Success!

Last night we took our new fire pit for an inaugural run. We got a total cheapo version, basically a metal bowl on legs with a grill inside it and a cover. We also resisted the temptation to upgrade to Adirondack chairs and made do with some cheapo plastic chairs and Carolina blue sporting event fold-up chairs with spots for your canned beverage because, after all, the occasion was a belated birthday party for teen boys and they could give a flying fuck about all that stuff.

Prepping for it was a multi-step affair. We were low on wood, so I had to restock. My normal firewood supplier, Scott Jens (CHHS '81 or so, ex-of CHPD), had no wood because he was recovering from a back surgery. I checked the interweb and to get a small amount of wood delivered -- the face cord or so we were looking for -- was prohibitively expensive for someone as cheap as I am. I had planned to take Graham down to a supplier to load up the Prius wagon, but then I thought to call my neighbor John to see if we could borrow his truck. His truck was down at the beach with him, but he told me that our neighbor Scott had tons of wood. I called up Scott and he was like, yeah man, come over and load up. Which was excellent in many ways, because I always like to visit with Scott's dog Phoebe, a largish and aging golden retriever. So on Wednesday Graham and I headed over to Scott's house with the car and loaded it up with wood, then added it to the pile in our backyard, which achieved the double goal of making Graham do something with his upper body, which really needs to add muscle. Graham also enjoyed petting Phoebe.

Scott said the wood was dry, but this being both an inaugural run for the fire pit and Graham's birthday, I decided to leave nothing to chance. So on Saturday night I headed out to the home supply big box (if they want a free ad they can pay me) and got some starter logs and some lighter fluid. Turned out I needed only one quick squirt of the lighter fluid at a moment when the fire was dimming a little 15 minutes in. Otherwise it just took a little attention.

The boys had a fine old time in the backyard, making smores, eating pizza, etc.