Well, I’ve been able to remove the chimney cap and the first few layers of brick, suffering nothing more than a few scraps, sore muscles, and a broken knuckle or two. Getting to it requires climbing on ladder, working my way across a roof and then back across another, then balancing on a roof ladder about thirty feet in the air, so I say anything that doesn’t require hospitalization is a win.

I’m still not sure how to take down the inside chimney liner, which appears as solid as the day it was put in and it possibly made of the same stuff in Wolverine’s claws. I’m using something about the size of Thor’s hammer, which simply bounces off the liner.

Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes! Charis made me a nice dinner and Emily gave me a copy of The Annotated Wizard of Oz, which I’ve been lusting after since first seeing it a few years ago. My vacation was something of a bust from a fun standpoint, but I survived my first book signing and we’ve sold almost 60 print copies of Storm Chaser in addition to whatever’s going out through the publisher … a good start.