I have also come to the conclusion that after attempting to use our fireplaces, we need to hire a chimney sweep.

We lost power early Wednesday morning. I knew immediately that we'd lost power because the UPS alarms went off. Normally, when we lose power (and it happens fairly infrequently), it comes on again within 15 minutes. But this was a massive outage, sprinkled in lots of small neighborhoods throughout the Puget Sound Area, caused by trees that iced up and took down power lines. When we got up in the morning, the power was still out, and we started doing what we could to keep our animals warm.

Last night was a mess. My wife asked me to come home early, so I did. The temperature in the house was dropping fast, and the attempts to light a fire in the fireplace succeeded merely in filling the house with smoke (yes, the flue was open). Our Sugar Gliders were going to need to be warmed up soon -- ours were bred locally and have adapted to the temperate conditions we have here, but small animals lose heat quickly, and when they start having problems, they go downhill fast. So we needed to check into a motel for the night. We just couldn't do without the heat anymore.

I put the glider cages in the car and drove down the street to the local large chain motel. I stood in line with all of the other people without power, and finally got a room. I ran the cages up to the room, and then got in the car to go back and get the wife and the rabbit.

We load the rabbit cage in the car, and just as we were pulling out, all the lights came back on. Of course. I've already paid for the room and moved the gliders down, and loaded the car with the rabbit cage. Of course right now is when the lights come back on.

So I take a deep breath, unload the rabbit, drive back down to the motel, load the gliders into the car, and am luckily able to get a refund for the room. They rented it out almost immediately, since there are still many people without power in the area.

But still. If I was going to try to plan this task for maximal frustration, this would be the way. Okay, I suppose I could have gotten into the room, mess up the place a little bit, and then had the power come back on, just so I would not get the refund, but this was close to the worst way it could happen.

I've come to the conclusion that my house works best when it has power.

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