old stove, new stove. what rhymes with 'stove'?

stuck:

forever 8:35.

morning? evening?

either one.

neither one.

~

bit-by-bit

the stove failed.

until i finally

just had the delivery guy

pull the plug.

 the stove had some serious miles on it

when we bought the house

eleven years ago.

(i'd put a late-70's or early-80's date on it

but could be wrong about that.)

~

it had, it seemed, been through

trials by fire.

 & one burner

finally split along an edge,

revealing a core

that burned red like a blacksmith's brand.

(so i pulled it out & replaced it

with a ceramic plate,

which actually was much more useful to me

than the burner had been.)

 i had gotten into a habit (when our children were born)

of never using front burners.

so they suffered from

disuse.

& whenever it happened that i needed

to recruit one into service,

they tended to sputter around

putting off smoke & just generally

making me nervous.

 in its final months,

the back right burner was the last one

that could reliably boil water.

that tiny six-inch burner

pulled its weight

& taxed my coordination

of preparing a meal

with only one spot

to heat a pot.

the little burner that could

it seems that the 1963 GE P7 was the very first self-cleaning oven.  in that same era, GE developed the following technology:  the J93 airplane engine (which operated at three times the speed of sound); the automatic, electric can-opener; and the silicone rubber astronaut boots that were used in the moon landing; among other things.

given the overall age of the appliance & (to me) obvious clues that the self-cleaning feature had not been utilized in quite some time, i never was bold enough to try it.  really, i was afraid the entire oven might go up in flames.  so, every now&then, i'd scrape the hardened ashes off the oven floor and suck them up with the vacuum hose.

the final chocolate croissant

it really was a nice, humble stove.  modestly blending in with the knotted pine cabinets & acting as a good resting place for kitchen bits&bobs.  & occasionally boiling a pot of water or baking a potato.

the Kitchen Remodel has begun.

i anticipate completion in 2023 -

(which may happen to coincide with

youngest's end to undergraduate education).

naked & afraid

 there were a couple of features i was looking for

in a new stove.

primary....NO more coil burners just waiting

for my pot to boil over

or nooks & crannies that inexplicably became soiled & sooty

just by virtue of their existence.

Done.With.That.

 secondary....dream.....a gas stove.

~

enter plumbing estimate.

where our gas meter & only gas appliance

is outside at the very other end of the house.

$$$$$$$$$$

plus

cabinets are too low,

too close

$$$$$$$$$$

so

hello, electric!

& i am very fine with that

because, at some point,

i'd like

a newer car.

~

oh

what rhymes with 'stove'?

clove.

grove.

wove.

trove.

~

as in

i wove a trove in a grove of cloves.