I mentioned yesterday that the Joe's Pond Cookbook is available again. In case any of you aren't familiar with it, there's a pretty good description on the web site. Here's the link: www.joespondvermont.com/cookbook

Well, it finally happened. Our microwave quit on us today. It was at noon when Fred was going to thaw out a jelly doughnut or something. It just went "pfffft," and nothing worked. We checked the power and everything was okay - it was definitely that the machine had just quit. We looked for something like a fuse on it, but there's nothing showing on the outside, at least, and nothing about such a thing in the manual. I have a hard time believing it has died - it has always worked so well, never even a hiccup. The thing is, it was our first microwave. I resisted getting one for a long time. I don't know if it was because I thought they give off too much negative something-or-other or that I was just being a snob about it, but it was never high on my list of necessary kitchen appliances.

I don't know what or who changed my mind, but in the fall of 1992, we splurged on a big, combination microwave convection oven with all the bells and whistles. I said if I was going to have one I wanted to be able to put big dishes in it, needed a turntable, and would expect it to perform miracles. I remember angling it into the corner of the counter space. We studied the manual and I began trying out recipes. Before I knew it, I was using it for nearly every meal, and sometimes cooked a whole meal in it. There was a disaster one time with chicken - I guess I programmed it wrong - the chicken was way beyond salvaging, but other than that, it was great - I made everything from corn bread to peanut brittle with it. I tried using the convection feature a few times, but never did get the hang of that. It was too loud, took too long and I thought must be using more electricity than it should. I probably had that programmed wrong, too, but I just didn't like it.

So now my trusty microwave is sitting idle, unresponsive, dead. We called several places, starting off with the people at Sharp Corp., and the general theme has been that it costs more to repair them than it does to get a new one. I keep saying to Fred, "but what if it's only something simple like a fuse or a loose connection?" He has assured me we'll do our darnedest to find out if that's the case, but given the age of the thing, I know he's thinking it's a lost cause. I managed to get a meal without it tonight, and I really don't mind going back to the "old ways" of cooking temporarily, but having the microwave to thaw things and steam veggies while the rest of the meal is on the stove is mighty handy. Besides that, there is that serious problem of conserving energy, right? Now I need to convince myself that the new microwaves probably use far less energy than the old one . . . and that just might send us to the appliance store tomorrow - but it will be hard to take the old one to be recycled.

In spite of the household emergency at lunch time, we managed to get quite a lot done today. Fred got the JPA cookbook up on the web site and I answered a bunch of e-mails I'd been putting off because they took some time-consuming research. I had a note from Marge Greaves in Danville that she had some Cabot town reports for me if I wanted them, so we picked them up this afternoon. While I was doing that, Fred was meandering along Hill Street taking some pictures. Hill Street, Danville VT

When we got back to West Danville and stopped for the mail, it was quiet at the stores, but there were lots of people at the beach (see photo). There has been a brisk wind all day and in spite of the temperature being around 80, the breeze kept it cool. Couldn't ask for a nicer day. We need to take advantage of the nice weather and get outside and enjoy it. Summer begins to wind down once we get into August. I said that to someone today and got a surprising answer: "I'm glad it's almost fall. I don't like all this sunshine." I hope she was kidding.