Murphy's Law

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
 

Actually, it isn't so much that anything is going wrong, it's the timing of the thing that's off.  It never warmed up yesterday.  I can state this with certainty because Bessie's pool (yes, I should have emptied it long before this) was frozen in the morning and it was still frozen in the afternoon.  I had a devil of a time getting the wood stove going and had to give up the attempt until after barn chores.  I've been blaming the wood and the rain.  The stove had not been giving those warning smoke burps and I honestly had been keeping an eye on the spark catcher (for lack of the technical term) at the top of the chimney.  When I had problems last year and called in the professional, he told me I should not bank the fire at night; it was the low, slow burn that was causing the bad creosote buildup.  I paid for the advice, so I took it.  Not having any warmth in the house makes for an interesting game of morning hopscotch as I jump from the carpeted bedroom over to the rug in front of the bathroom sink, then to the bathmat in front of the shower, then back to the sink where I've left my slippers.

But I digress.  Thirty-two degrees yesterday, thirty today.  I know there are places more frigid than mine, but I still call that cold.  I did get the fire going yesterday afternoon, but as I was coming back up from the kids' bedtime last evening I could not see smoke from the chimney and could not see through the wire screen of the spark thingy.  Creosote.  Arrgh.  I put in a call to Tree Guy.  He is going to send one of the Sons to sweep the chimney today.  That is a good thing; it's just the timing of the thing.  I can't even try to light a fire this morning so Son One or Two can do the job without getting burned.  Back in the day on Laugh In, Rowan and Martin would award the Fickle Finger of Fate.  In my case, I got the Frigid Finger.  The chimney only needs cleaning when the temperature drops.  At least it's not raining!