What I Learned While Under A Boil Order

Unfortunately, there's been an issue with the water where I live.  I received an email letting me know - thank goodness for citywide email alerts - and our life without constantly available hot and cold running water began.  It's amazing to me how much we rely on having clean, safe water available at our fingertips.

When the wee one went upstairs after breakfast to brush their teeth, I quickly realized that oh wait... we can't just wet our toothbrushes with the water from the sink, nor can we wash them off afterwards.  Sending them their lunches meant that I had to pour bottled water (thank goodness I just hosted a First Communion party and had some!) into their water bottles for school.  I couldn't cook anymore because washing dishes then letting them soak in a bleach solution to make them safe sort of grossed me out - and unfortunately our dishwasher does not have a functioning sanitizer cycle.

Needless to say, putting on water to boil was the first thing on my to do list; the recommendation for us was to boil water for five minutes for it to be safe, adding a little pinch of salt if it tastes off.  Needless to say, I poured the boiled water over  the toothbrushes to clean them, and I used this same water for many of the other functions we routinely take for granted.  Fortunately, we were still able to take showers, flush toilets, and wash our hands.

But I learned something completely useless during this boil order.  Did you know that there's a max fill line on your teapot?  I didn't.  I do now.  And I know why there is one.

If you fill your teapot too full, when it boils, it will start to sputter.  If you make the mistake - and I did - of opening the spout portion where it whistles to help let more steam escape, that isn't all that escapes.  The pressure and everything else instead forces gushes of boiling water out the spout and onto the stove, way more than enough to douse the flames on the burner.

Yeah.  Oops.  Fortunately, it is mostly safe to remove the top lid of the teapot to release some of that excess pressure.  So did you not know why teapots have a max fill line, or is it just me?  Either way... learn from my folly.

Why You Should Always Carry Jumper Cables In Your Car

Of course, with me, the answer is "because from time to time, you're a complete idiot" - but you probably already figured that out from the title of the post, right? Ironically, I have really cool jumper cables that don't need another car and are super easy to use that an old boyfriend gave me years and years ago that live in my car. Well, they did until I had my car thoroughly washed and cleaned inside and out about three weeks ago and I took everything out of my car before that. Not everything has been put back in yet. And to be honest, I just went to go look for them in the garage, and ... I can't find them.

Mental Note: Add jumper cables to the list of things to buy from the hardware store along with a new doorbell and a lightbulb for the garage door opener.

You know there's a story behind this, and who am I to keep you from enjoying a laugh at my expense?

On Saturday, Little Miss attended a play for Daisies about an hour from our house (yay for those of us who live twenty minutes north of where most people from her school do). It was to be a fun experience where Little Miss got to have a backstage tour and learn about how plays are produced before the play commenced. Of course, only she was allowed to attend the backstage tour for the hour and a half before the play started. Parents and siblings would cause too much crowding. No worries. Mister Man and I could easily hang out in the car and read while we waited for the play to start.

Luckily, it was a gorgeous, sunny day on Saturday, so once we checked Little Miss in with her troop, we headed back to the car where I plugged in my phone to charge while we listened to some football on the radio and read. We passed quite the pleasant hour where I caught up with a few friends on the phone and Mister Man finished his book for his November book report. Happily, we trooped back to the theater and met up with Little Miss for the play itself.

Once the play had ended, we said good-bye to our friends and headed out to the car. I put my keys in the starter, plugged in my phone again - something I do almost out of habit now considering how quickly my phone eats its battery - and waited for the wee one to buckle up.

Any guesses what happened next?

If your guess has anything to do with the dashboard blinking a couple times quickly then shutting off, you'd be correct. I knew already, and my stomach sank, but I tried it anyway. I turned my car's power all the way off, shut off the radio and unplugged my phone. I took a deep breath and turned the key and heard the expected "click click click" of a car with no battery remaining.

I had just watched one friend pull out and waved while waiting for the wee ones to buckle up, but surely someone else was still in the parking lot, right? Actually, yes. I had three friends who I got ahold of who were still in the parking lot or just outside it. None of them had jumper cables. All of us agreed that jumper cables were something we should all probably carry in our cards going forward.

I turned around to the wee ones and smiled calmly at them. "Ok guys!" I said in a falsely cheery voice. "We're going to head back into the theater to see if someone working there might have jumper cables who can help us get our car started again. Sound good?"

