Persistance of Memory

The kitchen door swings open as Joe, followed by his son Casey, enter. I am sitting on the couch of my little log house staring at the river, lost in reverie. "Tony", Joe yells as me across the room, "Your house is on fire!". "What?" I exclaim, a bit taken-a-back at the very thought. Joe and Casey, being clear sighted men of action, then grab the refrigerator that is trailing the scent of an electrical fire and take it into the yard. "Wow", I say, "Sure glad you two showed up today!"
Later when Joe needs me to spot a car, I take the opportunity to give him a ride in my newest, old Fiero. Joe, often times surrounded with the aura of knowing, finally says to me, "You know you have an exhaust leak in here, don't you"? "Actually I don't Joe, but it sure might explain these headaches I have been having."
When I moved into this house 20 years, it was in obvious need of chinking. You could see the outside in many places standing on the inside. I thought to myself, hey this isn't all bad. When I utilize my auxiliary kerosene heating system, if there happens to be any excess carbon monoxide, the fresh air blowing through the logs will keep it from being too concentrated and causing me health problems. Economy of Measure, nature's own fail-safe system.
For the month of November, I have been burning wood in the fireplace twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. My eyes have been growing tired, and those rare headaches are beginning to reappear.
In a flash, I suddenly remember. Paul fixed some of the cracks between the logs! Could it be that my fail-safe system is failing and carbon monoxide is building up? I better do a Bill Nye, the science guy, experiment. So... I'll be off looking for some new technology to check just that very fact.