Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This

First, I was all set for a cup of hot coffee to enjoy before my grandson got up. (He spent the night because he got in trouble at home and wanted to go to Nana’s house so his mom called and asked if he could come.)  I make a single cup of coffee at a time using a Melitta type drip coffee cone.  I do this because for years I would make a 12 cup pot and end up drinking all 12 cups myself which is not good so I ended up in the habit of just fixing one cup at a time.  I heat the water in the microwave because I don’t use the stove anymore.  I don’t use the stove anymore because the last time that I did, on Easter Sunday of 2012, I forgot that I had a tea kettle full of water on the stove and I left the house for Easter dinner and didn’t return for three hours.  I could have burned the house down but I guess the Powers That Be were watching over me so instead I came home to a house full of smoke and the horrid smell of the burning metal but thankfully, no flame.  I have no other explanation.  That wasn’t the first time but that was the worst.  On previous occasions I had left soup or a pot of beans on the stove while I ran out to get my daughter from school.  No, not intentionally.  I just forget things. Other times I had left the house with the oven or stove on and remembered when I got out on the highway (about five minutes aftere leaving home) and I would rush back.  This last time, that Easter, I just gave up.  Since then I have not used the stove.  I do everything in the microwave.  So back to this morning…

I put in the tumbler full of water and put the timer on the microwave.  Power went on.  The timer went on.  The light went on.  But it didn’t do anything.  No noise.  No turning turntable.  No heat.  Nothing.  I turned it off and cleared the timer and tried again.  Nothing.  I unplugged it, waited a few minutes, then plugged it back in and tried again.  Nope.  Nothing.  No microwave.  No hot water.  No coffee.  No relaxing time before my grandson got up.  So I cleared off and cleaned off the stovetop.  I dug out my Revere Ware tea kettle, filled it with water and turned it on.  Yay.  Now I could heat the water.  I went to read for a bit while the water boiled.  Ten minutes later I came to see why the tea kettle was not whistling.  Did my stove break down too?  I doubted that because it’s new.  I only had it for about a month when I stopped using it.  Nope.  The stove was on.  The water was boiling but the tea kettle was not whistling.  The whistle dohickie broke.  While this was fine for this one cup of coffee, it’s not fine in the long run because with a forgetful person like me, I have to have the whistler.  Anyway, I fixed my coffee and enjoyed it even though my grandson was up by then.

As I drank my coffee, I thought about going out to replace the microwave and the tea kettle.  It was very cold, though.  Inside and outside.  I figured I would wait a day or at least until the mid afternoon when our temps reach their highest.  Sitting there drinking my coffee I was quite aware of how cold it was inside my house.  I tend to not turn on the heater until November, unless there’s company.  But it was quite cold and Anderson was here playing with no shirt or pants on.  He’s four and doesn’t like to have clothes on so as long as he is home or here, he runs around in just underwear most of the time, unless there is company.  So I decided to turn on the heater for both of us.  I turned it on and turned up the thermostat (I keep it at about 68 for myself) so it would warm up quickly.  And, of course, not five minutes later the sun came out and it got hot in here.  Hot.  I shut off the heater but my house stays hot for a long time.

So now I am sitting here trying to cool off while I think of when and where I will go look for a replacement microwave and a whistling tea kettle.  And while I’m at it, I guess I need to replace my electric teapot again.  I used to use that for boiling water but when my mom came over she liked it and I gave it to her.  I replaced it and then my son came over and liked it so I gave it to him.  I replaced that one but never opened the box (because it wasn’t really the one I wanted) and ended up giving that one away.  So now I have none.  I like them because they shut off automatically when the water boils.  I think that’s just what I need.

I guess I should try to find a new “Rememberer” for myself, too.  That would make life so much easier!