It's been a bit of a letdown of an October, the month that is usually my (Simon) favorite. For one thing, most of it was too hot - positively steamy. This meant that the mosquitoes were not killed off and we didn't get the leaves going those wonderful colors.
Nonetheless, it's still time to get the chimney cleaned, so I booked well in advance, because they do tend to get booked up. But first, they kept putting it off because their truck broke down. Then, 3 days after they'd said they'd be there, they finally showed up, in a battered little van that was definitely not the "Stan's Fireplace" van that had shown up to clean the chimney for the past decade or so. And it wasn't Stan. I knew that Stan had been planning his exit for a while and had brought young apprentices with him the past few times, and I supposed that the one who seemed to be in charge, "Casey," was one of these that I'd forgotten. But his oafish looking assistant was definitely new. I assumed he'd be the one to climb on the roof while Casey worked the giant vacuum cleaner in the sitting-room. Well, I cleared out of there to let them work, and after around an hour Casey had cleaned up, reported that there was a lot of dirt this year but that our chimney looked great - no brickwork needed (because he also did brickwork) and that would be $225 please. Great, no problem. Now I turned my mind to getting wood delivered. This went off without a hitch - the guy I've bought from for the past three or so years was ready and able (he drives all the way from the "thumb" of Michigan with a large truckload - I have to buy a lot to make it worth his while, and I usually have some left over, so I transferred a large % of last year's remainder into our porch for burning first - and he and his girlfriend go and have a nice meal in the Big City of Flint with the $1000 I pay him). It's always a bit fraught when he squeezes his huge truck into our narrow driveway, past our porch (complaining all the while that our bushes are scratching his paintwork) then he tips up the back and has to drive forward to unload the wood, but not so far that he gets trapped with his truck bed raised against our porch and unable to back up because of the wood. He managed it admirably, and closer to the garage than normal, so we can squeeze both cars in the stretch of drive in front of the pile with room to spare.
Now all I have to do is put it away. Currently I have not done that, but I have at least covered the pile with tarpaulins, so it's ready for the snow.
Anyway, about two weeks after the chimney was "cleaned," it finally got cold enough for a fire and I tried to light one. I set it going and wandered into the kitchen just as Jami was heading the other way. "What's happening with the fire!?" I heard from the other room. I returned to see this:
The worst part is the smoke escaping from the bottom (it just looks like wispy dirt on the tiles in that picture) which is supposed to be impossible. Verdict: chimney NOT CLEANED. I texted Casey angrily (something to the effect of "come and do it properly or give me a refund" and, unsurprisingly, didn't hear back. And, also unsurprisingly, no response when I called. But then I tried calling with Jami's phone, and voila - he answered! He got a bit sulky-sounding when he realized he'd been duped into talking to me but said he might show up in a couple of days (he was convinced he'd done the job properly). Of course he didn't. I think I know the problem: he tried to clean the chimney from the bottom up, when you have to get on the chimney, remove the cap, and do it top-down. And also, his brush wasn't long enough to go all the way to the top and clean the gunk that was clogging the cap. So, it still being fairly mild, I decided to get on the roof myself. Observe:
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