In the category of memory is not as good as it used to be…
The other night I decided to go to bed early, read a while and then put the dogs out for “last outs.” I had cooked a small prime rib (Delicious!) so the bone and leavings were in a large dutch oven on the stove with about a gallon and half of water for the dogs. The unit was on medium. I was going to turn it down to simmer when I let the dogs out.
So what happened? I forgot all about it and fell asleep. The dogs never got “last outs” and the unit never got turned down. In the morning, I noticed a slight scent of smoke as I went down the hall to let the dogs out. I walked right past the stove. It wasn’t until I realized the lights were still on in the breezeway that the scent of smoke truly registered.
I shut the unit off, lifted the lid and immediately replaced it. Flames had leapt up as oxygen reached the blackened grease left in the pot. OMG, we should all be dead, or homeless and burned. WTF was I thinking?? Oh, right, I was NOT. At All.
I turned on the kitchen exhaust fan and the ceiling fan. An hour or so later the pot was cool enough for me to put it in the sink and view the damage. I thought sure the pot was ruined.
Well, there was about a half-inch of thick, black grease in the bottom of the pan, definitely wedded to parts of the metal. I used newspaper, paper towels, straight ammonia, dawn (did NOT get the grease out of my way), easy off oven cleaner, more straight ammonia, steel wool, scrubbies, etc. until I was down to that which would not come off, Even the pot itself appeared discolored.
I was quite disheartened. So annoyed with myself. I finally resorted to using fine sandpaper. Guess what? It worked! The pot is not perfect, but it’s useable and while I’m still shocked at the close call, well, we’re all alive and no real harm done. Just my psyche affected.
In the category of “some things aren’t worth fixing”
Next, I decided to try and determine what was wrong with the Black and Decker Dust Buster Mel gave me when she moved. I’d plugged it in to charge and it wouldn’t. So, downstairs we went and I took the “charger” – a wall mount unit apart. The charger is 18 volt, so I used my multimeter and determined that the charger was kaput, it was actually discolored on one side. I tested the unit itself and discovered that it would take a charge. I hooked up another 18 volt charger to the wall mount and it appeared to charging fine, the red charging light was on. Quite pleased with myself, I brought some things upstairs to throw away.
About 10 minutes later I went to the top of the cellar stairs, time to bring some laundry up, move more around between the washer and dryer. Funny thing, I smell electrical insulation – that stink of something too hot. So…
The 18 volt charger was Very warm, so I disconnected it and noticed that the dust buster was a little warm too. That charger is not ruined but I’m not risking trying to charge that little vacuum. I checked and it only had about a 5 volt charge. Well, it burned out one charger, not going to risk a fire or another burned out charger.
That discoloration on the original charger should have been a warning. At least I only left it for a few minutes, and there was no immediate risk of fire.
Okay, so in the last week I’ve been blessed to avoid catastrophe twice. All I can say is I’ve kept my guardian angel very busy. Not at all on purpose and I’m very grateful.
Never again will I leave the kitchen without turning a unit off or at least down to simmer.
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