The oven saga, part three: Return of the Range
(Count part one as Christmas, then part two as when we went shopping last weekend. What can I say, I had LOTR in my head when I thought of this title.)
Last Saturday, we picked out our new oven. We were told we might get it as soon as this Saturday. Hooray!
We spent the week not using the oven and trying not to use the front burners on the stove, though for one from-frozen stir fry dish, dad used our largest pan and *had* to use a front burner, as it wouldn't work on the back one. (Shh.)
Dad and I also got asked not to go shopping Saturday morning, so we could buy food after the oven came, plus mom had a chiro appointment at 10 AM and someone would need to be here.
When I got out of work on Friday, I had a text from mom: Lowe's called; no range this weekend but probably next. Okay. Sigh. No-oven-needed meals for another week it is. But hey, we can still go shopping at our normal time.
Meanwhile, mom has had an eye twitch for over a week. I'd had one the prior week due to stress, but it was only that week and I've been fine since. Mom, the hypochondriac, thinks she's dying, and ended up calling her doctor's office Saturday morning to see if she could get an appointment. ...Not during a pandemic, dear. The office is closed on the weekends. I think she has something set for Monday, though.
Dad and I do our normal shopping and return home. There's a text for mom. (Dad said, "What?!" while reading it in such a way that I was like, what unbelievable news did his friends share this time? Or did someone die?) Lowe's had called while we were gone: The oven arrived and could come as soon as Sunday. An automated call last night said our delivery window would be between 8 AM - 12 PM.
It snowed overnight. Normally I don't get up right away on Sundays, but today? I had to be up and Wii'd and dressed and ready to go out by 7:30 so I could shovel, plus it's laundry day, and mom had actually sorted--we were all up and at 'em today--so I got a load in, and dad and I got done before the buzzer went off, so that was great. We didn't move cars and I decided to remove the snow from mine but didn't scrape the windows. I turned on the computer so I could copy another camp CD, and once I finally had breakfast (I shoveled before I did that, even) I decided to start working on a mask with the new cherry fabric, since that would be a good busywork activity while we waited for the guys to arrive.
It wasn't quite 9 when the phone rang and the guy said he was ten minutes away. I immediately left my room--I'd only gotten so far as to cut a long strip for a mask tie, and was doing an outline of one part of the pattern--and went to move my car. They'd asked for all cars to be moved from the driveway. Dad left his since it's not in front of the garage, but mine had to go. Curse me for not scraping my windows. I turned the car on and cranked the defroster, and by the time that was cleared off, that's when the snowplow came by. I could hear it in the cul-de-sac, so no sense moving my car just yet; I waited until it came past. At that point, dad then went to the bottom of the driveway to clear that off, making it impossible for me to back out because I'd hit him. And, of course, that's when the delivery truck turned down the street. You dummy, MOVE. So now the truck has to wait for me, because I have to wait for dad, because he's insisting on digging out the end of the driveway. Not that there was much there since we'd already shoveled about an hour earlier and it was right about freezing, so much of it was melting. Finally he moves and I'm able to pull into the street; I went down a bit so I was in front of the neighbors' house, on the far side of their driveway, across the street.
Everything went fine with the installation. There were two guys, the driver of the truck who was the chatty one, and his helper, who really didn't say anything. They came in and took out the old oven first, and when dad thought the regulator had gone bad on it, the guy said, yeah, you could've replaced it, but it would only have lasted another two or three years, so you'd have had to go shopping for a new one eventually anyway. We realized that the fridge door would need to be open to maneuver the ovens, so I ran around the other way to hold it open. We had old towels for the guys to walk on, and their whole trip was on the wood floors, so that wasn't too bad. It took a few minutes to load the old oven onto the truck and unbox the new one, and the front door was open for much of that time. The storm door was propped open, but dad went and closed the main door since it was cold out. This meant, when the guys started walking back in with the new oven, carrying it via straps, I had to make mom go and run to open the door and she was like, why didn't you do it? Uh, because I'm the only one thinking of holding the fridge door open so they can get into the kitchen without constantly running into it? Like, look at the whole picture here. Around that time the buzzer went off for the dryer, so I went to fold laundry. I could hear the one guy talking to my parents about stuff, but by the time I finished in the laundry room everything was all set and the guys were back outside. We had to run the oven at 350F for 30 minutes to burn off that new oven smell, and the guy suggested opening a window, so we did that. Twice, though, I could swear I smelled brownies. Mom even smelled it at one point, too. You know, there's brownie mix in the pantry...
