How long could you live without...

a Microwave?

The reason I ask this is because we found this last week that we were about to adjust to living without one if we did not go and get one right off.

I was keeping things warm in the microwave to eat for dinner when sparks were spotted, and the most horrid smell of burnt metal came wafting into the kitchen/dining room.  To keep anyone else from attempting to burn down the house, I unplugged it.  Instantly, I felt a loss.  I really did!  That is bad, right? 

I was unable to keep dinner warm, and juicy.  I had to resort to rewarming on the stove and in the oven, which led to dried out fried rice, which became a salt filled mess, and burnt edges on the sweet potato fries.  I was so looking forward to that dinner.

Within a matter of an hour we had made the decision that first thing the next morning, we would bite the bullet and go buy a new microwave, after all, the one that just "died" had served me/us well for 12 years,so it was just time. 

Yea! Now I can again, boil water, defrost meat, and make popcorn!  We were without a microwave for less than 24 hours, and I felt like my daily life was coming to a halt.

The reason this seems to absurd and comical is that my Grandmother who passed away almost a year ago, was not at all a "slave" to technology.  She did not own a computer, she was given a cell phone for safety, but did not use it, and hardly ever even turned it on.  She did not have a dvd player, or a cd player, she never even had a VCR.  When family and I would discuss e-mail in front of her, she would tune us out.  She even had rotary dial telephones in her house until the day she died.  She was even given a microwave once, which she never used, and gave back to my Uncle when he needed a new one.  All she ever said was that it took up a lot of useless counter space.  My Uncle told me later that the instructions were still inside.  So, she had never even tried it out.  Another funny thing was that a few years ago, she bought a brand new car.  Which of course came equipped with things like Onstar and so many lights and fancy gadgets that she felt she was flying in a space ship.  The first summer she drove it back to NY from Wisconsin, she somehow changed the default language on the dashboard display from English to French, and was unsure how to change it back.  We all laughed and laughed over that one for a long time!  We were even all afraid to call her on the Onstar phone to avoid scaring her, and having to drive off the road into a ditch!

She never had the things that we all cannot seem to live without, and she had an amazing and full life.  I am sure that we can all learn from that!