One nice thing about our boat: It has a gas stove that is designed to not blow us up. It has a heat sensor near the burner that switches it off if it doesn’t sense heat.
I learned this when I got frustrated trying to turn on a burner. I would get it lit, which was a process in itself, and then it would immediately go out. After three rounds of this, when Adam heard me let out a big, long, exasperated, nearly defeated, sigh, he said, “You have to hold the handle in longer. If you let it out too soon it doesn’t know that it is burning and turns itself off to prevent the boat from getting filled up with propane.”
My slightly less annoyed than before reply, “So it’s designed to not blow us up?” His bemused response, “Yeah, something like that.”
One nice thing about my husband: He knows lots of things that could save our lives and quite a few things that can make our lives more comfortable.
I’m sure gas stoves all over the world have similar failsafe designs, but I don’t know those stoves, so I can’t write about them. They say to write what you know. Right now I know only that I have to learn lots of new things and adjust to very different ways of doing them while also being fairly uncomfortable at times.
One more nice thing about Adam: He touches my back when I feel sad or homesick or anxious, which activates the part of me that is designed to not blow us up. I seem to have a sensor that lets tears come out of my eyes when the pressure inside is getting too much. It’s a genius design, really.
When overwhelmed by frustration at things like slow progress in getting rid of ALL the smells and things like boat insurance companies who will not insure our boat unless it is out of the water, in New England, for the winter, plus serious heat and humidity (it felt like Arkansas or Oklahoma around here yesterday and last night), it helps a little to focus on some nice things.
What is one nice thing about your surroundings right now? What is one nice thing about your nearest loved one?