The $209.00 Rose

The days continue, each one as strange as the next.....or so it seems to me. Last Friday featured a visit from the chimney sweep and his helper at 8 am. After they spread drop cloths from the front door to the fireplace, across the newly-shampooed rug (here's a shout out to Gino Bertini), the younger man started to clean the fireplace chimney, while I went to the basement with the older man. He has a wood furnace just like mine, so we had a good chat about heating with wood, and I said I was looking forward to a warmer house this winter. We shared stories of what happens when a particular valve sticks open and heat, heat, heat pours into the house. We've had days when the windows and doors had to be open in the middle of winter and everyone wore t-shirts! But I digress.

One of the things the sweep had to do was take the wood furnace pipe and the oil furnace pipe out of the flue to inspect that chimney. When he did, he called me downstairs. The news wasn't good. The ceramic tile chimney liner is crumbling and there were large holes visible between the liner and the chimney wall, a situation which could be dangerous in the event of a wood fire that is too hot, and allowing the possibility of carbon monoxide in the oil furnace exhaust to leach into the "guts of the chimney" and then into the house. I'm not so worried about that, but I'm distressed that I need to have a new liner, which may cost anything from $1500.00 - $3000.00 dollars. Hmmm, that renders heating with wood a whole lot more expensive than it was going to be......plus, he says I shouldn't run the wood furnace until the chimney is re-lined.

So, feeling somewhat bummed out, I bid farewell to the chimney sweep, and closed the front door. The cost of cleaning the chimney was $209.00. I went back to my computer, only to hear a knock on the front door. The older sweep was on the front porch, holding a single, long-stemmed red rose. "Here," he said, handing me the rose. "This will brighten up your day."
And it did.