First Fire from Scratch Since Nov. 9, 2013

I am not dead.

Sorry.  I've done so little blogging lately that I couldn't resist the temptation to borrow the above line from Alice Walker's The Color Purple. 

Life has been so busy here that I haven't had time to do much blogging--a fact which I find very discouraging because I've got a lot to tell you.  However, I just wanted to write a quick post for documentation purposes. 

Nancy and I just arrived home a few minutes ago (a little after 10:00 p.m. CST) after spending the day at the Iowa High School Speech Association's Large Group All-State Festival in Ames.  Two of the speech groups that I co-coach were honored there today, and we are very proud of their success.  We actually stayed in Ankeny with the kids last night so that we would be able to arrive at C.Y. Stephens Auditorium on the ISU campus before 7:30 a.m. without having to wake up long before the crack of dawn.

This brings me to the point of this post.  Tonight I had to do something that I haven't done since Nov. 9 of last year: start the fire in the kitchen cookstove from scratch.  By my calculations, that means that the last fire that we had burned for 103 days straight: a new record for us. 

When Nancy came home early from work yesterday, she loaded the stove and shut all the dampers and drafts, and I honestly thought that it would hold fire better than what it did.  There were a few small embers in the ashes when we came home tonight, but not enough to start a fire.  The thermometer in the dining room read 49.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the furnace was set at 50, and the range boiler was completely cold to the touch.  Both fires are started again, and we are already into the fifties.

Anyway, I've got to get to bed now.  We've got a really busy week ahead so that the speech team can be ready for district individual contests next Saturday.  I hope to get caught up with all of you soon.