Your Scribe did not make it to Rangeley over the Thanksgiving weekend. One reason is that I settled in front of a warm wood-burning stove, and enjoyed the day indoors. The photo above shows the Jotul stove in its fiery glory.

My cabin has no light or power, so the range of activities is limited. I like to work around the fireplace, often starring into the flames for untold periods. Plato (The Allegory of the Cave) was the only person I ever heard of who suggested that fixating on fire and shadows could be a meaningful activity but that's not bad company to be in.

So I sat by the fire, and with my son, Drew, whiled away hours by cleaning the wood stove, making the fire, feeding the fire, cooking dinner and then feeding the fire before bed.

I used to wonder whether the stove is large enough for the room, which is 24 by 20. But then I reasoned that the point is moot. Though the walls are insulated, the floor and ceiling are not. And the ceiling rises 20 feet at the apex.

As long as there is no effort being made to contain the heat, why wonder about a larger unit. The temperature was about 35 degrees that weekend, and the place warmed up nicely in several hours. It was cold in the morning, however.

Books read over that weekend: "The Smartest Guys in the Room" (the story of the downfall of Enron), and "DisneyWar," a recounting of the challenges of (now-deposed) Disney CEO Michael Eisner several years ago. Former Sen. George Mitchell gets much attention, as he rose to the post of chairman of Disney. But since Mitchell is the patron saint of our family, I decline to reference any compromsing text.

(An aside: We had Senator Mitchell to our Waterville house years ago for a local fund-raiser. It took place just minutes after the mammoth fund-raiser at the Boys and Girls Club, where he was honored. Perhaps six neighbors came to our event. "You can really fill a room, can't you," he joked. Actually, he was pretty good about it.)

Anyway, the Jotul stove (that Drew bought) is a great asset to the cabin. If I spend hours fiddling with the fire and then watching it do its work, so be it.

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