New Nuker

Wednesday morning. I put a frozen sausage and egg biscuit into my microwave oven and punched in a minute and hit start. Instead of humming to life, I heard BRRRRRRR...... until I hit the STOP button. I tried again—same sound. That's not the sound of a biscuit heating. That's the sound of electronics failing.

I had to buy a new oven. I went online and found one I liked at Walmart. I ordered it. A minute later I received an email from Walmart that stated the oven wasn't in stock. I canceled the order. I continued looking on the Walmart website and found a similar oven. I ordered it. A few minutes later I received another email from Walmart. That oven was out of stock, too.

Nuria and I drove to our local Walmart to see what they had in stock. The shelves were bare. They were sold out of almost all microwave ovens. I knew there was another Walmart out in the county, though it would take a half hour to get there. So we went there. Lo and behold, they had just what I needed. It was a 1.1 cubic foot, 1000 watt oven. I bought it. The price was pretty good—$77 plus tax.

Now, I don't cook meals in the microwave oven. I heat things up. Things like frozen biscuits, frozen dinners—you get the picture. I'm not a cook; I'm a defroster. I'll bake a potato. Does that count as cooking?

My last microwave lasted me 30 years. That included "fixing" it 3 times—if replacing a fuse counts as fixing something. I don't need a complex, programmable oven. I need something simple, to defrost, to warm up, to cook a potato. I think I bought what I needed. If it lasts 30 years, somebody else will be using it long after I'm gone.