Skating Rink

Tuesday, I knocked over a full quart bottle of Extra Fruity Olive Oil. I have this big brown wooden cupboard about 5 feet long & 4 & a half feet tall with shelves inside that I use as extra storage in my kitchen. I think it was once a huge entertainment centre because one side of the  top lifts up when you press on the corner & the shelves inside are all different shapes & depths. I love that cupboard. It weighs a ton but it can store giant containers of pasta, flour, sugar, oatmeal, boxes of garbage bags, cases of mushroom soup, rolls of paper, foil & parchment, big Tupperware containers, sacks of rice & all the bits 'n' bobs that come with my Nutriblender. I don't normally store liquids in there but I needed a tall shelf for the tall oil bottle. So, there I was, on one leg with the other in the air - think crane - balanced on the cupboard top with one hand so I could get low, reach in & pull out a can of soup. And 'bink' said the bottle politely as it tipped over & fell one inch to my tiled cement floor.

It broke into three main pieces along it's side seams & oil poured out everywhere. I couldn't move fast but was able to grab newspaper from the recycling bag & cover the whole lake as it spread. I managed to drop paper towels on the edges of the paper & then more paper on top of the whole mess. I've spent the rest of the week trying to figure out how I'm gonna get it all cleaned up. I can no longer reach the floor easily. Most days if something drops, it stays there unless I can pick it up with my grabber stick or there's a counter nearby where I can pivot on my good leg while lifting the bad one which doesn't bend like it used to. Stuff that falls with an end or side sticking up I can often grab but a lot of stuff stays flat on the floor until it's dry enough to sweep. I sometimes long for my huge old dog Linda who could vacuum anything remotely foody from the floor before you realized it was dropped - even raw eggs.

Today, I managed to pick up the glass with my grabber stick just as neatly as you please. It was the part I really worried about. I thought it might be too heavy for my grabber or too flat because it broke along the side seams. It looks like the newspaper has soaked up most of the oil - all that Extra Fruity goodness whaaaa - and is stiff enough to pick up without too much mess. So I should be able to stuff all that oily paper into a garbage bag without calling for help. A little industrial degreaser on my floor should take care of any leftover oil - I hope. I'm really looking forward to getting back into my own kitchen & cooking again. I like eating out too but nothing tastes quite as good as your own brown rice & curried chicken!!