“That’s an odd sound,” Margie said, setting the microwave to cook something. And then it stopped on its own.
Hmmmm.
Tried it again. And again. And each time, and odd sound and a self-stopping microwave.
That’s not good.
Yes, our microwave oven has given up the ghost. What’s amazing is that, while I had a sense that we’d had this one only for a while, Margie’s memory and my auxiliary memory (i.e., my blog) indicate that we got this lovely Panasonic unit back in November 2004! Yikes. Odd to think that this is the only kitchen microwave Katherine probably remembers, esp. since it’s only in the last year or so that she’s learned to use it.
Looks like it’s time for a new one. Fortunately, tomorrow Kitten is tied up at her end-of-the-year Girl Scout meeting for a few hours, right down by the Southglenn Best Buy. So …
Jeez, Dave, it’s just a frigging microwave!
Heh. Yet, given its centrality in the kitchen, and its frequency of use, there’s no “just” about it.
In my brother’s house (4 kids, and him being the primary culinary person), it was a major concession to his twin teen daughters when he finally allowed a microwave into his kitchen. The ex- and the two older kids were out of the house. The kids were quite adept to warming things up the old-fashioned way, and they had to promise that they’d NEVER microwave popcorn.
I grew up without a microwave (we had just barely mastered fire in those days), but when I first arrived in Denver 15-odd years ago I discovered quite quickly how dependent I had gotten on them for cooking veggies and rewarming things (esp. given the, um, compact amenities of the apartment I was living in). After two days, I went out on a multi-store hunt and bought the biggest microwave I could find (which basically took over the breakfast table, since there was no room in the kitchen for it).
We use the range and the oven for a lot of things, but getting by without a microwave seems like getting by without a dishwasher — certainly one can, but why would one?
I didn’t have a microwave until we moved into the Pomona house. I too quickly grew dependent on it–vegetables were so much better.
We have a tiny one downstairs (the first one was a combo micro/macro, which we were not happy with, and replaced it with separate appliances), but its NOT in the kitchen for cooking, and Edna was Not Happy the one night she had to cook without one in the kitchen.
We have an old old one of Margie’s up in our bedroom, to warm her footwarmer. 🙂
Funny, that’s about the time we got our previous microwave/convection device. It’s been flaky for over a year, and it finally just stopped working altogether. We now have a new one, a little too large for its cavity, so it’s taking up counter space.
My grandparents built a house in about 1959-1960. It was a “Gold Medallion” home, as far as the electric utility was concerned. I didn’t have a microwave myself until I married into a household that had one.
Yeah, we had a Gold Medallion home we moved into in ’68.
My first encounter with a microwave oven was at a speech tourney in high school at UCLA. Next to the vending machines (which dispensed, among other things, pastries) was a small microwave. I was gobsmacked that 15 seconds could make things piping hot. It was as magic as the food dispensers in Star Trek.
Never had a microwave myself, though, until the first house I owned (and then it came with the range). Never had a desire to not have a microwave since.
We took all that wedding cash and added a bit to it to buy one of those new-fangled Amana Radarrange microwaves in 1982. I think the final price was somewhere in the $700 range and it came with cookware and 6 weeks of cooking classes. That wonder lasted until an unfortunate lightning strike in 1994. Now we seem to replace the microwave every 5 or 6 years at significantly smaller prices! Note — I still use some of the cookware that came with that old Amana.
The in-laws recently (well, in the last few years) finally replaced their Radarange (one of the original late 60s models).
The Panasonic we just lost lasted a goodly length of time for an appliance of it sort; the previous two Sharps were 18 month wonders. Reading reviews of large microwaves, reliability seems to be a problem across the board, enough to make me actually consider one of those dreadful Best Buy extended warranties.
Tangent alert!!!!!
Ah, lightning. A tree by our house took a direct hit, which arced to our chimney, zapped a notebook and monitor (both on UPS), and blew bricks the length of our house. Gotta love the power of static electricty.