Dear Melody of Beersheba, Israel, Dennis of Australia, and friends,
Many of you are following my journey closely, as I recover slowly
from the fire of August, 1996. You have asked me to write to you when I
can.
There is so much to think about. I might like to write a book--I
even have a title--
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow--but I keep asking myself, what kind of
writing?
There are a million possible answers--I'm trying to figure out WHO
would read it, and WHAT I want to tell them.
This week in Maine, my old friend, Gus Root of the local
Unitarian-Universalist Church, will be back with custom firebricks, each
one cut to re-fit my old, engraved Scandia woodstove, which survived,
although knocked from its chimneypipe, last year's summer (not
woodstove-related) fire.
He will be also be fitting an air damper onto the new 15-foot black
pipe smokestack that rises majestically from the old stove. I moved this
long-time cast-iron companion to sit on a new, slate-green tile base,
in the sunlit, cathedral-ceilinged music room that faces the back woods..
A second damper will go onto the L-shaped pipe on the newer woodstove,
which sits on Lewiston slate, in the front parlor.
The front parlor stove has a crown on it, so I wonder if it is English.
I teasingly call it Diana, Princess of Range Street! She is connected to
my old central brick chimney. I wonder if someone out there knows the
brand name from the crown mark.
Maybe the more meditative stove in the room with the piano could be
called Mother Theresa!!
The parlor stove needs wall protectors, and they are being made by a
young blacksmith and sheetmetal man named Steve. He has been out hunting
deer this weekend ,somewhere up North. He is a rugged-looking, friendly
guy, who looks like he just rolled in from a rugby game....
Once the protectors are delivered, hopefully tomorrow, I'll have to rub
them with vinegar, and spray-paint them a red brick color with
heat-resistant paint. They will then dry, and be installed by trusty old
Gus.
Thoughts of an apple pie baking in the kitchen, while the woodstoves
slowly soothe the chill of October's nights, set the mind's eye on a
long-awaited dream FINALLY coming into view.
I will arrange the rolled up newspaper and bits of peachboxes, and
kindle the first fire in each stove.. I will feel home again, after
eleven months of dislocation, and three more of getting settled .Oak,
beech, maple and birch aromas will scent the air.
IVAN
A special P.S........
Melody (and Ken),
Thank you both so much for including me in your New Year's wishes!
Melody, please tell me more about your musical life, and about living in
the Negev.
Yours sincerely,
Ivan
P.P.S.... My Hebrew name is Yitzhak, my maternal great grandfather's
name. I have one other friend named Melody, whose Hebrew name is
Zipporah.
