We had a fire at our house last night.
We've had this house for 7 years, and it came with the novelty of a dishwashing machine. We'd never had one in any of our previous apartments. It's old, and loud though, so we often load it with dishes after dinner, but not turn it on until we're going to bed, so we don’t have to listen to the rattle and noise.
So my husband loaded it and turned it on late last night, after I had fallen asleep watching tv on the couch. He walked through the kitchen again a few minutes later, and found blue flames spouting from the control panel on the outside of the dishwasher door! He thought fast and put it out, quickly, with a nearby fire extinguisher. In my sleep-walking, I was about to throw baking soda on it, from a box, on the counter, even though it was clearly an electrical fire, and not a grease fire. The dishwasher continued to smolder, so he also went to our fuse box and turned off the curcuit that goes to the dishwasher, another thing I would never have thought of.
Then we stayed awake and watched a Star Trek Voyager rerun until 1:00 in the morning, because we were afraid to go to bed in case it flared up again. By then the dishwasher door felt cold, so we were willing to go to bed.
I can't stop thinking about all the times I've put the dishwasher on and gone to bed, and all the times I've put the dishwasher on and left the house, sometimes with my children at home, and always with my dog at home! What if my husband had not had to walk through the kitchen one last time, and noticed the fire? Do we have a fire alarm? Yes. Where were the batteries? Out, because we removed them one of the many times that simply cooking set off the fire alarm , and had not replaced them. Believe me, the battery is back in the fire alarm now, but it wasn't at the time, and would not have alerted us.
And now we have to buy a new dishwasher. Good , because the old one was loud, and this justifies buying a new one. Bad because it'll cost us, and installation will be a hassle!
Replacing the stove a few years ago involved the gas company coming out to disconnect the old one from the gas, the store delivering the new stove and taking the old one, and the gas company coming back to connect it to the gas. Installing the new refrigerator involved us figuring out on our own how to disconnect the ice maker from the water line, which involved going in the basement and turning off the water hose to it, the store taking the old one and putting the new one in its place, and a plumber coming to connect the new fridge to the water hose, only to inform us the old water hose was non-standard, and he had to replace it , too. Then the new fridge sucked up too much electricity and we had to replace the whole fuse box as well. Installing the new clothes dryer involved disconnecting the old one from the gas line somehow, the store delivering the new one and taking the old one, the gas company connecting the new one to the gas line, and a local building repair person creating a new vent and ventillation tube of aluminum and duct tape, to vent it to the outside. Installing the new furnace a few years ago also involved some drama involving correctly ventillating it to the outside, involving someone having to drill a new hole in the foundation of our house and creating a new tube to vent to the ouside. What horrors will replacing the dishwasher bring ?
I, who complain of already being over-scheduled just took on a new weekly meeting. I re-enrolled in Norwegian Language class on Wednesday nights, for the next 10 weeks, at Mindekirken Church basement in South Minneapolis. I attended for 9 months last school year, and have really missed spending that 2 hours a week studying norsk. Again, the hassle of getting there is a stressor, but the class itself is one of the most fun and relaxing things I ever go to! And my family won't miss me, because that's when my kids go to Catholic Education, and my husband teaches Catholic Ed, so they're not home most of that time, anyway. And it's only or 10 weeks. After that I can decide if I want to enroll again or let it go for a few more months.
I just found out there's a "Frozen 5K" run, as part of the St. Paul Winter Carnival, on Saturday, January 27. I want to go in it !
We've had this house for 7 years, and it came with the novelty of a dishwashing machine. We'd never had one in any of our previous apartments. It's old, and loud though, so we often load it with dishes after dinner, but not turn it on until we're going to bed, so we don’t have to listen to the rattle and noise.
So my husband loaded it and turned it on late last night, after I had fallen asleep watching tv on the couch. He walked through the kitchen again a few minutes later, and found blue flames spouting from the control panel on the outside of the dishwasher door! He thought fast and put it out, quickly, with a nearby fire extinguisher. In my sleep-walking, I was about to throw baking soda on it, from a box, on the counter, even though it was clearly an electrical fire, and not a grease fire. The dishwasher continued to smolder, so he also went to our fuse box and turned off the curcuit that goes to the dishwasher, another thing I would never have thought of.
Then we stayed awake and watched a Star Trek Voyager rerun until 1:00 in the morning, because we were afraid to go to bed in case it flared up again. By then the dishwasher door felt cold, so we were willing to go to bed.
I can't stop thinking about all the times I've put the dishwasher on and gone to bed, and all the times I've put the dishwasher on and left the house, sometimes with my children at home, and always with my dog at home! What if my husband had not had to walk through the kitchen one last time, and noticed the fire? Do we have a fire alarm? Yes. Where were the batteries? Out, because we removed them one of the many times that simply cooking set off the fire alarm , and had not replaced them. Believe me, the battery is back in the fire alarm now, but it wasn't at the time, and would not have alerted us.
And now we have to buy a new dishwasher. Good , because the old one was loud, and this justifies buying a new one. Bad because it'll cost us, and installation will be a hassle!
Replacing the stove a few years ago involved the gas company coming out to disconnect the old one from the gas, the store delivering the new stove and taking the old one, and the gas company coming back to connect it to the gas. Installing the new refrigerator involved us figuring out on our own how to disconnect the ice maker from the water line, which involved going in the basement and turning off the water hose to it, the store taking the old one and putting the new one in its place, and a plumber coming to connect the new fridge to the water hose, only to inform us the old water hose was non-standard, and he had to replace it , too. Then the new fridge sucked up too much electricity and we had to replace the whole fuse box as well. Installing the new clothes dryer involved disconnecting the old one from the gas line somehow, the store delivering the new one and taking the old one, the gas company connecting the new one to the gas line, and a local building repair person creating a new vent and ventillation tube of aluminum and duct tape, to vent it to the outside. Installing the new furnace a few years ago also involved some drama involving correctly ventillating it to the outside, involving someone having to drill a new hole in the foundation of our house and creating a new tube to vent to the ouside. What horrors will replacing the dishwasher bring ?
I, who complain of already being over-scheduled just took on a new weekly meeting. I re-enrolled in Norwegian Language class on Wednesday nights, for the next 10 weeks, at Mindekirken Church basement in South Minneapolis. I attended for 9 months last school year, and have really missed spending that 2 hours a week studying norsk. Again, the hassle of getting there is a stressor, but the class itself is one of the most fun and relaxing things I ever go to! And my family won't miss me, because that's when my kids go to Catholic Education, and my husband teaches Catholic Ed, so they're not home most of that time, anyway. And it's only or 10 weeks. After that I can decide if I want to enroll again or let it go for a few more months.
I just found out there's a "Frozen 5K" run, as part of the St. Paul Winter Carnival, on Saturday, January 27. I want to go in it !
1 Comments:
At 8:51 PM ,
ash966 said...
I bought my above-stove microwave and dishwasher from Warners' Stellian, and they installed both for free, plus they got my kitchen vent working, which I had never been able to figure out. They also take old stuff away, very important when you don't have a car.
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