I can't believe it was in the 50s on Sunday and I'm looking at a local temperature of 6 right now (not including the wind chill!). The cold front came through Monday afternoon, which would explain my flare up on Sunday. By yesterday morning, I didn't have time to even think about pain. I had to get the wood stove downstairs lit and going to conserve oil until tomorrow. What's not bruised right now is sorer than anything I can remember, and what's not bruised and/or sore is burnt. I feel like I've spent the last 2 days working in some late 19th century furnace room. I stopped counting how many trips from the driveway to the back door I made carrying crates of wood to keep the house warm. Unfortunately, since the wood was delivered, we've gotten a lot of rain. I don't want to start using the stuff just outside the back door yet, since the ground isn't covered in ice and snow yet, so when that happens, I don't have to worry about sliding down hill, slipping on ice, or anything like that. Besides, I made a goal to get back into shape.
At first it took awhile to get the fire going yesterday and it was a constant battle with damp wood and keeping it burning at a hot enough temperature to not only put out enough heat, but keep creosote from building up in the chimney. By 7pm I was just about in tears. Everything hurt, I couldn't leave the stove for more than 15 minutes or the temperature dropped too low, and it was looking pretty grim. With my dad not here, one neighbor working overnights, another busy on new jobs (being a contractor getting work in the winter, one can't be picky), and another out of state for a family emergency, it was literally my mother and I fending for ourselves and I couldn't keep a damn fire burning right. So I decided to get creative. I grabbed a small cardboard box, stuffed it with paper, and chucked it in there. FINALLY success!! It only took me about a half hour this morning to get it back up to temperature. Unfortunately, I'm still dealing with damp wood, but I found a solution. The stove is set up so that I can set a few logs on top of the stove to dry. I finished writing out bills, reviewed some work for my psych class, and put a little more of my office back in order. It wasn't until mom wanted to start the upstairs fireplace that my perfect wood-drying plan went a bit awry. Early in the afternoon I had set a few pretty big pieces on the back of the stove to dry by the end of the day so that it would burn overnight. I gave a few dry pieces to mom for the fire upstairs and my perfect plan went to hell. First, I put some more cardboard in the stove hoping to dry out and burn the wood that was in there. In less than 5 minutes the fire was roaring and I watched the temperature gauge go from just the lowest "safe" point to pegged at overheating. Even scarier was seeing the chimney expand. It looked like something straight out of a cartoon. Mom came down and with the help of a squirt bottle and a LOT of praying, it was back under control. Turns out there was 1/2 a log in the back that hadn't yet caught, but was very, very dry. I won't be making that mistake again.
Then I set the fireplace upstairs so that all my mom had to do was light it. With a lifting restriction of 10lbs in one arm, I brought extra wood in (but not so much the dog would think instant snack), and handed her the fireplace matches. Somehow, she got the flue switch backwards... I'm so glad my hamster is downstairs in my room. The second she yelled my name, I grabbed my sweatshirt and started running up the stairs. Halfway up the stairs, I ran into a giant wall of smoke... and it only got worse. Panic attack #2 for the day hit as my asthma kicked in. Everything she lit up was backing smoke into the house because she closed the flue instead of opening it. It still smells like smoke upstairs. But I did learn a neat lesson--by opening the front door, it pulls the heat from the wood stove downstairs up through the entire house... instant heat!
The last 2 days have taught me that I don't need to buy a gym membership... all I have to do is carry wood from the front of the house to the back, deal with the stove (which involves countless squats), and dozens of trips up and down the stairs in a day. And my alarm is still set for 5am to get up to do my yoga routine. If I'm moving by then, that is. But the most important thing I learned is that no matter how tough something gets, I can and do find a way to take care of it. Even if it makes me look and feel like I got hit by a truck. I'll find a way to do it.
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