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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

And the cats just love it


Today was firewood day. The day I have to lay in enough wood for winter. Well – it is not wood in the traditional sense – we use cylinders made out of compressed sawdust. But they are very effective.

Not that these days we really need a fire – because the air conditioning works so well -  but we just love it on cold winter evenings when we can sit in front of the fire and read or watch TV.

And the cats just love it.

This used to be a difficult chore for me because of where the wood comes from and where we live.

The task is to:

Go to the hardware store where they sell the wood – stack the wood onto a trolley – take the trolley to the car – stack the wood into the car – drive home and park in the garage – unload the wood onto a smaller trolley – take it into the foyer – up one flight of stairs – along the corridor – into the elevator and up four levels – up another flight of stairs – into our apartment – stack the wood.

It used to take four trips to the hardware store and 30 trips from the garage to the apartment – by which time of course I was pretty well shagged out.

I was at a loss to find an easier way to do this until I discovered Jules – who is Mrs. Moneypenny’s cousin.

Jules was deputizing as cat minder for Mrs. Moneypenny and he looked young and strong so I asked him how he felt about the firewood detail - and he was most enthusiastic – him being a second year medical student and poverty stricken.

So today Jules did the firewood thing. He even used his own car so I was able to loaf about all day while he did all the work.

Bliss.

12 comments:

  1. I am so glad you clarified the wood description as the first thing I thought was how odd trees are in Vienna.

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  2. I can't believe you did that before. I think that would have killed me. But then again, it's for the cats...

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  3. Bravo Jules! The wood looks nice as well.

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  4. nice one mate. We used to have an open fireplace nice to look at

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  5. Well, doesn't that put a smile on your face! I was exhausted just reading what you used to have to do...

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  6. I used to have to program on a lab system software named Bliss. It wasn't bliss-ful, it was Fortran.

    Your wood looks cool, so lots of o's, over & over, o's on top of o's.

    Yea! It is almost Thanksgiving.

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  7. fmcgmccllc: We do have real trees - but we leave them where they will do the most good.

    Wanderlust: It did near kill me but Jules does not even raise a sweat. Oh to be young.

    SK Waller: I may adopt him.

    Simon: For us and the cats.

    Annie: I can tell you that I was knackered for days afterwards.

    Merricks; The best way to do anything like that is to get someone else to do it.

    esb: I have never been to a Thanksgiving dinner. Looking forward to it.

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  8. I recall once lighting the fire in the lounge.... it lit beautifully..I stood staring into the flames as the smoke drifted up the chimney..then suddenly the smoke returned, the flames intensified and blew out across the carpet filling the lounge with soot and smoke...all I had to grab the bloody wood was those cheap and nasty tongs from "Copper art".. I ran with each piece and threw them out the french doors, over the verandah and onto the driveway 2 floors down.. it took me months to get rid of the smell, and clean the paintings, piano etc.... turned out a bird had built a nest in the chimney and ltered the flow....

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  9. The last wood fire we had burnt the bl**dy house down! Not a happy time but I do like a good roaring fire, in its place not pleasing itself where it will burn. So glad you were able to loaf around, should've made some bread.....

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  10. Simon: I hope the bird was OK?

    Sandy: We have chimney sweeps who come and check all chimneys every year.

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