No electricty required
I was watching my two little grandsons play games on their tablets and was about to make some pontific statement about not needing electricity for my fun when I got to thinking how much I depend on the passage of electrons through wires.
Besides lighting and the ignition of the pilot for our furnace, how else am I dependent on electricity?
Of course there is my computer, which runs on a battery but, like my cell phone, must be charged. And then there is the TV. Enough said about that.
There are my appliances.
One sits on the bottom shelf of my pantry. Kind of looks like, well, I don’t really know what it looks like. A bomb?
It’s an “Air Fryer,” basically a small convection oven that allows me to “fry” stuff with less calories and time.It was a gift.
There is my very much-loved Kitchen Aid mixer which has no special attachments, but could have if I ever got myself together to order those that I think I might use. Might use is a good phrase.
Why I also have a hand-held Kitchen Aid mixer is a mystery. I’ve never used it.
Right next to my air fryer are two other exotic domestic devices, a food processer complete with attachments that I have yet to take out of the box and an incredibly efficient blender with blades that look like they were invented by a B grade horror movie director. Haven’t used either in more than a year. There is always the box grater.
A very useful emersion blender resides in another cupboard. It keeps a smaller food processer company. I think that I’ve used the latter a few times.
Of course, there is my stove, a dual fuel device that has gas burners and an electric convection oven which I have never used as a convection oven. The warming drawer stores bake ware.
The stove was advertised as having a self-cleaning oven, however I have not been able to find the instructions that spell out how long to use that particular feature, so I clean it by hand.
No, really, I’ve tried to find instructions on the net. No luck. And I hate cleaning ovens.
I have a garbage disposal that hasn’t worked in years.
Then there are the two vacuums.
I have a rug-fringe-eating Oreck that needs professional help. It only moves along with a great deal of human encouragement. Thus, I have a new Shark which resembles a kids’ lego project that comes apart to attach to a lot of odd accessories that I’m not used to.
It also has a cord long enough to allow me to vacuum my neighbors house. So far the cord has made my vacuuming time a lot longer as I try to figure out how to manage it.
Even my toothbrush is electric.
My grandmother was a lot less dependent on the power company. I learned by her side.
My grandmother had a stove, it was kerosene. It deposited a thick layer of soot on all of the pots.
The food that came from that stove was wonderful. The tradeoff was worth it. You also had to heat the water on the stove to wash those sooty pots.
She had a broom and a dustpan that kept the house spotless with the unrecognized bonus of an aerobic workout wielding that broom. She never had a vacuum cleaner
She had a knife and she showed me how to use it to chop as finely as needed.
She had a fork that she used to beat cake batter.
“Gets the ingredients mixed faster than a spoon,” she would say.
I learned to cook from her. No electric mixer or similar device in her house.
For most of my domestic chores, I could survive without electricity. And truth be told, how often do I use the knife instead of the food processor? It’s easier to clean the knife and I don’t have to wrestle all the parts of the food processor into its box and put it away.
How often do I choose to use the broom instead of the vacuum? Often enough that I can write about it.
And it must be observed that the broom has no cord.
My grandmother used to sing me lullabies. No power needed.
My substitute?
Alexa, my electric dependent Echo Dot, plays me the sounds of gentle rain and rumbling distant thunder every night, easing away the busyness of the world and singing me to sleep.
I have succumbed to the siren song of the electrons.
But, I will get out the board games when my grandsons return.
