09/22/2025
Mike Rees, AKA The
Chimney Guy, was amazed,
which wasn’t all that unusual.
I mean, he was amazed just
looking at the sparrows
darting around the bird feeder.
Or marveling at the number
of cars on the freeway at 6:30
AM, headed off to work.
Or wondering at the huge
number of things his wife,
June, did for him every day,
without even being asked.
Let’s see, where was I?
Oh, yeah, what was he
amazed at lately?
At the number of people who
were calling The Chimney
Guy, Inc., wanting a chimney
inspected or repaired.
Especially since Mike and
June were the people running
the company nowadays.
Sandy and Frankie were no longer
with the company, so
Mike and June had abandoned
their semi-retirement to come
in at 7 AM every morning and
dive in.
Mike was doing most of the
scheduling of inspections and
repairs and it was a lot of fun,
most of the time. Things got a
little hectic when 2 or 3 people
called in at the same time, but
he liked to think he was getting
the hang of it.
And he’s also amazed when a
real estate agent on the phone
likes to hear his voice on the
phone again after all these
years.
And don’t forget California
having the fourth largest
domestic product of any
country on the planet. How
the heck did that happen?
(With the incredibly advanced
government which we are
blessed with.)
Mike was often amazed at
how the staff of The Chimney
Guy solved problems and did
difficult jobs and took
initiative and made decisions
without being told. Every day.
Quite refreshing, actually.
He marveled at the HUGE
number of buried pipes
bringing everyone fresh water
when they want it and getting
rid of all the waste, all over
LA.
What percentage of people
reading this Newsletter have a
cell phone? I bet it’s close to
100%. And look at all the
stuff people do with those cell
phones, every day. My, my!
Grand kids. Got any? Pretty
magical.
Heck, how about plain old
kids? Lots of magic there, too.
Lots of amazing stuff
happening in Washington,
D.C. lately. I’ll leave it to the
reader to decide if it’s amazing
good or amazing bad.
The Chimney Guy was really
a sort of simplistic fellow,
making such a big deal of these
everyday things.
Guilty as charged.
I mean, take a look at how
many people live on the planet
these days. What is it? Seven
or eight billion people? Even
the people living in dirt poor
countries are surviving and
trying to build a future.
It no longer takes months to
travel to distant lands. Several
hours in a jet and you’re there.
Long distance
communication? Either people
or computers. Communication
across a country or across the
world. As simple as picking
up your cell phone or cranking
up the old computer.
Amazing.
There’s that word again.
America is pretty amazing,
actually. Look at the huge
number of authors, artists,
actors, inventors, political
theorists, and entrepreneurs
that have sprung up here and
contributed tons to the quality
of life here and abroad.
Look at the number of people
from around the world who
would prefer to live in the
good old US of A. It’s not like
that for Communist China.
While America has its faults,
(Don’t get me started.)
somehow the totality adds up
to a worldwide high regard for
America.
Seems amazing to me.
How about pencils? Do you
ever look at a common pencil
and wonder how they get the
lead inside the wood? The
Chimney Guy wonders.
Speaking of chimneys…
My wife says I should say
something about chimneys,
since that’s what we do at The
Chimney Guy, Inc.
(Ahem… The Chimney Guy
always does what his wife
says.)
(The Inquisitor asked,
“always?”)
(Well, “often.”)
(Eyebrow raised, “often?”)
(All right, once or twice a
week, maybe.)
(The Inquisitor grew tired of
this and returned to his music.)
Three things we check when
we do a chimney inspection
have to do with Structural
Integrity, Fire Safety, and
Performance.
Performance has to do with
how well the chimney
evacuates the smoke and gases
produced by a fire in the
fireplace.
While there is interesting
physics at work in a chimney, I
will say here only that the
internal geometry and the sizes
of spaces inside a chimney
determine how well it’s all
going to work.
What’s more, if a fireplace is
spilling smoke out into the
room, in almost all cases we
can fix it. Pretty amazing, eh?
(May All Your Dreams be Lofty.)
