"The Believers"-ish near miss. Yikes.

I think I narrowly missed electrocuting myself. Jesus. I'm glad I'm here to ramble about it.

Remember the movie The Believers (1987), with Martin Sheen, Helen Shaver, Jimmy Smits, and Robert Loggia? Remember the scene towards the beginning, when Martin Sheen's character's wife electrocutes herself in the kitchen, while doing routine, normal morning tasks in the kitchen? Well, I think I just missed doing something like that to myself.

My mom recently got me an "electric kettle," which boils water incredibly fast. I use it to make instant coffee, when that's what I want in the morning. I keep it on my kitchen counter.

I also have a habit of sometimes using a large frying pan full of warm water, to (fairly) quickly cool off the food in a smaller frying pan, after I have finished cooking it. (I put the hot smaller frying pan in the larger frying pan, which is filled with warm water, and it helps dissipate the heat from the smaller frying pan. It speeds things up a bit, saves me a few minutes).

Sometimes the water in the larger pan sloshes out onto the counter, where my electric kettle is (was) sitting. You see where I'm going with this.

The other day, I had a very close call. I was obliviously sloshing water all over the place on my counter, when suddenly I realized that my electric kettle was A.) plugged in, and B.) probably less than an inch away from an expanding puddle. I should add that the handle on my larger frying pan, which I almost grabbed, is uninsulated... it's just metal, attached to the rest of the pan that was sitting in a puddle of water, which was rapidly expanding toward my plugged-in electric kettle.

YIKES.

Somehow I had the presence of mind to just back away from my counter, and stop and think about what to do. I unplugged the electric kettle, and survived. I have since moved the electric kettle elsewhere.

I mean, maybe the electric kettle was perfectly well insulated, but.... maybe it WASN'T. I'd rather not find out. At least, not in that way. I mean, DAMN.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm still here. Everybody please take this opportunity to review any kitchen and bathroom habits you have that might be dangerous, and take steps to make your life safer.

Kirk out.