Technology

I love my house. 

I was standing in my kitchen the other day admiring the way the sunlight gleamed off the shiny countertops & made the bottles on the windowsill sparkle.  I turned to look into the dining room, where the twinkling lights of the chandelier created a sense of warmth and welcome.  My mind snapped a photograph of my son riding down the hall on his little ice cream truck toy, the red, blue and yellow decorations a stark and lovely contrast to the white walls as he rolled through the delicately arched doorway on the opposite side of the dining room; the smile on his face challenging the gleam of the chandelier for brightness. 

Yes… I love my house, which makes it all the more difficult for me to admit any of its faults.  I am, however, noticing one seriously GLARING deficiency.

It isn’t what you would think.  It’s not the bathroom with the pink & black tile walls, the grey linoleum stick-down tile floors, and the grey vanity (a la George Jetson) with pink and white designs that look somewhat like kidney beans.  This I can work with (actually… I have plans for this bathroom…that’s another post).  It isn’t the fact that there are two garage doors and only one garage door opener (which doesn’t work), causing you to leave your car, come in the side door and open the door manually.  I can deal with that (for now anyway).  No… these things I can deal with.  The true glaring deficiency in the house is in the kitchen. 

Ah…. My kitchen!  It’s a lovely kitchen, complete with laminate flooring (styled to closely match the original hardwoods throughout the rest of the house), crisp white cabinets, charcoal grey countertops, and a huge-mongous picture window over the sink.  The stove is gas (which I am quickly coming to LOVE), and the dishwasher works just fine.  So…. Where, you may be wondering, is the deficiency?

Saturday afternoon, I had been hard at work, trying to empty the remaining boxes from our move last weekend.  My little boy woke from his extra-long nap, and was hungry as a little bear!  Not wanting to lose my own momentum, Mommy went to the cupboard, and pulled out a quick & easily prepared meal:  a microwave cup of beef stew.  Opened the lid, popped off the metal cap, put the plastic back on, turned toward the corner of my kitchen and stopped…  Where was I going?  You see, in my kitchen there is a spot on the countertop, tucked under the corner of the cabinets that just screams, “MICROWAVE”.  I stood there on Saturday, however, cup in hand, staring dumbly at this spot, reminded pointedly of the one major deficiency in my home:  There is no microwave!

No microwave.  The mind boggles.  I am not a stupid person by any stretch, but I will admit to a momentary lapse when confronted with this reality.  For a few brief seconds, I turned into one of those people I read about in newspapers who are so technology-dependent that they will have a can of food, a can opener, a pot, and an open flame and will starve to death because they don’t have a microwave.  I kid you not, I stared at the void for a full five seconds, mind blank but for an oh-so-verbose, “huh.”  Then, I literally thought to myself, “Okay… so how did we cook this stuff before there were microwaves?”  My mind (finally) raced into action: I went to the  cupboard, pulled out a pot, dumped the whole into the pot, and, feeling thankful that I do have a gas stove, began to quickly heat my little boy’s lunch.   45 seconds later, the stew was in a bowl, Baby was in a high chair with a spoon, and life was, once again, in balance. 

Wow. 

Have we really become so reliant on technology that it took 20 seconds of “process time” for my brain to formulate a solution to this problem?  Apparently so.  Microwave cooking, email, online banking…  I would be completely out of touch with the world if I didn’t have these things!   I say this with only the slightest hint of embarrassment; knowing that the majority of you (if you dare to admit it) are in the same boat! 

At the end of the day, no one in my house is starving.  I am still cooking every day, and we are enjoying the bounty.  But… as soon as the funds are available… we are buying a microwave!  I think I’ll go online and check the sale ads now; maybe pull some coupons onto my Kroger plus card while I’m at it… perhaps I should check my bank account… Oh!  And I need to send a thank-you email…