smoke soup

My posts are tending toward increasing infrequency as the schoolyear progresses and work piles on. However, today my last class for the day was cancelled resulting in a couple more hours than I had planned on (so I decided to waste them) and I find myself at the computer catching up on one neglected section of my life.

Last night a previously promising soup was left too long on high (probably three hours too long). The ramifications of this are still being felt (or rather, smelled) as the smell has permeated the whole house. I had thought that my downstairs room would escape but did not take into account the circulatory tendency of the heating/fan system.

To fight smoke with smoke, we have lit several scented candles. I do not know whether the stench of badly-burnt-turkey-and-potatoes is preferable to bbt&p layered with varying shades and intensities of scent.

I was think how as we were walking out the door, had we remembered to turn the burner off, we would never have paid a second thought about what might have happened (ie what did happen). However, once the toothpaste is out of the tube, wishes that it had never happend are useless to the situation at hand.

Likewise if we resist a temptation we may never realize what suffering (for how long) has been avoided; yet if we lose our vigilance (the I-havn't-been-hit-crossing-this-road-recently-so-I-don't-need-to-look-anymore tendency) and slip up, the consequences are far-reaching.

I am also thankful that we only have to deal with the incinvenience of a little smokey smell for a few days. Perhaps this will help keep us more vigilant to prevent similar incidents since there is no use crying over burnt soup, yet a lesson can certainly be taken from it.