The Mother of Inventions:

It always amazes me the things that happen that just make you want to say, why me? It's not big things or dangerous things, but just those kinds of things that make you crazy. One of those things happened to me this weekend. I went to spend part of the Fourth holiday with my Mom. (My Dad died in November, and my Mom has had to get used to being on her own after 60 years of marriage). We decided that since we wouldn't be at her house for the holiday (I had to come back to go to work), we decided to host the other families on the mountain for dinner. So, we got organized, started early while it was cool, and tried to get as much ready as possible. We were doing really well until my Mom decided to put the pans of rolls on the back of the stove to rise. Needless to say, you know what happened. One of the pans somehow, fell behind the stove. Now this is a stove that hasn't been moved in probably 20 years, so it would have taken a crow bar to get it moved forward to get that pan out, and we couldn't leave the pan and dough back there, (mouse problems). Access to the back of the stove was complicated by the fact that there was a cabinet above the stove. My first thought was to get a coat hanger (the answer to so many problems) and try to snag the pan with the dough still in it. Of course this wasn't working very well. Then I remembered that I had gotten my Dad a thing for picking things up off the floor or from high places (he had a hard time bending over). So, I was able to snag the pan (of course the dough fell out) and then snag the dough (luckily it held together in a big ball), and retrieve the item from behind the stove. Of course I have the black and blue marks on my arm from forcing it down in the space behind the stove. I couldn't convince my Mom to keep the dough (just kidding). So it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut would say, Here I am cleaning the ... off of everything.