"INDUCTED" INTO THE SCHMUCK HALL OF FAME!

       
  What would you think of someone who accidentally gave away one of her most prized possessions? I'm not talking about giving something away because you have a kind heart or a giving spirit. That is admirable. But taking something valuable and casting it aside like last week's garbage is different. You would probably think she was a schmuck....and you would be right.    
          I had actually managed to forget this disheartening incident until my father brought it up in an unusual way a couple of months ago.  We went out to dinner with a wonderful pastor and his wife in Honolulu.  I had never met them, so of course I wanted to make a good impression. When the waiter had taken our order and left us to chat over our Bread, my father asked a question, "Nita, why don't you tell them about the time you gave away your oven?"

 There went the good first impression.  I didn't actually give away my oven, it was more of a cook top, but it was embarrassing nonetheless.  But how did my father pull that 25 year old memory out of his hat? I had managed to suppress it nicely from my own memory bank.  There is no way I can put a positive spin on this.
          I should explain that my husband is an architect and a builder, and over the years he has handled some of the most cutting-edge appliances and gadgets for the home.  Often they were for clients, but I had some truly wonderful innovations in some of my kitchens too. 
           I remember the day I watched with wide-eyed wonder as he showed me something called an "Induction Unit". The name alone impressed me. I fully expected to be transported onto the Starship Enterprise.

 To the casual observer it looked just like a glass topped electric cooking unit, like hundreds I had seen before. But then he put a paper towel over the "heating" element, then a stock pot full of water, and turned it on. In a very short time, the water was boiling, but the paper towel was not catching fire.

 It was a strange and wonderful innovation.  It seems that this cooking unit cooked food using magnetic energy. The cook top itself did not heat up. 
         Perhaps everyone has heard of this technology by now, but this was way back in the 1980's, and it was cutting-edge and quite expensive. I was so proud of my little cooking unit that when guests came over, I took them into the kitchen to show them the magic. 
         One day one of the cooking rings quit working. I was so disappointed.  I knew that it might take a long time to get someone to repair my appliance. My husband worked so hard preparing his clients' homes that personal repairs sometimes took a while. Within just a few days however, a repair truck pulled up to the house and the workmen arrived at my kitchen door.  They looked a little confused and told me they were here to fix my oven.  I corrected them immediately, explaining that it was not an oven but an "Induction Unit". They detached it from my counter and began to inspect it with much grunting and scratching of heads.

 It was clear that my magic cooking element was not going to be fixed that day.  They finally conceded defeat and explained that they would have to take it into the shop. As they looked over their paperwork they rattled off a phone number and asked if that was still my number.
          "No!" I answered.  I then corrected their information (with a growing suspicion that this would not be a quick repair).  They loaded my precious appliance into their truck and took off.

  I never saw them or my cooking unit again. When my husband got home I told him about the repairmen.
His comment to me was, "I didn't call any repairmen."  
          So there you have it. That's the day I gave away my "oven".  That is how I qualified myself for the "Schmuck" Hall of Fame!