Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Of Gasless Ovens and Home Warranties

You will probably note that this post doesn't contain a lovely, if slightly moody, picture of a TWD Two-Fer pie. You may even think, "There goes Kelly, slacking again. Loser. Stupid Donkey."

As usual, my intentions were good. But there is one critical ingredient that I am missing in order to pull off this Thanksgiving dessert coup.

That would be.... a working oven.

The Golden Spouse tried to heat up some leftover beef on Saturday. Turned the oven on. Put the beef in. Came back in twenty minutes. The beef and oven were still cold (and may in fact have been colder than when he first put the food in.)

You are now thinking, "You probably just need to re-light the pilot light." I know that's what you're thinking because that's what everyone I have complained to about this has said. If there is a pilot light on this oven, I'll be damned if I can find it. And you know what? I'm not going to stick my head in the gas oven waving a flame around trying to find it. (Moot point anyway since we don't smell any gas.)

And yes, all of the other gas appliances in the house are working. (That's the second question everyone asks.)

Our assessment, based on a rigorous ten minutes or so of internet research, is that something has gone wrong with the starter doohickey. Please don't make me explain it beyond that -- just trust me. I'm a researcher.

So here we are, two days before the National Day of Gluttony, and I have no oven.

I called the Home Warranty folks yesterday morning, who politely and cheerily told me that they would have the service guy (Kevin, I assume, from Kevin's Appliance Repair) call me. They even gave me his number in case he didn't call me fast enough (what are the odds...).

Didn't hear from him by this morning, so I called the number they gave me. I got those three tones you hear before learning that the call could not be completed as dialed, I should check the number and try my call again.

I called the warranty company back. They politely and cheerily assured me that they would find another service person to call me. I reminded them that Thanksgiving was upon us and I needed my *&^%$ oven and they should light a damn fire under SOME service guy (regardless of the status of his starter doohickey).

As usual, the hostile approach gained me nothing. Tuesday afternoon, 4:45 -- no word from anyone about fixing my oven.

We expect to spend the rest of the evening learning the intricacies of baking on an outdoor grill.

UPDATE: We are now T'giving Minus 24 Hours. No call from contractor, on interminable hold with warranty company.

5 comments:

Kay K said...

I am not sure who your warranty company is, but if you are with Old Republic Home Protection, send me an email. I work in the Marketing department for ORHP and would be more than happy to see what I cold do to help you out. (This is a VERY busy time of year for appliance repair people...) I can be reached at kayk@orhp.com. If I don't hear from you, have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

PaintingChef said...

Um... I have a friend with a fabulous grilled peach pie recipe...? And I'm pretty sure you can just put thing in aluminum pans on the grill so to save your pretty dishes...?

Dude.

DUDE!!

That is a problem.

MacDuff said...

Oh my god. One word: Xanax.

Are you in operation yet? If it makes you feel at all better, I know several people who always grill their turkeys and love to tell me it's the only way to go.

Keep us updated.

My capcha is "trap." So, so true.

Gina said...

geez this is like a cliff-hanger
or more appropriately an oven-door hanger...

did you ever get Thanksgiving dinner cooked?

hoagiefest 2020 said...

Oh no! Hope you enjoy dumb comedies and dumber blockbusters, or you'll never forgive me! :-p