Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Pay Attention!

It was such a small piece, about the size of a round BB, but it killed my microwave oven! Sad to say, my finger was on the trigger. I pushed the button, the wrong button on Sunday night.

I just wanted some popcorn! So, laying the bag on the glass tray, I shut the door, like I have done a hundred and one times, and pushed the popcorn button. Zap! Usually, in about 60 seconds, you can hear the pop-pop-pop and then it beeps and voila! supper on Sunday night is ready! Quick. Easy. Painless. Unless you talk on the phone, then get on the internet and your roommate says,"PEE YEW! Something is burning!"

I ran back downstairs and into a fog, NO, dense smoke in the kitchen, and before I can open that microwave, my eyes water and I am doubled over coughing, to discover a black bag of charred popcorn and the glass turntable cracked in two. The microwave was toast. Toast would have smelled better!

I had lots of time to run this through my mind as I washed the walls, cabinets, and counters, and scrubbing off the stuck-on, gooey, smelly gunk where the microwave used to preside in my kitchen. I just couldn't figure it out, why this time one bag of popcorn blew up and didn't just pop. And finally, the truth pushed through the thick denial in my mind.

Want to know what went wrong, why the microwave is dead? Okay, this is soooooooooo embarassing. I pushed the potato button, and those little kernels of popcorn popped so long, they became like burnt bullets and fatally shot the microwave. What a "blonde" moment that was. It's true. I pushed the wrong button, then walked away, blithely unaware I killed it.

I miss my microwave! I can't heat a quick cup of tea, or defrost meat for supper, because "somebody" forgot to get the meat out of the freezer earlier in the day. If I want to soften butter to mix-up a quick batch of cookies, or reheat the lasagna for a fast meal, I'm out of luck, and all of this on account of not paying attention.

Wow. What cold humble pie this is. I can't even heat it in the microwave for a minute thirty seconds!