Winter and the Wood Stove

I am sitting on the couch along the outside wall of our living room. The wind is shaking the house and jets of frigid air are squirting in through all the places where the weather stripping came loose and I didn't bother to fix it. The wood stove is glowing and the room is a strange mixture of hot and cold. All the rooms that are beyond the reach of the wood stove are frosty. The last gust caused a wide variety of objects on the deck to go flying. The snow shovel, neatly leaning on the outside wall is now tangled up in the wood pile. The plastic trash can, used to keep kindling dry, is blown over and the lid smashed against the deck railing so hard that it shattered. The tarp that covers the wood pile is snapping violently trying to rip free from the heavy logs that hold it in place. The stronger gusts even try to reach down the chimney and blow the smoke back into the house. The cold seems to be doing everything it can to snuff out the warm glow of the wood stove. It hasn't found a way to move the heavy cast iron stove nor overcome the strong updraft of the chimney, so it attacks everything in reach. The kindling, the wood pile, even the tarp. And yet the wood stove glows on unconcerned and I sit along an outside wall mere inches from a wild winter night warm and comfortable. It may be messy and a lot of work, but nothing beats a wood stove on a night like this.