Thursday, December 18, 2008

Lesson Learned..I'll be careful!

Directions, we don't need no steeenking directions!

Our family quote, we've said it many times, and usually we get away with it. Not this time.

When I bought my new food processor, I quickly scanned the directions and casually tossed them aside. You know, directions usually tell you stuff any dummy would know, like, don't use this electrical appliance in the bathtub, or be sure to keep the knives from children. Duh, what do you think I am a total dummie? You must pay attention if you see a ! surrounded by a triangle, because it means....

DANGER YOU COULD BE KILLED OR SERIOUSLY INJURED IF YOU DON'T IMMEDIATELY FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!

The directions on how to put the parts of the bowl together were full of warnings, but the whole thing seemed rather straight forward, the work bowl clicks on to the base, and the cover clicks on to the bowl. So these directions were quickly noted .....one rather inocuous detail was scanned and quickly forgotten...

NOTE: Do not attach the cover to the work bowl before the work bowl is locked on to the base. Damage to the work bowl may result.

Yeh, yeh, yeh, nag, nag, nag.... what possible difference could that make? Besides, that was not accompanied by !!!! and **** so it must have been a minor direction, what's the difference?

Well, that should have been in bold, asterisked, exclamation pointed print, because doing it the wrong way indeed damages the work bowl, and if this part is damaged, there ain't gonna be no food processing done! The work bowl handle contains the safety switch that make the whole thing function!

So I did it wrong, and the plastic handle parts went flying across the kitchen counter, and the machine, she ainta gonna work no more! And after only owning it for three weeks, not even paid for yet, this was painful.

So I went on a search for a new work bowl. First, I calledCrestwood Appliance, a throwback to 50 years ago, they'll order any part for any appliance for you. "Yes, we will order it for you....you come in (20 miles from my house), pay $20 deposit, and you may get your part some time in the next decade. Now, if we order only one part from the company and have to pay shipping on only one part, it gets very expensive, so we wait until we have a bulk order then we send the order in." Move into the 2000's, Mr. Appliance Man! Everybody ships for a reasonable amount now, and we accept that. I quickly realized it's not gonna happen, this is not how I'm going to correct my mistake quickly.

Next search, of course, is the internet. I found a place that had the bowl, had a reasonable shipping charge, I didn't have to wait for months, the price was about what you would expect, and it came yesterday, exactly 9 days after I ordered it.

So now, I'm back on my quest to make the perfect pie, perfect yeast rolls, wonderfully shredded cheese, awesomely mixed dips. And I have time to practice and eat the disasters, should there be any, before the Christmas meal needs to be prepared!

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