The Fire in the Oven

Some readers in November and December may remember my cutting board on the oven and a series of things almost started fires in my kitchen?

Well - yesterday, it finally happened.

My youngest turned on the "cleaning" cycle of my oven by mistake early in the morning. When they both went to leave the house about 2:30 - the oven cleaning cycle was still going -- it was on "cool", but it was still pretty hot. After trying to shut off the oven, without success, my son, ever the wise one, decided to pull out the oven, pull out the plug and called me to let me know. I told him I was on my way home and perhaps we need not bother with formalities - I'd be home in 20 minutes or so. He didn't think it was wise to chance it and I agreed.

I got home, fixed a salad, answered some emails and plugged the damn thing back in to finish the cleaning cycle so I could roll the oven back towards the wall. The house started to get a little smokey and there was a smell of electrical wire burning. You know the smell. I got out to the kitchen just in time to see the spark of fire burning inside. By the time I finished calling the fire department, it was quite the little fire going inside of the oven. Tried to pull the plug and got a shock. I ran downstairs to shut off the electrical circuits. The fire inside died down a bit but there was lots of glowing.

The nice firemen took the oven out of the house, it's now sitting in my backyard and there's a hole in the kitchen where my oven used to be. No damage at all to the kitchen. Thank God.

I told the kids I was going to think of things to put in the hole other than an oven. Who needs ovens anyway.

I'll get a picture up later...

Have a great evening. I'm off tonight to see the Tall Ship parade in Plymouth Harbor.

I have some thoughts on the President's meeting yesterday with the Catholic press and his assertions that there's been a lot of confusion about his intentions about Catholic conscience protections and he will uphold a robust conscience clause that I hope to get up tomorrow.

Enjoy the festivities of the day and Happy 3rd of July!