I thought I had the fire in the fireplace burnt well enough to last the entire night.
I had never spent a night alone in the cabin before, so I wasn’t exactly sure what to do at night.
My father and I had always gone ice fishing together, but he was sick this year. I tamped the fireplace and made sure it was burning gently, but not going to go out. I slept on the sofa, so I would be nice and cozy all night long. Sometime around 4 AM, the fireplace burnt out, and I was shivering. I couldn’t believe I had completely forgotten to shut the flue. The air was coming down the chimney, and making the fireplace burn hotter, and it caused the fire to go out. It was snowing, and I was outside in sub-freezing temperatures gathering kindling and firewood so I could get the fireplace burning. After nearly two hours, I had a blaze going, and the cabin was warming up. I considered going fishing, but it wasn’t the same without my dad. I huddled up on the sofa and watched a couple of old movies on my phone, and stayed warm by the fireplace. It was a quiet day for me, which I didn’t mind, but it wasn’t until later that evening that I remembered one important equation about staying at the cabin. If the fireplace went out, we had a generator and a mini split to keep us warm. I felt kind of foolish, but I didn’t freeze to death, and I was still having a good time with no one to bother me.