IN JANUARY OF LAST YEAR after<br >cutting wood for four hours， the chain saw leaped from my<br >father s exhausted hands， seriously and permanently maiming<br >him.<br > This is only one of the dangers involved in the use of alternative<br >energy sources. My father s house--worth， he had assured me， a<br >quarter of a million dollars， possibly even more--was heated by<br >wood stoves requiring vast quantities of timber.<br > It is true in mentioning the terrible accident of my father I may<br >sound too callous for a son， but in this I only take after my dad<br >himself， who at the time of his mishap was home on a weekend<br >furlough from jail， where he was incarcerated .for the murder of<br >my mother. "Involuntary" manslaughter--"accidental，" to be<br >sure--but murder nevertheless.<br > Still， the thought of the whine of the buzz saw stuttering and<br >choking on human flesh did bring certain memories to mind--to<br >begin with， those of the day my mother told my brother and me，<br >"We re getting a divorce."<br > But perhaps that was not it exactly; those were not my mother s<br >exact words. ，We were getting a divorce， that much was correct.<br >The three of us would continue to live on Marlowe Drive， in the<br >same house， but Daddy was going to move out and live somewhere<br >else.<br > My brother was weeping in the bathtub. "Shut up! Shut up，<br >