Winter evening

[beige_alert]

After the half marathon yesterday I'm not feeling all that energetic today, but I went out for a short walk. The sky is clear, the wind calm, and the temperature a nice wintery -11C/+11F. There is a row of condos by the highway that can be seen from near the river, all lined up in a row with their chimneys all lined up with the plumes of smoke rising nearly vertically in the still air, all in a row. On the one hand that's pretty much the classic image of people warm and snug indoors by the fire on a cold winter night, and it's pretty. On the other, I always think that if those buildings were designed and built better they wouldn't need so much heating (and those are probably not very efficient heating units, either). I suppose I have the some feelings, only more so, about campfires. It's lots of fun to sit and watch the flames, and the caveman in us all loves to feel the warmth on a cool evening (or even a not-very-cool summer evening if you are, you know, skyclad and it's not that warm), but while the wood smoke in very low concentration has a pleasant smell, a shift of the wind will send you running to breathable air, the fire itself not burning well at all, and pretty near all of the heat is wasted, only the tiniest fraction being intercepted by the people gathered around it. As waste goes it is pretty, though.