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| The Singer Sewing Factory, Clydebank, Scotland, 1926. Just look at the hundreds of workers lined up on the right, ready to enter the factory! Maybe I can blame some of them for my machine passion? Or not? I am not sure how it started. I have a "thing" for machines. Anything that cooks, sews, regulates etc. I am fascinated by the workings, the sounds, the result. I suppose that all the Singer factories, worldwide, were like this. What a week this has been. With the surprise injury of my MIL and her unexpected demise as a result, to the fire in my kitchen 2 days later, I feel the need to use a machine. There is a sense of calm when I am creating. The fire occurred when my Instant Pot, unplugged, resting on the stovetop was pushed against the back of the panel depressing but not turning on the knob. Did you know that pushing the knob in will turn on the burner? I did not. I know it now. I was in another room, the husband was in the kitchen at the table. He said, what is that smell, what are you cleaning with? Mmmm, I entered the kitchen, full of smoke, I mean full of smoke with a red glow on the stove under the Instant Pot. I ran to the stove, grabbed the pot, placed it in the sink, choking from the chemical smell of melting plastic. That stopped the progression to full-flame burn. Then outside to the patio for that steaming plastic acrid mess. It took hours of ventilating the house with windows open and fans blowing to make it tolerable. Of course, the greasy film left by the incident had to be dealt with. My stove has a glass top. I was sure it was ruined. I left it alone for two days during the funeral, I just didn't want to deal with it. Then I took a metal scraper and chipped away at the mess. After that, I scoured the burnt on film with BioClean and a Scrub Daddy. Let me tell you, that stove-top looks almost new! Today the walls will be scrubbed down and the cabinets. Since I just did this as part of my Spring clean, I am not as thrilled to do it again as you might think.   |
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