Rachael's Tale

The Coffee Grinder Story

2009-10-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know I haven't written on here in ages, and perhaps you are wondering how Posh and I are getting on. The short answer is that we're just fine. Settling in nicely, and becoming a team! This is a process that will take a little while, but it happens, and it's magical to live through. I'll write more later, promise!

But today, I have to tell about the coffee grinder, because it took up a whole day, and it is the stuff of which commedies are made!

So, it's about four thirty, in the morning of course, and Poshi is patiently waiting for me to make the coffee, so she can have her breakfast. This is a highly ritualistic time of day for the two of us, and the routine never varies. Until this morning, when the coffee grinder died about halfway through its process. It just died. I tried everything I knew to resurrect it, all to no avail. The coffee was kind of a rough grind, but it was all I had, and so I went ahead and put it in the coffeemaker and ran the water through. With much trepidation, I waited, and although the water wasn't dripping as usual, and although the thought of a whole basketful of grounds and very hot water was terrifying, I sort of helped it along and eventually the pot filled. In the meantime, Poshi had had about enough of waiting for her breakfast, and was dancing in the kitchen. So, of course, I fed her. And poured the coffee into the caraffe. I was so distracted I didn't even hear the water heat up, but it was quiet, so I figured it was done. And it was, it was reasonably fine coffee.

The project for the day was, of course, to get another grinder. The only coffee I have in the house is whole beans, which is one of the most useless things known to humanity without something to grind it up. After a fair bit of research, I found a place about six blocks away that sold them, which made for a fine little work-out for Posh and me.

Home we came with our new appliance, and being the curious type, I opened it, with the intent of setting it up for morning. The first problem was the cord. There was about four inches of cord, which meant that, if I were to plug it in, I'd have to hold it right close to the wall to grind it up. Surely this wasn't right, but hey, I'm strong. So I plugged it in, only to discover that I hadn't a clue how to turn the thing on! It hadn't occurred to me to look at it at the store! It's a coffee grinder, ok? I've been using them for something like forty years now, and, ya know, how hard can it be? I tried, I honestly did, but I couldn't figure it out!

So, swallowing the morsel that was left of what had once been my pride, I called up the store where I got it, and got the owner on the phone. He said that it actually has a perfectly reasonable cord, it's just wound around the base. I said I thought so, but I couldn't pull it out. "Just wiggle it around a little and it'll come loose," says he, which I tried, yet again, and didn't have any better luck than before. I also told him that it didn't seem to turn on, and did I have the right button? He finally went and opened up another one. "Oh," says he, "you have to pull down on the base before you can loosen the cord!" I tried this, and it worked! I was enchanted! He told me where the turn-on button was, and I actually heard it click, so I was sure we had it right. Off I went to try again. I plugged it in, no problem, filled it, cause he told me that it would work better if I did that, and pushed the button. Nothing happened. I pushed it a few times, in the insane hope that it would change its mind, but it didn't.

Suddenly I remembered this morning, when I hadn't heard the coffeemaker heat up. What if I hadn't missed it at all? What if it had never actually reheated? And, when I checked the coffeemaker, which is always quite warm to the touch, I discovered that it was stone cold. And the terrible truth came home to me at last, that there was never anything wrong with my faithful little grinder, nor even with the cold coffeemaker. It was the electric socket!

Cool! Twenty plus dollars, and many hours of research and figuring, and I needed the maintenance guy to come and fix it. I called him, and he assured me that he'd be there in a few minutes to have a look. Only he wasn't! At ten to five, in a panic, I called him again, to discover that he'd forgotten, and had gone somewhere else. So my apartment manager came over, and started to fiddle with the outlet. She couldn't get it to work, but was showing it to me. I pushed the GFI, (I think that's what the reset button is called), and tried the coffee grinder, and it worked! I heard that lovely sound, and was ecstatic! Both that it worked, and that, eventually, I'd fixed it! I, who am less mechanically inclined than nine tenths of the population! We did have another anxious moment, when we realized that the coffeemaker wasn't heating up, but we discovered that somewhere in this whole scene, it had gotten unplugged! I am happy to report that both appliances have been thoroughly tested, and are ready and waiting to take their part in our morning ritual tomorrow!

Now, I'll grant you, this has been an exceedingly stupid story! But it amused me, which is better than it might have been! Hope it amused you as well!

Rachael's Tale

The Coffee Grinder Story

Home again, again!

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