The First Fire of The Season

Last night we built the first fire of the season. Actually it wasn’t “we”, it was Polo. I just started saying “Polo, it’s chilly, I think we need a fire. Polo, I think we need a fire.”
At first he objected by saying “well, it’s 55 degrees, if I build a fire it’s going to be 90-somethin’ in here.” I am not sure why when he builds a fire it has to be this competition with other imaginary fire building people trying to burn down the western hemisphere. I think when he used to get up early in the morning and light the fire before dawn, he probably did some kind of fire dance around the wood burning stove. OK, let me stop making fun of my poor husband.
So we lit a fire and kept the dampers partially closed so it was a very comfortable 74 degrees in the house last night. What made it even more pleasant was Polo almost finished the fall cleaning downstairs so instead of all the piles of stuff we had around while we went through them to throw stuff out, it was clean, cozy and comfortable.
We always do our spring cleaning in fall. Spring would make more sense because winter does leave the house all nasty, dirty and sooty, but I think there is just more inspiration to just get out of the house at that time rather than stay inside and clean. In fall we always have to make room for all the new homeschooling books and I suppose since we are getting ready to close everything up and spend the next few months indoors, it makes sense that now would be the time to make it all nice again. Especially with the New Guy With No Name coming, we want it extra sparkley.