Most of the time, especially in the summer, I love the thought of wet wood.  I love the feel of wet wood.  The smell.  The sound.  Mmmmmmm.  You know what I mean.  Just close your eyes, and you're there.  "Oooo, wet wood.  How womantic!", as Madeline Kahn (RIP) might say.

But... with the winter fast approaching, so dark, so lonely, so cold...  We need as much warmth and good cheer as we can get, right?  If you're lucky, you've got a fireplace.  If you're luckier yet, you've got real wood to burn in that fireplace.  And if you're especially lucky, you've got real, DRY wood to burn.  Ahh, dry wood!  It catches a spark so easily.  It burns so perfectly.  It emits the purest aroma and the surest warmth.  And those sounds in the fire -- Smack!  Pop!  Rip!  Burst!  Ooo, the closer to the hearth, the better.

Is your wood ready for winter?  Is it ready to get lit?  Is it ready to catch fire and burn, burn, burn until it can burn no more?  I sure hope so.  But if it's not, don't despair.  You don't have to be Juraj Mikus to ensure the ideal fire.  Even if you live in a relatively moderate climate (ahem), you can take a few simple steps to assure that, come winter, your wood is ready to blaze, wet or dry:

http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/fuelproc.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_2192263_build-bonfire-from-wet-wood.html

http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howetwd.htm

and please do check out this message (from someone other than Tony Robbins):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXrmZV6y5q8&feature=related

Stay warm, my friends.

Ah, the golden days of summer...  Let's take a journey back in time, to June/July of '08...

The Kings select Drew Doughty with the #2 overall draft pick.  If the ping pong balls had come up differently, and the Kings ended up with the #1 overall selection in the entry draft, who do you think Lombardi would have picked?  Stamkos was the *consensus* #1 pick.  Doughty and Bogosian were considered a toss up for #2.  And then there were 2 or 3 other D-men considered to be blue chips.  Hindsight, of course, is 20/20, but in all honesty, who do you think DL would've taken if LA got to pick first?  Would he have chosen the guy that 99% of the interested hockey world agreed was the no-brainer pick?  Or would he have stuck to his guns -- i.e. build from the back end, out -- and taken Dewey anyway?

And then, who to replace the recently-fired Marc Crawford?  Decisions, decisions...  Some said that the firing of MC and the subsequent hiring of Terry Murray would be the move that, more than any other personnel decision, would define DL's crafting of the LA Kings franchise.  What do you think?  Considering the cards he was dealt, was TM the right guy for the job?

Personally, I consider this particular off-season -- summer of 2008 -- the turning point for the fate of the current franchise.  I remember wondering, after Crawford was fired, just what is it that DL is getting after?  Where is this team heading?  Can it get any worse?  How much better can it get?  How much of my time, energy, and faith do I really want to invest in this silly game, and in this team that I've been following since, well, the days of Randy Holt and company.  Are the best days yet to come?  Will this team ever have its moment in the sun?  

Many questions remain to be answered, but we have a fascinating trajectory to trace since DL was hired as GM.  For some reason, on this evening of February 5, 2010, I'm looking back and trying to connect some of the dots.  Anybody else have thoughts that might flow into mine?