erniefreeman's Blog

Don't you wish there was a real "Easy Button" to clean up things in your life when life gets a little tough?  Careful what you wish for.

On Saturday, I was compelled to clean out my oven.  After all, it had been several months since I had cleaned the thing.  Okay, I had never cleaned the thing.  And  with mac and cheese and Digorno Pizza residue on the bottom of the oven, it would "smoke up" everytime I baked some of my tasty chicken.  A couple of my friends told me this particular General Electric oven has an Auto Self Clean option.  Easy Button.  Sounds good.  So, I hit the button and the cleaning started.

And then the fire started.  Apparently some of the footd particles in the oven caught fire.  And the flame grew in intensity and size.  Seeing this, I went into panic mode and tried to open the oven door so that I could put out the flame.  Well, when the oven is in auto self clean mode, it automatically locks.  I could not open the door.  Black smoke is seeping through one of the stove top eyes.  I'm thinking 'this is poisonous stuff and it's going to kill me.'  At this point, I want a do over.  I want to clean this oven, by hand, with the lysol and the 409 all purpose cleaner.  I don't want that easy button.  I want to do it the old fashioned way.  Please don't burn down my house.

Within a few moments, the flame was out, and the oven was doing its' self cleaning thing, and I was out of the house, hoping it would be standing when I came back from the post office.  It was.  And I had grown even more cynical about the easy button approach to solving life's problems.  But I know how to work that auto self clean feature now.