Because we'd gone shopping with the thought that we couldn't bake anything for the next week, dad bought supplies to make crock pot beef stew for the second Sunday in a row. He was up early making that. We had no need to use our pretty new oven today, which is fine; that meant I got pictures while it was in pristine condition. However, something weird came up when I went to get my camera--it was near my clock and phone in my room, and I noticed the phone's time was way off, by close to an hour. What the heck. We don't touch the clock on the phone at all, and there's no reason for us to have done that today. Weird. Dad dug out the manual for me to try to correct it, but the instructions didn't work, like they're only for when you're initially setting up the phone. Any time we go through a time change, for instance, the next incoming call we get after that ends up setting the phone's clock to the right time. I finally had dad call the house on his cellphone, except the first time I hung up too quickly and the call didn't register, so he had to call again, and then it was fine. I should mention at the same time, an air fryer infomercial was on TV--mom and I were joking about that, since dad is eager to air fry in the new oven--and whenever dad would try to change the channel, he couldn't; there was some sort of problem with the TV. Our phone and cable are through two different providers so it wasn't that, but we wondered what was going on.
After that, the day was productive but otherwise uneventful. I ended up doing five loads of laundry and copied four CDs, plus cut out patterns for two masks and several cloth napkins. I'm a little bummed to realize the cherry fabric is definitely cheaper than the two fabrics I got from Joann, though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Oh well. Live and learn, and maybe wait to buy the lime fabric until I see what happens with the cherry, or else buy it from Joann. Also, I think the 18"x18" napkins will be too large for my purposes, but that's okay. The pieces I cut for those are several different sizes, so I can see what might work best for me, if I ever eat out of the house again. Anyway, I spent about six consecutive hours today running around, because after the truck pulled out of the driveway--and made me realize I'd chosen well with my parking spot, as they had just the right amount of room to maneuver when they left--I went and shoveled the end of the driveway. While out there, I heard someone say "Hello!" A man was shoveling my south neighbor's sidewalk...but it wasn't the south neighbor, it was the guy from across the street. (This is the same guy who had the car door in his parkway last week.) He's a landscaper and perhaps does snow removal too, so I think he was hired to do the house two down from us; he definitely knows the busybody neighbor, and that couple is elderly, so I could see where they'd have someone do their shoveling for them at this point. And the guy in between, he's perfectly happy to hire whoever either of us is using, or else the across-the-street neighbor just felt like finishing the walkway between the two houses. A few minutes later, after I went inside, I saw him walking back to his house. He had on this red hoodie so he was easy to spot.
There's more to today, particularly involving grandma (don't worry, she's physically okay), but that will need to be its own post and I think this one is plenty for today.
Last Saturday, we picked out our new oven. We were told we might get it as soon as this Saturday. Hooray!
We spent the week not using the oven and trying not to use the front burners on the stove, though for one from-frozen stir fry dish, dad used our largest pan and *had* to use a front burner, as it wouldn't work on the back one. (Shh.)
Dad and I also got asked not to go shopping Saturday morning, so we could buy food after the oven came, plus mom had a chiro appointment at 10 AM and someone would need to be here.
When I got out of work on Friday, I had a text from mom: Lowe's called; no range this weekend but probably next. Okay. Sigh. No-oven-needed meals for another week it is. But hey, we can still go shopping at our normal time.
Meanwhile, mom has had an eye twitch for over a week. I'd had one the prior week due to stress, but it was only that week and I've been fine since. Mom, the hypochondriac, thinks she's dying, and ended up calling her doctor's office Saturday morning to see if she could get an appointment. ...Not during a pandemic, dear. The office is closed on the weekends. I think she has something set for Monday, though.
Dad and I do our normal shopping and return home. There's a text for mom. (Dad said, "What?!" while reading it in such a way that I was like, what unbelievable news did his friends share this time? Or did someone die?) Lowe's had called while we were gone: The oven arrived and could come as soon as Sunday. An automated call last night said our delivery window would be between 8 AM - 12 PM.
It snowed overnight. Normally I don't get up right away on Sundays, but today? I had to be up and Wii'd and dressed and ready to go out by 7:30 so I could shovel, plus it's laundry day, and mom had actually sorted--we were all up and at 'em today--so I got a load in, and dad and I got done before the buzzer went off, so that was great. We didn't move cars and I decided to remove the snow from mine but didn't scrape the windows. I turned on the computer so I could copy another camp CD, and once I finally had breakfast (I shoveled before I did that, even) I decided to start working on a mask with the new cherry fabric, since that would be a good busywork activity while we waited for the guys to arrive.
