Fires

Indeed.

I think we like a lot of controlled danger.

Speed, spicy food, explosions, spicy other stuff, guns, torque, sparks.

But a flame is somehow peaceful at the same time.

Unless you wake up at 4 AM with the pasture on fire from the wind across the neighbors trash pile burning.

He doesn't burn his trash there anymore.

California brushfires are scary. Forty years ago, before the area around us was all developed, a fire burned to within a quarter mile of our house. Sparks and embers were landing on our roof. My neighbor pounded on our door at 6:00 AM and told us to get ready to evacuate. The whole eastern sky was bright orange. We were not evacuated, but friends and work colleagues who lived closer to the brush were, and some lost their houses.

It makes one thankful for being able to wake up in 5 seconds. Sometimes I wonder how one does it.

I'm sure Florida fires are small compared to California, but there is more lightening too.

I woke up to blue lights. My first thought was that the preacher neighbor's kid had come home in a bad way. As is often the case, the fire was called in by the fire starter. The volunteer fire department was really cool at 4 AM; I am now a contributor.

Quite a display with 5 acres on fire.

Fortunately no critters or structures were damaged.

As a consequence though, the wildlife in that stretch of pasture became different for a time. Fox in particular seemed to benefit from the change in grasses.

Being in front of a roaring log fire on a cold, crispy, evening is so comforting. Relaxing and watching the flames form shapes while the click and hiss of burning sap keeps you just the right side of awake. Jut nicely in control. No pyromania, just pyrophilia?

I never tire
of watching a fire.

Great write, Bert. I don't have a fireplace as I used to. On Christmas Eve & all nday on Christmas, one of our local TV stations plays Christmas carols & the only thing on the screen is a crackling fire in a fireplace. It's fascinating & comforting tto just stare at the flames & let your mind wander. Their ratings are higher than any other TV station at Christmas. Of course our caveman ancestors used fire for warmth & to cook their food. For us, I don't know what it is. I don't have a pyromaniac desire to burn things down, though, LOL. Lamarckism is an interesting concept.

I have seen similar programs, Jim.
Our fireplace burns very cleanly...mostly due to a special grate that I found.
We get very little smoke or odor in the house, but Suzanne complains that it creates drafts and that the rest of the house is colder because the thermostat for the furnace is about fifteen feet from the fireplace on an opposite wall. I often turn the thermostat UP when we have a fire!

Don't know much about it but I understand that standard fireplaces can suck heat out of a room, & some have vents above the firebox to return heat to the room.

True, Jim. My parents had a fireplace in their house with something called a "Heatilator," as I recall. It had a fan that came on when the interior of the thing reached a certain temperature, and it blew hot air into the room.
I don't think our fireplace heats the house much, if any.
But I don't care...:>)

Yeah, that's what I was talking about. Very efficient. Aesthetics is enough when you live in Socal, LOL.

Aesthetics...yeah, maybe.
But it resonates with something in me.
It's like...well, a whole new story. We have been to Scotland a few times over the years. And I have walked along parade routes with pipe-and drum groups...gotten to know some of the pipe players. Bagpipes, known as 'highland pipes," that is. There are many kinds of bagpipes.
Whenever I hear those highland pipes playing, I get a very strange feeling. The hair on the back of my head stands straight up.
And I think...do I have some Scottish blood in me that remembers some ancient battles...where the pipes were played?
The Scots played those pipes as they marched into battle, and it intimidated their enemies. It's a VERY scary sound!

Okay, you got me started now. My daughter and family are interested in pipes. They live in New York, and up in Vermont there is a festival every summer called The Pipers Gathering. We went to it a few years ago, and it is a blast.
Here is a web site that describes it.
I have more to say, but I know Gather will implode if I put two links in one post...so see the next one.

My grandson is a pipe player (along with flute and piano). He has a very special set of pipes called Uillean Pipes. Here is a web site describing them.
They are very difficult to play, and he is still trying to master them.

Interesting links, Bert. I like the bagpipes too. They also stir my emotions, maybe due to my English/Irish heritage.

Hey, Jim, did you notice in the writeup on the Pipers Gathering this summer that it opens with...in their words...
"The Gathering begins on Friday evening with an informal ceilidh."
Having been to Scotland, I know what a ceilidh is. It's pronounced "KAY-Lee." It's a Gaeilic jam session, accompanied by lots of beer, often in a pub.
Great fun.

