Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Following Instructions

The other night I loaned my dad my food dehydrator so that he could dry some mushrooms he picked. (The ones he ate already haven't killed him yet, so he must have identified them correctly.) When he came to pick up the dehydrator, I stressed that the instructions were in the box, and that he should read them, because the way the pieces are assembled to fit in the box is *not* the way they should be assembled for use. I said this several times.

Today he dropped off the dehydrator, and sheepishly mentioned that he hadn't put the one white plastic piece where it was supposed to go, and the bottom rack had signs that it had been too close to the heat. He said it was still functional, but it definitely showed signs. (I didn't dare open the box.) *sigh* I said that that was why I had *told* him to read the instructions... had he read the instructions? "Um, did you tell me to do that? I read the ones that said not to put them in the dishwasher..."

He said that the bag of dehydrated ("shiitake") mushrooms he brought me was worth more than the dehydrator... that's all fine and dandy, but mushrooms won't dehydrate my beef jerky the next time I want to make some. ;)

Did I tell you the story about how my dad jumped on the ice to test that it would hold him *and* his ATV? And then later fell through, and had to walk to civilization?

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