Blowtorches and Bagels

Have you ever had one of those ingenious moments of innovation? Such as during one of those unfortunate times when you find yourself in a sticky situation, yet you are able to formulate a plan with the meager means available to you? And then afterwards you feel so proud of yourself? Well, I had one of those moments today. It was only a very mild one, though, so I won't even embarrass myself by going into detail. But, it got me thinking. It got me thinking about some of my past shining moments of innovation (I will not get into the specifics of the length of this list, and you can take that to mean whatever you want it to mean). In going through that list, I remembered a recent instance of situational creativity of which I am particularly proud.

Here's how the story begins. It was a dark and stormy night. Seriously. There was torrential rain, booming thunder, flashing lightning, the whole shebang. And somewhere during the night I lost power at my house. I remember waking up in the middle of the night surrounded by nothing but inky blackness (and since I am one of those grown adults who has to sleep with a nightlight, the impenetrable darkness did not go unnoticed). I managed to fall back asleep, though, but when I awoke in the morning I was still without power.

The lack of power itself really did not bother me. Honestly, I've always been intrigued by the simpler, more primitive lifestyles of our ancestors. There are times when it's fun to rough it, like they did back then. I could easily occupy myself with a good book, just like they did in the good ole days. Confident that I could entertain myself, I felt no need to panic. (Also, my laptop and Kindle Fire were both fully charged, so in the case that I needed to play a virtual game of solitaire or something of the like I knew I would be okay.)

So that morning, with no power, I arose and prepared myself for some good ole roughing it. I showered and dressed by means of flashlights and a few candles lit here and there. Then I went into the kitchen and prepared to eat my usual breakfast of a toasted bagel smothered in nothing other than peanut butter. But, alas! How do you toast a bagel during a power outage, with a toaster that requires power to function? I had stumbled upon a problem, a dilemma, a mild tragedy, if you will. I love me some toasted bagel with peanut butter, so this was one of those times when I refused to just roll over and surrender.

So, I thought of my options. Of course all of my primary ideas revolved around one thing: fire. That would do well to toast a bagel. I had plenty of candles lit, and for a brief moment I considered warming my bagel over one of them. But then I realized that I wanted the bagel for breakfast, not supper, when it might finally be warmed by the puny flame of a candle. So I rethought my options. I have lighters, but they're no better than a candle. I do not have a fireplace, so that was not an option. And I was not in the mood to go out and collect wood to build a bonfire.

It seemed I really needed to work my brain cells on this one. So I got the gears rolling, and what I found myself thinking was something along the lines of, "Wouldn't it be nice if I had a blowtorch right about now?" And then a light bulb went off in my head. Thanks to my handyman of a dad and his penchant for collecting all forms of tools and whatnot, I actually have a blowtorch. So, I fetched the blowtorch. Then I gathered a pair of oven mitts, a pair of tongs, and my bagel. Then I put on the oven mitts, lit up the blowtorch, grabbed my bagel with the tongs, and proceeded to toast my bagel. It took roughly two or three minutes to get it just right, but in the end I got the job done. I had myself a toasted bagel, so I slapped some peanut butter on it and ate it. And it tasted good.

And that's how the story goes. It was a dark and stormy night, I woke up and wanted a toasted bagel, so I pulled out the blowtorch. Makes sense to me.