've poured a glass of red wine, the music is on, and a novel awaits.  Time for me to fall in love with fire.  And pretend that it's real.