My cupboard runneth over
—The day my kitchen cabinet tried to kill me began like any other day. I had just padded downstairs in my robe to start a pot of coffee when I heard an ominous creak. Then an angry roar. Then, as some previously untapped instinct kicked in and I backed across the kitchen – I was still semi-asleep – the cabinet door right above my coffeemaker opened, and my entire collection of mugs spilled out. Some dropped into the sink; the rest poured forth in an impressive flood onto my tiled floor. They landed with a crash of glass and pottery, inches from my slipper-clad feet.
It is always disturbing when one’s cabinetry turns violent. Fortunately, the explanation was simple: The plastic pegs holding up the adjustable shelves had suddenly failed, shearing off flush with the inside of the cabinet and allowing the shelves to fall. When I went to buy replacements, the hardware store guy said he’d heard my story before. Apparently, some plastic pegs weaken over time and need to be replaced every decade or so, lest they suddenly decide they’re fed up and retire in a spectacular fashion. I purchased heavy-duty metal replacements for every plastic shelf peg in the house.
That evening, as I installed the new pegs, I reflected that I’d learned a valuable lesson fairly cheaply. No one had been hurt, and I hadn’t really lost much – all my plates and cooking equipment had been in other cabinets.
But every coffee mug I owned, except for one small teacup that had been in my dishwasher, was lost. What was I to do?
Read more at The Christian Science Monitor.