It wasn't quite 9 when the phone rang and the guy said he was ten minutes away. I immediately left my room--I'd only gotten so far as to cut a long strip for a mask tie, and was doing an outline of one part of the pattern--and went to move my car. They'd asked for all cars to be moved from the driveway. Dad left his since it's not in front of the garage, but mine had to go. Curse me for not scraping my windows. I turned the car on and cranked the defroster, and by the time that was cleared off, that's when the snowplow came by. I could hear it in the cul-de-sac, so no sense moving my car just yet; I waited until it came past. At that point, dad then went to the bottom of the driveway to clear that off, making it impossible for me to back out because I'd hit him. And, of course, that's when the delivery truck turned down the street. You dummy, MOVE. So now the truck has to wait for me, because I have to wait for dad, because he's insisting on digging out the end of the driveway. Not that there was much there since we'd already shoveled about an hour earlier and it was right about freezing, so much of it was melting. Finally he moves and I'm able to pull into the street; I went down a bit so I was in front of the neighbors' house, on the far side of their driveway, across the street.
Everything went fine with the installation. There were two guys, the driver of the truck who was the chatty one, and his helper, who really didn't say anything. They came in and took out the old oven first, and when dad thought the regulator had gone bad on it, the guy said, yeah, you could've replaced it, but it would only have lasted another two or three years, so you'd have had to go shopping for a new one eventually anyway. We realized that the fridge door would need to be open to maneuver the ovens, so I ran around the other way to hold it open. We had old towels for the guys to walk on, and their whole trip was on the wood floors, so that wasn't too bad. It took a few minutes to load the old oven onto the truck and unbox the new one, and the front door was open for much of that time. The storm door was propped open, but dad went and closed the main door since it was cold out. This meant, when the guys started walking back in with the new oven, carrying it via straps, I had to make mom go and run to open the door and she was like, why didn't you do it? Uh, because I'm the only one thinking of holding the fridge door open so they can get into the kitchen without constantly running into it? Like, look at the whole picture here. Around that time the buzzer went off for the dryer, so I went to fold laundry. I could hear the one guy talking to my parents about stuff, but by the time I finished in the laundry room everything was all set and the guys were back outside. We had to run the oven at 350F for 30 minutes to burn off that new oven smell, and the guy suggested opening a window, so we did that. Twice, though, I could swear I smelled brownies. Mom even smelled it at one point, too. You know, there's brownie mix in the pantry...
Because we'd gone shopping with the thought that we couldn't bake anything for the next week, dad bought supplies to make crock pot beef stew for the second Sunday in a row. He was up early making that. We had no need to use our pretty new oven today, which is fine; that meant I got pictures while it was in pristine condition. However, something weird came up when I went to get my camera--it was near my clock and phone in my room, and I noticed the phone's time was way off, by close to an hour. What the heck. We don't touch the clock on the phone at all, and there's no reason for us to have done that today. Weird. Dad dug out the manual for me to try to correct it, but the instructions didn't work, like they're only for when you're initially setting up the phone. Any time we go through a time change, for instance, the next incoming call we get after that ends up setting the phone's clock to the right time. I finally had dad call the house on his cellphone, except the first time I hung up too quickly and the call didn't register, so he had to call again, and then it was fine. I should mention at the same time, an air fryer infomercial was on TV--mom and I were joking about that, since dad is eager to air fry in the new oven--and whenever dad would try to change the channel, he couldn't; there was some sort of problem with the TV. Our phone and cable are through two different providers so it wasn't that, but we wondered what was going on.
After that, the day was productive but otherwise uneventful. I ended up doing five loads of laundry and copied four CDs, plus cut out patterns for two masks and several cloth napkins. I'm a little bummed to realize the cherry fabric is definitely cheaper than the two fabrics I got from Joann, though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Oh well. Live and learn, and maybe wait to buy the lime fabric until I see what happens with the cherry, or else buy it from Joann. Also, I think the 18"x18" napkins will be too large for my purposes, but that's okay. The pieces I cut for those are several different sizes, so I can see what might work best for me, if I ever eat out of the house again. Anyway, I spent about six consecutive hours today running around, because after the truck pulled out of the driveway--and made me realize I'd chosen well with my parking spot, as they had just the right amount of room to maneuver when they left--I went and shoveled the end of the driveway. While out there, I heard someone say "Hello!" A man was shoveling my south neighbor's sidewalk...but it wasn't the south neighbor, it was the guy from across the street. (This is the same guy who had the car door in his parkway last week.) He's a landscaper and perhaps does snow removal too, so I think he was hired to do the house two down from us; he definitely knows the busybody neighbor, and that couple is elderly, so I could see where they'd have someone do their shoveling for them at this point. And the guy in between, he's perfectly happy to hire whoever either of us is using, or else the across-the-street neighbor just felt like finishing the walkway between the two houses. A few minutes later, after I went inside, I saw him walking back to his house. He had on this red hoodie so he was easy to spot.
There's more to today, particularly involving grandma (don't worry, she's physically okay), but that will need to be its own post and I think this one is plenty for today.