Sounds like fun! I love the Scottish accent. I could listen to a Scot talk all day (And they usually do, lol)

Fire bad? Fire not bad. Fire good.

When my son (then 12 years old) and I went to Scotland in 2001, we spent two days in Killen, the ancestral home of Clan MacNab, my own bunch. We were in a pub, and while I was busy astounding the patrons with my Californianess, Ernie was buttonholed by a middle-aged Scotsman who was an aficionado of Scotland's major liquid export (not North Sea oil, in this case). They were involved in a long conversation; about forty-five minutes later, the guy left, and Ernie came over. I asked what they were talking about. Ernie said that he had no idea; he was saying "Yes", and "Oh, really" and that sort of thing, but confessed that he hadn't understood a word this guy had said. But just a few days later we were so used to the accent that we often had to remind each other not to drop into the burr ourselves, lest we be accused of mocking the natives.

Ah yes, single malts..We took our daughter on a driving trip in Scotland for her graduation present (UCLA). We hit the Whisky Trail for some samples, and my wife has been a single malt fan ever since.
I'm not a whisky drinker, generally, but I will make an exception for one. It's called Balvenie Portwood.

Some people pick up accents quickly, & others, not at all. My sister lived in SC for one yeay & spoke with a southern accent for 3 years thereafter. I lived in TX for 8 years & never picked up the twang. I listen to the BBC on the radio & can't understand half of the words that they say. Someone once said that Britain & the U.S. are two countries divided by a common language.

I've had the Balvenie... marvelous stuff. I am partial, though to the Islay malts. They are very smoky and peaty, and Islay being an island, the peat used there to malt the barley is composed primarily of seaweed; the taste of salt and iodine comes over into the whisky. The most intense of them is Laphroaig, made on the southeastern coast of the island, and it is a truly remarkable dram. As a Scotsman once said admiringly, upon hearing that it was popular in California, "It takes a verra determined laddie tae get that stuff doun."

There are at least four Balvenies. DoubleWood is also good, but PortWood has a slight sweet edge because it is aged in port casks. Most whiskies are aged in sherry casks. The whisky is as clear as vodka when it comes out of the still. It gets all of its color and a some of its flavor from the barrel.
None of the Balvenies are peaty. I don't really like the peaty ones. They taste like petroleum to me....not that I have ever drunk any crude oil.
Laphroaig is very famous, but there are lots of other peaty ones.
I agree with the Scotsman. It must be an acquired taste.

Jim , that is curious.

I suspect that you are secure in your image.

Me, I pick up an accent.

I don't know why that is.

They taste like petroleum to me....not that I have ever drunk any crude oil.

This is analogous to a number of closet cases I have met.....

I am not touching that one, Hyper. :>)

Oh, a wise guy, eh?

I tend to pick up accents of people I associate with...or at least colloquialisms. I think it an unconscious desire to communicate with them on their 'frequency.

I think you are spot on Bert.

Whenever I travel, folks notice that I come back with new words or accents.

Even though I lived in TX for 8 years, I basically worked with other Yankees who had invaded TX along with me or with others all over the country who I had contact with; also I don't particularly like the twangy sound of the TX accent, & I knew that I was "Outta There" when I retired, so I had no incentive to become a "Good Ol' Boy", LOL. A lot of the people that I worked with who had kids in school picked up the accent from their kids who brought it home from school.

I disliked Texas intensely... I was there for 17 weeks in the summer of '72. So I had no incentive to learn anything about the speech patterns and dialect although now, academically, I would like to know it.

I wasn't crazy about Texas either, Pete. When I lived there, (1980's) there was a huge influx of companies relocating there due to lower corporate taxes, etc. That didn't help a lot of employees who had to put up with a lower standard of living, though.These newer higher paying jobs drove up housing prices, & many locals who were still fighting the Civil War resented the influx of Carpetbagger Yankees. At that time, bumper stickers saying: "Welcome to Texas. Now go home." were common.

