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Microwave follies

Our GE microwave is only 7 years old, but it appears to be on its last legs.  The light burnt out (entirely my fault).  The glass turntable has been broken, and replaced.  The turntable does not turn (don't know whose fault that is...)  Unfortunately, it is installed as part of our cabinetry, and appears to be darn hard to replace.

We might need to, though, after today's escapade. Ella wanted to make popcorn, so I told her she could try to use the paper bag method a friend taught us.  I'd done it before, no problem, so I only needed to look up the recipe to tell us how long to cook it.  Same as other microwave popcorn, easy.

The recipe also mentioned you could use a staple to hold the bag shut.  My friends didn't use a staple, so I was in favor of leaving it out, but Ella found a staple on the way to the microwave and put it in.

I told Ella to stand by the microwave and watch it (or more precisely, listen to it) so she would know when to stop.  I went away and suddenly heard a scream, and heard Ella running away from the microwave.  "Fire!  Fire!"  She and the girls ran outside.

Sure enough, the top of the bag had caught on fire and flames were licking the top of the microwave.  I turned off the microwave, put a pot lid over the flames and opened up all the doors.  Fortunately, it wasn't too hot outside yet.  Unfortunately, the fire did smoke damage to our microwave that can't be easily cleaned.

I guess this shows that Ella isn't ready yet to be a babysitter---in emergencies, she's not quite prepared to do the right thing.  On the other hand, maybe we're one step closer to getting a new microwave... ("I'm not quite dead yet!" I can hear it saying.  "It's only a flesh wound!"  Well, we'll see.)

Comments

Michael said…
The light burning out may indeed have been your fault, but the fact that GE designed the microwave so that the incandescent light bulb is not a user-replaceable item is absolutely GE's fault...

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