Tea Time

When we think of Tea Time we usually think of the British rendition, if I am correct, occurring sometime in the early afternoon. But for Pop it is all day long. Tea time starts in the morning around breakfast and then repeats itself about every 30 minutes or so until about lunch time. Or at least that is how it feels. Tea Time is also after every walk which are numerous and any time that I need to distract him or just get him out of my hair. Needless to say he consumes an enormous amount of tea in one day.

Sometimes I find him rummaging through the pantry looking for the bags. I have purposely hidden them because he doesn't know how to set the microwave correctly and it did lead to a near catastrophe a few weeks ago. One day I came home from running an errand. My husband was outside and in that duration of time Pop decided that he was going to MAKE HIS OWN TEA. Going about it the old fashioned way he put my bright yellow tea pot on the burner, turned it to high and left it to boil. When I came in the door the house reeked of the smell of something burning. Running to the kitchen I saw my yellow tea pot in a state of an orange glow, burned dry of H2o and close to melt down. As I frantically lifted the pot off the burner, the pot which was stuck, lifted the unit shorting out the stove. The kettle being a lost cause went into the trash. The stove was the next more ominous concern. After pulling it away from the wall, checking the plug for damage and finding none the search was on to locate the reason for our inoperable stove. Eventually we tracked down a breaker switch that had flipped to off. Whew! Needless to say NO MORE TEA MAKING FOR POP. With the tea pot gone, I then put the tea bags out of sight making it necessary for me to be the ongoing tea maker.

Unfortunately I have not found a suitable hiding place for the quart size tea bags and those are the ones he still manages to find. Sometimes if I see him at the pantry searching I'm able to intervene. But occasionally if I am not prompt or out of the room I will find the left over mess from his attempts all over the microwave plate.

The scenario unfolds like this. To his credit he finds himself a cup, locates the quart sized tea bags high up on the top of a pantry shelf (intentionally high but evidently not out of reach). Putting the quart sized bag into his mug he places it in the microwave and proceeds to punch buttons until it starts. After boiling the water out of the cup all over the microwave he retrieves the mug and sips. With the enormous bag floating in the remaining tea and with a look of accomplishment he exclaims, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that's good! Today I will relocate the quart sized tea bags.