Sunday, November 11, 2007

Asphyxiation by fireplace

I'm not sure that I have ever thought about lighting a fire on a windy day. Today it was very windy. I have no means of properly measuring how strong the gusts were. I can imagine that throughout the day most of the gusts probably measured well above 40 mph. It was windy, cold and we weren't planning on going anywhere, the perfect ingredients for a nice fire; at least I thought. Well, it was so windy that the wind gusts were blowing the smoke right back down the chimney, into the living room and up the stairs. I opened a door for air and it just made things worse. The kids were whining about the smoke so I made them sit in a bedroom upstairs with Yia Yia (grandma) until we could clear the smoke. It was troublesome because I couldn't help but worry about the kids' safety. I also put Gigi in the bathroom.

In the beginning, we thought that the smoke was just the normal smoke that you get if you use a newspaper to light the fire like we did. After a few minutes we realised that we were wrong. Each time we thought that things were looking better, whoosh-another gust blew smoke down the chimney. Kosta finally decided to close the big metal doors in the fireplace and eventually the smoke cleared out. It took about an hour or so. So, we had our fire and it was warm but I'll think twice about lighting up on a windy day such as this one.

5 comments:

  1. Cheryl that does not sound like fun. I know because, a continent awawy in Alaska, we had a similar problem last night. It was our first fire of the season, and we had just cleaned out the fireplace. Everything was fine until the wind started blowing and forcing the smoke back into the house. But hey, we now get to enjoy that nice wood fire smell throughout the whole house!! Just like camping!!

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  2. I know, the smell that remains isn't horrible. How funny that both of us had the same trouble over the weekend. I've had a fireplace before, but never experienced having wind blow the smoke in to such and extent!!

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  3. Hi Cheryl,

    My name is Rafael Rivera. I am originally from San Juan Puerto Rico. I lived 6 months in Athens, Greece. At the time I am in Puerto Rico working with my visa permits to go back to Greece sometime next year. During my stay i just met 1 Puertorrican in Greece and for my surprise I found that there is another one. Please when you have a chance, contact me at my e-mail juanrafaelr@yahoo.com.
    I would like to share with you and ask you some things about your transition to Greece.

    Cordially,

    Rafael Rivera

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  4. Cheryl, if you want to send Rafael over to my site about visas and permits (different things), feel free. All non-EU citizens are the same in Greece's eyes.

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  5. Rafael,
    Thanks for stopping by, I haven't met any other Puerto Ricans in Greece, but I did meet a few Mexicans and one great woman from Peru. I'm still having a hard time finding Americans although I've personally met 2 so far. When I find some time I'll email you but my friend Kat has a site that is the best resource for expats...http://americaninathens.wordpress.com/
    As for info about my transition, this I use the blog to share our experiences with my friends and family. Stick around to see what's going on! :)

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