A few days after I arrived, the CWO in charge of our detachment told us that those of us with beards would be required to wear our uniforms when we went down into town (San Angelo) so that the loyal, god-fearin' patriots in town wouldn't accidentally" blow us away with shotguns, believing us to be communist hippy queers. I guess that bearded weirdos... like Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee... were just too much for these patriots to bear; they wanted their fellow patriot babykillers to be clean shaven.

I'm Scots. We don't have accents, the toutists who visit are the ones with accents!

Or even touRists!

Ha ha, you do when you visit Newcastle under Lyme ;-)

You're not wrong there!

I am trying to learn Glaswegian.

Good luck with that...

Do a google for Parliamo Glesga. Some of us have to refer to it on a regular basis.

Thanks for that.

There are certain addictions that are not well appreciated. I spent a good 14 hours walking the streets of Glasgow looking for hot chilies or hot sauce or some such when I were a lad. That was a long night.

what is the history of Iron Brew? Is there a lack of iron in the soil?

It's made in Scotland fae girrrders, as the slogan tells.

As Glasgow is the curry capital of Scotland, you should have had no trouble sourcing chilis.

Ahh but I did. But when I did, I was in line behind a rather drunken fellow.

The shop curator recommended that he take four habaneros home for his dinner.

I smiled.

This was decades ago.

Perhaps I was just as lost as the other fellow.

I think Glasgow is a wonderful place, and the people were certainly nice to me.

But the curry capital. I get it, there is an element of truth there, but it is like being the intellectual center of lower alabama or having the spiciest food in Lapland.

Jings, your comments huv ferr goat mah ribs achin', richt enuf.

"...intellectual center of lower alabama or having the spiciest food in Lapland."
Almost fell out of my chair with that one...

probably too rough on LA (lower al) there. Troy is a growing center.

You're a man after my own heart Bert :-D

Thanks, Dennis. But you never need fires where you live.

Bert, over the years I've had similar thoughts. Of the eight places where I've lived since I graduated from college, only two had fireplaces. Only one of them was after I learned about climate change. But it's likely that, given the era covered during those 50+ years, the other places and their contents, directly and indirectly, contributed a good share of CO2 to the atmosphere.

I don't claim to be consistent about CO2, Verie. We travel a lot, and that is very energy-intensive and CO2 intensive.
Travel is one of the great joys in our life. But I realize that it makes us gross polluters of the atmosphere compared to most people.
As we age, we are traveling less, though. In a few years, we will be much more responsible. And when we die, we will be VERY responsible...except for that final blast from the crematorium. :>)

I don't know how the balance works out, but some things get burned rather than transported and buried.

That's the lesson though...food and health....that is the daily dose of effort.

Bert, ditto for me about traveling. I've been to at least 50 countries. But my traveling hasn't been so much about having fun or getting away from it all. Rather, it has developed a lot of knowledge and favorable behaviors in me that I believe make me a better person and a more informed citizen of the world.

Travel isn't going to go away, and it shouldn't because it connects the world with new ideas and develops greater understanding of others.

Somehow we need to make advances in travel that are kinder to the environment and lessen the damage we do to it.

I think that travel, as we do it today, based on the burning of fossil fuels, is doomed. As the cost of those fuels rises, fewer and fewer people are going to be able to afford the escalating ticket prices. My brother, a retired earth sciences professor at the University of Hawaii, says that commercial air travel will be one of the first casualties.
But I think ALL travel will suffer...even cruise ships use a lot of fuel to take people on a joyride.
The economic impact of a drastically reduced tourist industry will be profound. Tourism is the biggest industry in Africa. Without tourist dollars the economies of a lot of African countries will virtually collapse.
The solution, of course, is a new, cheap, clean renewable energy source.
Have you ever heard of LENR? Low Energy Nuclear Reactions. Many scientists pooh-pooh it, but there have been some interesting research results from reputable labs. Even NASA and the Naval Weapons Lab in San Diego have dabbled in it.
I remain somewhat skeptical, but I am keeping an eye on it. If it's real, it would literally change the world we live in...and solve many of our environmental problems.

Very thought provoking, Bert. I like it.

Thanks, David.

We have a "Heatilator" in our fireplace! It really heats the house nicely while enjoying a roaring fire!

I love a fireplace..

Well, enjoy, Betty. And feel free to use my rationalizations. :>)