07-18-09

My microwave had had some cracks in the outer plastic of the door for a long time. I tried to glue them together once, but it didn’t work. When I opened the door this morning to heat water for coffee the bottom of the door fell off and the glass fell out.
At first I was angry, “What next?” I thought. This is an expensive convection oven / microwave. I don’t have money to replace it. “Maybe I could do without it”, I thought. I could, but it is very handy. The main inside part of the door that seals in the radiation was still solid and intact. I assumed it was safe. It’s not the kind of thing you feel comfortable just assuming though. Do I start the microwave and run outside every time to avoid radiation exposure? I contemplated just getting rid of the outer glass, but that looked really unsafe. “Where in the world can I get a Geiger counter?” I thought. On the plus side, now that it had broken further I was able to take it more apart and do a better job gluing it. The problem was clamping and bracing it all together tightly. In time I was able to improvise enough odds and ends to make it work.
I used my mag flashlight on the counter. I took the bottom cap off so the spring would push up on the bottom of the door in the middle. I cut two sticks to help support it on either side. They were a bit short, so I shimmed them with magazines. I stuck magazines in the cracks of the doors along with a ruler, butter knives and a nail file to hold it tight from the sides. It was a sight to behold. It held everything perfectly in place.
We went into town to get some supplies. The Beartooth Biker Rally was in full swing. 2000 motorcycles were in town lining the streets and zooming around. We walked up and down the main street checking out the bikes and doing some good people watching. Trinity told me, “Look at THAT biker with the beard”. “Which one?” I replied, “That’s like saying look at that pine tree on the mountain”.
We went back home to sit around a fire and cook.
While preparing food inside I noticed Jack and Beverly each dragging a log toward our site. I went out to talk to them. They had seen me foraging around for wood and thought we could use them. They knew Trinity and I had just reacquainted after 17 years and I think they had been enjoying observing our love story from a far. Retired people always seem to like a good love story. Jack showed me that sometimes you can break a log over a big rock. Beverly laughed at him and said, “He’s an old mountain man”. Later I used a combination of a saw and his trick to split wood. It worked great.
I cooked pork chops on the charcoal grill and cooked sliced up potatoes in tin foil right on the camp fire. Trinity used to be a fire fighter and I used to by a pyromaniac, so we both enjoyed a good fire.