Day 8: Wolfgang Puck in my fireplace

Matt and I woke up this morning and before we even rolled out of bed, we heard the power shut down in the whole house. It's freezing cold here in North Florida, and Matt and I both knew it could be a cold day for me and Karis if we didn't get moving on a fire in the fireplace. So Matt the Protector headed out, gathered wood, and built us a nice blaze where Karis and I stayed put for the better part of an hour, getting up only to kiss Matt goodbye as he headed out to work.

Soon thereafter I became quite overcome with my desire for coffee. I figured if I could just find a way to heat up water in the fire then I could make a nice french press of coffee. I was further motivated to try by the thought of sharing a cup with our neighbor, Mema. So I rustled up a small pan from the kitchen, filled it with water, and placed it gently on a sturdy log in the fire.

The water seemed to be heating up quite nicely and surprisingly quickly when I noticed that bits of ash would periodically fly up from the embers and slowly fall into the water. Call me crazy, but I figured I could strain them out when I was done. But just as things were just about to reach the boiling point, the heat in the house kicked back on. Feeling a little disappointed but like it was the safe thing to do, I backed the pan out of the fire and poured the water (which smelled like a smokey barbecue joint) down the drain.

My hour-long suffering from cold and no coffee reminded me, once again, how hard life must have been before electricity. I'm quite sure life was consumed by the basics, i.e. keeping oneself fed, warm, clothed, etc. In the end, I still made that French Press of coffee...with water heated in my electric kettle. Ah, sweet, modern-day, 'no ash in my water' electricity.