It’s been a week.
Monday night we had brats and mac & cheese for dinner. I went out, lit the grill, and closed the lid to let things heat up while I grabbed the brats.
By the way, Apple Chicken Sausage by Walmart’s Marketside are very tasty. We usually do Johnsonville Beef Brats (since I try not to eat much pork because of my gout), but Middle Son found these a while back, so I do 8 of those and 6-12 of the Johnsonville.
Anyway, I trooped back out to the grill and opened the lid to find the burners had gone out. Well, crap. Was I out of propane? I checked the valve on the tank—it was open—so I hit the ignitor.
Turns out that when the burners have blown out because of the wind, there’s still propane gathered in the grill. Because propane is heavier than air. So when you hit the ignitor on a propane grill, all of that propane that’s settled down in the bottom lights off all at once.
There was a lovely WHOOMP and burst of flame that I turned away from just in time.
Well, almost in time.
Burned hair stinks.
No, I didn’t singe my scalp stubble.
I singed my eyebrows. And part of my right eyelashes.
Fun times.
Burned Out
Speaking of burning things…
Youngest Daughter came to me Wednesday evening to say that her load of laundry wasn’t drying.
<groan>
We’ve had this Samsung dryer ever since we settled here in Oklahoma, so about eleven years. We’ve replaced the heating element three times (and the drive belt once), but other than that, it hasn’t been much of a bother.
There are a couple of things that might cause it to not dry the clothes, but most often it’s the heating element. The element is simple enough to replace, especially if you buy the whole assembly. There are about a dozen screws to get things opened up. You have to pull the top piece, the control panel, and the front panel, then unscrew the three screws holding the bracket and heater assembly in place.
So off I drove Thursday to south Tulsa to pick up a new heating element. I got just the element itself, not the whole assembly. It was substantially cheaper that way. The local shop had it for about one-third the cost of the online stores, and I could have it a day or so sooner. That way we could fix it Saturday and not worry about it on Mother’s Day.
Great plan.
Turns out replacing the element is a little harder than replacing the assembly, because you’ve got to remove the thermal fuses. Those parts help hold the assembly together, so you end up pulling almost a dozen screws altogether. But we got it apart, swapped the element (there was an obvious failure on the old one) and got everything buttoned back up. Even tested it and felt the heat (and smelled the new element burning in).
Saturday evening, the first load of clothes wasn’t drying.
I suspect I misconnected the element when we put it back together and burned out the thermal fuse. I spent Saturday evening at Youngest Son’s house using his dryer to get a load done. We’ve got the other load cycling through our dryer on the air setting.
The good news is that the parts store is open on Sunday, so I’ll take the whole assembly to the store and see if they can test the thermal fuses and go from there.
Never a dull moment.
Lights!
Did you see the Northern Lights Friday night? We did, even in Oklahoma. Middle Son reminded us about it and we headed out into the backyard for a bit. I couldn’t really see much with my eyes, but once I dialed in the settings on my phone camera, I got several really cool photos.
Middle Son said he was able to see the waves in the lights, too. My old eyes didn’t work well enough.
We saw a couple of meteors as well. Well, we’re pretty sure they were meteors. They might have been Starlink satellites, but they faded out of view kind of like meteors do. I was going to try for some pictures Saturday night too but we had too much cloud cover.
Reading
I’m working my way through Works Well with Others: An Outsider’s Guide to Shaking Hands, Shutting Up, Handling Jerks, and Other Crucial Skills in Business That No One Ever Teaches You by Ross McCammon. Someone posted an intriguing section from one chapter to Facebook, called the “Two Beers And A Puppy” test. It’s an interesting book. I’ll have more about it next week.
Mother’s Day
If on this day that we set aside to honor mothers, all you can think of is the pain and trauma that your mother caused in your life, I’m sorry.
I’m saddened to know that there are so many in the world today who have been scarred and traumatized and abused by one of the people who is supposed to protect them.
If that’s you today? It’s okay to be angry about them and what they did. It’s alright that you’re still healing, months and years after what you went through.
It’s okay to completely cut contact with the person who hurt you.
Most importantly, it’s okay to survive and heal and thrive. But it’s okay to still grieve what you lost.
Maybe on this day, you’re mourning the loss of your child—maybe even one you never got to hold.
If that’s you today? If this day isn’t the perfect Hallmark moment? I offer a gentle hug, and wish you grace and peace and strength and healing.
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