Fortunately the wee ones are pretty adaptable, and they unbuckled their seat belts and climbed out of the car like this was a normal thing - which fortunately it isn't, at least not with me. We saw another friend in the parking lot while we walked to the building, but no, she had no jumper cables either. She offered to have the wee ones hang out in her car and watch a movie while I got help, however, and I took her up on that offer.

Once I entered the theater, no one working there had any jumper cables. I carefully interrupted a few conversations strangers were having to ask if anyone might have jumper cables - the in person version of dialing for dollars - and was sadly told no. I kept trying and got to the concession area where the dads were selling treats as their volunteer gig. Finally, I had some luck. A very nice dad had jumper cables and offered to get me started. We both pored over the instruction manual to make sure we had it right since neither of us had jumped a car in a very long time (which is probably a good thing, right?).

On the plus side, we got it figured out, and my car started right away with the very generous jump. The plus side - see, you've always got to look for the positive lining - was that we were far from home, so we had plenty of time to drive and recharge the battery. And yes, it started again later that night. And several times yesterday. And this morning, too.

So what did I learn from my experience?

1) When you take things out of your car, put them back in. If you don't need them in your car, deal with them.
2) Jumper cables should always, always be in your car. Hopefully I won't ever need them again, but I'd love to be able to help someone else in the same situation someday.
3) It really isn't that hard to jump start a car. The directions are clear, and it works just fine so there's no reason to think you can't do it.
4) When sitting in your car waiting, either have the car running (which I never do because it's such a waste of gas) or make sure you aren't sucking all the power from your battery with your plugged in items and listening to the radio and the like. While waiting for Little Miss to finish Sunday School yesterday, I sat in silence in my car with no radio on and nothing plugged in because ...
5) at the very least, learn from your mistakes and share them with others because ...
6) if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

And that ends the lesson for today. You're welcome.


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Habits Are Hard To Break

I recently had the opportunity to drive and review a Chevy Volt. During the week I had it, I used it as much as possible, including driving friends around.

One fine Friday afternoon, a nameless friend and I were driving from an afternoon of shopping to meet our husbands for dinner. As I was driving, we chatted about the car and its features. I bemoaned the lack of chargers plug ins, and she asked for more details. As I shared my frustration with having my phone plugged into the back of the car, as opposed to the other alternative of the top of the dashboard with cords and phone hanging down from there, she nodded sympathetically.

I thought the conversation was over, driving 45 miles per hour (the speed limit, mind you) the car suddenly jerked and slowed a good twenty miles per hour. I looked briefly panicked at the dashboard to ensure there were no warning lights or engines blown or anything that I'd done to break my loaner vehicle. I hadn't.

My friend was sitting in the passenger seat, looking around her, quite perplexed. Fortunately, I figured out our problem within seconds - somehow. I'm still not sure how I figured it out.

Erm. Yeah, she'd accidentally pulled the parking brake. Which is exactly where the power cord would normally plug in. And I sorta get why. After all, the button is in that place, a parking brake isn't usually a button like that, and the button did have a "P" on it, albeit with the circles around it that denote parking brake in car symbol language. Fortunately, I'd done this myself - in the parking lot when getting familiar with the car, so I could easily and quickly press the button again to turn off the parking brake and return to normal speed.

Not quite understanding what had happened, my friend simply looked at me. "What? Why did you slam on your brakes like that? I don't see a deer or anything, and there aren't any cars in front of us..."

I burst out laughing. It was several minutes before I could explain the parking brake issue to her. She was indignant, insisting that I tell everyone that it isn't her who was stupid, it was the car. I won't judge... but I will laugh.

And umm GM, I promise, no damage was done. Promise. And it's probably not the first (or last) time this has happened. That said, I don't recommend pulling the parking brake while driving 45 miles per hour. I'm guessing it isn't part of the recommended maintenance.

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Wordless Wednesday - The Recession Is Still In Force

We've heard a lot lately about how the recession is over and thigns are getting better. While there are many who might disagree with this from personal experience with their own finances and lives, I have a bigger piece of evidence.

Look closely.

Our poor town couldn't afford to reprint the signs from the sidewalk sale that they used last year. Look again. Do you see it?

*giggle*