The Usual

It's a pretty Friday afternoon which means one thing...I'm outside drinking a beer burning stuff. At our little house in the woods I can make fires that reach 20 feet tall but here in the big old wicked city, I've got to keep things small.

I have an iron chiminea that I use way beyond what it was probably meant to be used for. Instead of a softly burning demure little fire, I've got flames shooting out the top of the chimney. Just the way I like it. I have a huge bald cypress tree in the back yard that unloaded about 36,000 pounds of "leaves" so it provided plenty of fire starting kindle. In no time flat I got a very nice fire going. On top of that, I am burning cedar logs so it smells really good. I haven't heard any fire trucks coming my way so I guess it's all good.

I just made the observation that it never seems to fail...when I build a fire I always seem to be wearing something dark. This means that I'm covered in tiny white ashes. I look like I've got the worst case of dandruff known to man. Cool, I think I'll go to the grocery store like this. It'll give the patrons something to wonder about. If I were rich, I'd go to the store covered in ashes and buy about 50 bottles of Selsen Blue.

Another thing I noticed while puttering in the back yard is that our little boy cat, Schwayze is growing into a testosterone filled young man. Or whatever it is that boy cats are filled with. I've noticed that he's been spraying (yecch!) to mark his territory and last night he came in with a new set of scratches and aches & pains. Then, when I was in the yard I discovered that it appears as if he's lost 1/3 of his fur. Must have been a hell of a scrap! He's such a cute little bad ass. Manchild is diligent about making sure he comes in at night so he won't get into fights and wind up with aches and pains and missing fur. Guess he missed that particular night.

Did you know that fish sort of go into hibernation when it gets cold? Yep, my little trio of future bad ass koi are pretty sluggish these days. It got down to about 28 degrees last night and when I went out to check on them this morning, I couldn't rouse them. Even dropping food into the pond didn't get them going. Food usually makes them frenzy-fied where they make the water look like it's boiling. OK, not really but they do swim around a lot. I decided to help them out a little and put a black tarp over the pond in the hopes of holding in some ground warmth. They may think they're in the darkness of outer space but at least they might be a little bit warmer. I'm thoughtful that way.

Can you tell that I'm lost in my own random thoughts all alone out here in the back yard on a Friday afternoon? My mind skips around like a ping pong ball in a tornado. I could be inside vacuuming or dusting or weeding out junk I've accumulated but instead, I'm out here deep thinking and drinking beer and stoking the fire. It's a great life I live. Wouldn't change a thing.