Underneath

When I chose “underneath” for my next photography challenge, what I had in mind is definitely not what I ended up taking pictures of. I intended to take some pictures of some berries underneath the leaves of a plant in front of the garage. I intended to take pictures underneath of the tables of my garage sale to show the chaos. I intended to take pictures while lying underneath my girls’ beautiful faces and having them look down at me. My intentions were good.

However. I did not get much cooperation. Specifically from the weather. Driving rain, wind, hail, snow, and freezing temperatures just do not bode well for taking pictures of berries underneath leaves, taking pictures of my garage sale (let alone even having the garage sale, which I did not), OR for lying on the ground underneath my girls’ beautiful faces outdoors. So, thanks to the weather, I neither took the pictures I intended to take, nor did I have my garage sale. Sigh.

However. I did get some pictures of something that was underneath. Glass underneath my stove.

I do not have a good story about misbehaving children or sneaky mice to accompany such an event, however. I was in bed on Saturday morning. Ed came in to wake me up, the little girls were watching TV and the big girls were gone at sleepovers. Ed & I were just talking about the day when we heard a CRASH! Ed went out to check and came back completely befuddled.

Spontaneous Combustion. On the part of the outside piece of glass on my oven door.

No, the little girls did not do anything. (I don’t think they even noticed when the glass shattered into a million pieces. They were just still watching TV). No, my oven was not on. No, nothing hit the glass on the oven.

Apparently, when you temper (heat & cool, heat & cool, heat & cool) glass, such as the glass on an oven door, sliding glass door, or automobile windows, those pieces of glass have a lot of energy. And sometimes they spontaneously combust. The shattering into a million pieces thing is actually a safety feature of tempered glass. Those little tiny pieces probably won’t cut you (unless it went flying straight into your eye ball upon combustion) like a large shard of glass could. That’s why “they” temper glass for those types of items. The edges of tempered glass are the vulnerable parts, so it’s possible that the glass shifted and the clamp on the bottom hit the edge and that is what caused it to shatter. Thanks, Dad, for the glass lesson.

Regardless of why it happened, it happened, and it was a mess to clean up. Ed did good. Plus he did good finding that Sears sells replacement glass for $40. Pair it with a year’s worth of refrigerator water filters and you get free shipping! Another week to go until the glass arrives, but I figure between my crockpot, the microwave, and the stove top, it shouldn’t be too hard to continue to provide evening nourishment for my family.