Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Like Daughter, Like Mother

Thank you Crystal (for having the nose of a dog!)

Just like when Brooke saved the house from fire almost 1 year ago to the day, on May 15th 2008, Crystal saves the house last night (May 11th 2009) from what could have been an even worse fire.

See, last year Brooke finally got the attention of her dad who was ignoring her cries of "DADDY! DADDY!" and brought it to my attention that she found the grill had spit fire from it's rusting base and had caught the dry leaves below it on fire. Sure, it was stupid to burn right there, but the point is my beautiful daughter stayed safe, yelled for help, and saved the house from possibly going up in flames.

That was at dinner time, with all 6 of us up and awake and ready to run if needed.

Now, almost 365 Gregorian days later (I'm leaving the word Gregorian there because Fire Fox didn't spell check underline it, and it might make me sound smart to someone...whether I am or not) Crystal busts out some pregnancy nose techniques and smells plastic burning while in the upstairs bathroom. When she comes back downstairs and tells me, she says it's coming from the dishwasher. We put this brand new dishwasher in a few months ago, and it's worked pretty good. Well, I open it up, find nothing wrong, and run the cycle till it's done.

Yesterday, Crystal runs the dishwasher again while I'm gone at work, and stops it mid way through because of the smell of burning plastic again.....go go gadget dog sniffer (of course, that's not meant to be mean, but go ahead and think I'm a jerk if you must...most people do based on my writings.)

I get home from work and she tells me it's from underneath the dishwasher. So, reluctantly (because I'm lazy and not a dishwasher repairman.....but I do show a good crack when I need to) I open up the bottom access panel and call for my flashlight. The flashlight didn't come on it's own, and didn't even think to bring me my slippers, so Crystal got it for me.

I laid there on the floor for a few minutes looking mostly at the left side of the parts. Then, I looked to the right and found a melted plastic wire nut.



It was melted in half. It was melted to the wooden floor. It was a fire hazard laying in wait.

Crystal possibly saved us from a fire that could have happened at anytime (think, running the dishwasher as you go up to bed, delayed start to finish before you wake up....)

We'll never know if anything tragic really would have happened from it or not, but either way, I'm very grateful for a wife who has the nose of a hound dog (and a face of an angel), and who listened to the little voice in her head that said the dishwasher was evil!


PS - I'm taking applications for an electrician and a dish washer. Payment for services in rice and beans only.

PPS - I'm sure Crystal will take offense to your request that she sniffs out drugs in your children's bedrooms, but, of course, if you make that request with a few thousand dollars, she may just do it!

PPPS - My wife can catch bigger fish than your wife. Na Na Na

6 comments:

Crystal said...

pregnancy nose? are you calling me fat? lol!

Lynette said...

That is pretty impressive....go go gadget nose!!!! I could've done without the crack part though...thanks for the not so pleasant image!

GFP said...

Sorry sister, but I got the idea from your "My Girls" post.

http://theloveridgefamily.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-girls.html

Danielle said...

Holy cow -- I sure hope you guys are going to contact the manufacturer about that!!

Roxie said...

Wow, good job Crystal! I'm so glad you figured out what it was before disaster struck!

GFP said...

Well, I spoke to the repair company, and the guy assured me that he sees this a few times a month. He is "100% positive" it was just a poor connection inside the wire nut. After speaking with him, I think that I'll at least try a new one....but try better to connect them.....which might mean running some more cable to reach a bit farther.

Unfortunately, last night I had a terrible dream that it DID catch fire. We all got out, but despite my swearing at the 911 operator (after a few calls to actually get someone) it still took them over 20 minutes to respond. Dreams are so mean!

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