Nero fiddled while Rome burned

[Anonymous]

I was a music student at university sharing the upper floor of a house with another music student, who was away for the weekend. A friend of mine had once made french fries on the stove by boiling a pot of oil (you could buy cheap aluminum pots with the lift out thingy that drains the fries). I decided to buy the gear for myself and make fries at home.

At the time, I was home alone. It was the first time I’d ever done this. I put the pot on the stove with the oil in it and started it up. It was taking too long so I cranked the element up all the way. Still taking too long so I went across the hall from the kitchen to my bedroom and starting practicing on my violin (I was majoring in performance violin).

Some time later I noticed smoke. I went to investigate and realized that it was coming out of the pot (can’t remember if the lid was on or not). The kitchen was full of smoke. I opened the window, but it was an old house, probably just an old bedroom converted to a kitchen so no fan, and I couldn’t really get the window open enough to get the smoke out. Thought about calling the fire department but figured I needed to get the pot out of the house FAST.

I walked down a flight of crickety old stairs, out the front door, walked across the street and poured the hot oil over a snowbank – we lived across from the train yard in London, Ontario, and it was the middle of winter.

When I think back, I realize how easily I could have spilled the oil and either burned myself badly, or burned the house down.

I’ve never boiled oil in a pot like that again, and every time my husband says he wants to buy a home deep fryer, I dig my heels in and refuse to allow it. I suppose they are safer these days, but I still have visions of London burning while I fiddled away 👿

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[sdwa]

Almost burned the house down on more than one occasion, so you are not alone. My husband insists I stay in the kitchen when I’m cooking because I have a bad habit of forgetting I’ve started to cook something…and then walking away, returning only to find a scorched pot full of ashes. One time I was making candles and the wax got too hot and burst into flame. So, not knowing this was a smother-type fire, turned cold water on it, and the flames and smoke shot to the ceiling like something out of the Wizard of Oz. My children were traumatized! They still say to me, “Mom, don’t ever make candles again!” And I haven’t.

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[nellie]

no-dopamine, I love your reference to Nero and fiddling while Rome burned, thanks for the chuckle!

AS for kitchen mishaps, thankfully, I never actually had anything catch on fire in the kitchen but can’t understand why! One of my kids is always chastising me for leaving the stove and oven on and I used to forget I was cooking and go do something else – when I came back everything was overdone. One time I was baking a frozen pizza for my daughter and her boyfriend and they suggested I remove the cardboard from the bottom of the pizza before putting it in the oven. I insisted I always left it on. They kind of exchanged looks but said no more. I put the thing in the oven and walked away. Apparently her boyfriend told her to take it out and remove the cardboard because it was starting to smoke. I of course was oblivious to this because I had gotten distracted and was doing something else. My daughter told me a while later, I kind of felt silly in hindsight.

Reading the above posts has made me aware that since starting meds these sorts of things have become less and less frequent. Being as I was just today trying to think of how things have improved since I found out I had ADD, this is another positive improvement to take note of.

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[Anonymous]

sdwa: Wow, I can really relate to that based on my scary experience!

My husband (self-diagnosed with ADD) TWICE turned on the wrong element on high to heat something up and ruined a cheap pasta pot and a very expensive Swiss pressure cooker (we replaced the latter as we use it a lot). The aluminum bottoms turn into really neat blobs.

When he called me about the pressure cooker incident, I was at work late, I told him to open it but that was the wrong thing to do as the plastic gadgets on top (which were upside down inside the pot) had melted and when he opened it, these little black flecks of plastic went everywhere in the house. It took us weeks to clean them off.

I got home and said “we can’t sleep here, it smells like a chemical factory” so we tried to get a motel room in our small city but they were all booked due to a math teachers’ convention. We had to drive a half an hour to another small town, found a really nice suite, went out to get something for dinner and everything was closed (it was midnight) and ended up at the casino about 20 minutes away to eat a hamburger in a sports bar.

We won’t forget that night, but he still is bad with the stovetop element controls, he often leaves one on after cooking – I can hear the click so I turn it off.

nellie: Some of the pizza we order in often tastes like cardboard to begin with! We order frequently because we just can’t get organized to do grocery shopping and make meals. It’s harder too because we are vegetarian, so the order-in or eat-out options are quite limited in our small city.

I am glad to hear that this happens far less to you. I’m hoping meds will help for me, and if things work well for me, my husband will get a proper assessment and hopefully take some appropriate meds too.

In the meantime, I am trying to get us to not store pots or leave anything on top of the stove, but it’s really hard!

My mom was really bad for wanting to spend time at family gatherings talking or listening to everyone rather than cooking the meal. So my husband and I used to go in and watch the pots for her. She would have them cranked on high and there would be cooking liquid spurting all over the stovetop. We just resigned ourselves to the fact that she was totally distracted and impatient (kind of like me at times) and took on the task of monitoring the stovetop for her.

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[nellie]

no-dopamine, the grocery organization thing I can relate to! I could never figure out why I hated grocery shopping until after I started taking meds – noticed the big aisles and stuff everywhere in the store wasn’t as freaky anymore. I can focus on what I came in for more or less! The same for those enormous discount stores with racks and racks of clothes, just really used to freak me out and would avoid them as much as possible. Now I’m starting to like them and can scout out pretty quickly if there’s anything in there for me.

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[Anonymous]

Nellie – I just noticed that I don’t pay attention to the process of paying for my purchases because I am really distracted by what I didn’t buy, if I might need it, etc. Of course, that’s why they put all that impulse stuff near the checkout (today I was at an independent bookstore and they had homemade cookies & that sort of thing).

I am also distracted before I get to the checkout. Sometimes my husband has to chase me around the store because we’ll be ready to go – he’ll head for the checkout – and then I’ll be off down a particular aisle because I thought of something or saw something that interested me …

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[nellie]

Yeah, know what you mean My kids still get mad at me for supposedly disappearing on them in grocery stores when they were younger, not the other way around:-) Although I keep telling them that since I never actually lost them anywhere, how bad could it have been ?

At any rate, the only way to get out of a grocery store without over-spending etc. is to have a list – although of course one has to actually remember the list….

I have tried one of those iPhone shopping apps and it worked fine until I forgot to keep using it ! I always find that once the novelty wears off a system the initial challenge returns.

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[Anonymous]

“once the novelty wears off a system, the initial challenge returns” – how true! I have several calendars, many post-it notes, lists, etc. but do you think I ever use any one of them effectively?

I am the greatest person in the world for making plans and schedules (and coming up with great ideas), but the worst person in the world for putting them into action.

My younger brother has an effective coping strategy – every day he has a peanut butter & banana sandwich for lunch. Simplifies the buying process, but good grief – he’s 53 years old!

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[Anonymous]

“once the novelty wears off a system the initial challenge returns”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I am constantly on a search for new things that will make my life easier, even if the system I’ve got works somewhat fine. I just get really bored with routines and I need SOMETHING to change things up a bit.

I have several calenders, and just yesterday – I ordered a new one (that I accually think would be great for anyone with ADHD)… A watch diary… Check it out -> http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/09/30/timed-organizer-in-a-book/

There’s only that one problem of remembering to use it and bringing it with me everywhere I go, lol.

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[Anonymous]

I would settle for something that would just help me stay on track. I can still get distracted but it’s easier to resist that impulse. I’m using the time tracker printout and it’s motivating me to keep doing stuff I should do because I don’t want to have to admit that I’m goofing off.

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[Author]

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