Got lots of good things done today. The evening was a little more problematical.

I didn’t see the irises as I tripped over them in the shadows as I finished up the watering. Made for a cushy landing, mostly, with the thought of, who knew plants could pun? (Head seems fine and that’s all that matters.)

Trying to figure out where the kitchen is re the breaker box. I managed to bump a burner earlier while putting down a pot and it triggered the ignition switch on it–on a burner that has not worked for twenty-three years.

The Thermidor salesman back in the day went on at great length about how you could melt chocolate or cook risotto without burning them, that these two burners on the left cycled on and off just so for that as he spun visions of perfect meals in our future kitchen. Me, I’d never made risotto in my life–on purpose, anyway–but chocolate, yeah, I could get into that one.

Well, reality is that the engineers had clearly never tested their own product: the repairman later told us they were designed so that if you ever turned either of those two risotto burners up to full heat, they fused shut and never worked again. Which you certainly could, and we certainly did, because we had no reason not to, and since the repair quote was about the same as replacing the entire new cooktop, forget that. I really should have taken it up with the manufacturer–it was just barely out of warranty and a design that absolutely should have been recalled.

We have yet to replace the thing.

So. The pilot is trying to ignite on a burner that can release no gas.

And then the pilot on the next burner started clicking.

And the next.

And the next. Sounds a bit like listening to a fire alarm to Richard’s ears; me, I can turn mine off.

Just unplug the stove, right?

WARNING: DO NOT UNPLUG HERE. GO TO BREAKER FIRST.

Still working on this and it’s getting late.

(Coming back to the computer later to finish this post.)

Annnd… #4. Got it. We had to turn the breaker back on because our fridge was on that circuit. Hoping hard…

Blessed silence. And then still blessed silence.

We walked back outside and he held the flashlight while I marked the spot.