Yesterday the guys came over to nail up the siding on my shed. As soon as they started banging away, I thought to myself, "Hmmm, there's an awful lot of glass stacked up over there. Maybe I should make sure everything is safe." But then I got interested in someone's blog and then I started playing Bejeweled and then I drank some tea and then . . . "Hey, you better come over to the shed. We heard something break." A few expletives later, I discovered that two little egg cups had fallen off a shelf and shattered. When I checked my inventory, I found that one had cost me 50 cents and the other was free. So ok, I'm out half a dollar and two egg cups. Thinking smart, I promptly rearranged all the shelves and took several pieces of my precious Pyrex & Fire King off their shelf and put them on the floor in the middle of the room. Safe, right? HA!
I go back into the house, pay some bills, and decide to go to the post office. When I got back, I walked over to the shed and said, with a laugh, "Well, have you broken anything else in there?" Haw haw, everyone said. Nope. Bang went the hammer. CRASH!!!! Silence. This is not good, I thought. We are on the side of the building where I stored all my Pyrex and Fire King. Dreading what I was to find, I went inside. Looked at the piles of broken glass. Started cussing like a sailor. The first casualty was a Pyrex "Crazy Daisy" mixing bowl that had been in pristine condition. OK--I only paid $3 for it and I have several others.
But what I saw next nearly brought me to tears. (I say "nearly" brought me to tears because, after all, it's glassware and you know it's highly breakable. I found that out during my Month of Hysterical eBay Buying after we got our tax refund. The prior-to-shipping mint condition Fostoria American 3 sided candy dish with lid that I got a fabulous deal on was much more tragic--the seller wrapped it sooooo well in bubble wrap and saran wrap but neglected to put any buffer between the lid and the bottom. Two chips. Not mint no more). Ennywho, back to the current tragedy. Even though all my Pyrex is old, the piece that screamed VINTAGE the loudest was the somewhat rare "Mod Kitchen" casserole with lid. Now, as I gazed at the sad little pile of no longer Mod yellow shards, I also noted that the damn lid was not only still in one piece but had narrowly missed hitting my Fire King Jadeite batter bowl that I had moved off the shelf earlier.
You know, if Pyrex had only made the bottoms as unbreakable as the lids, there wouldn't be all those stupid lids filling up bins in the thrift store. To add insult to injury, I actually DID injure myself when I stabbed my finger with a formerly Mod, but now very much a weapon, shard. So far today, no one has broken anything to my knowledge, and I really don't blame the guys. These things happen, and anyway, I haven't been to eBay since March . . .
