A Stupid Human Trick

Yesterday we bought a VitaMix blender.   I’ve wanted one for years, but could never justify the price.   Yesterday we were in Costco, and they were selling them for $50 less than the online price.   We had our laptop in the car, so my husband went out and checked Craigslist again (we’ve done it before, to no avail) and the only VitaMix for sale was about 35 years old.   There were two ads for people wanting VitaMix blenders, but none for sale – as usual.   So we decided to just do it.   We have a lot more money these days than we used to, and although most of it goes into savings, we do allow ourselves an occasional splurge.

I was so excited to use it – I made a green smoothie last night, and it was so much better than the ones I make in the food processor.   That VitaMix has some get up and go.   Anyway, I made another smoothie this morning, washed out the container, and left the container on the counter to dry, with the lid plug inside it.   This afternoon, I decided to make another smoothie.   I cut up some pineapple, washed a bunch of grapes and spinach, added a carrot and some celery, and dumped it all into the blender.   When I turned it on, it made the most horrific noise – I couldn’t figure out what in the world was going on – it was only fruits and veggies, but it sounded like I was grinding rocks.   Oops.   The lid plug.   Yep – it was still inside the blender container.   Damn.   I had to compost the entire smoothie, since I think that little ground up pieces of plastic probably negate the health benefits of the spinach.   And of course the lid plug has seen better days.   Happily, the blender itself is just fine, and I looked online and found that I can order a new lid for $15.   And the blender still works just fine without the lid plug, I just have to put my hand over the hole in the lid to make sure stuff doesn’t splatter out.

When it first happened, I cried.   I was so bummed.   I’d only had the blender for 24 hours and I’d already ground up part of the lid! Who does that??   But my husband reminded me that now that we have our son, any mistake we make that can be remedied by just buying a new part, isn’t that big a deal.   And luckily the blender is fine, except for the lid plug.   So I’m out a $15 lid plug and about $5 or $10 worth of produce.   A bummer, but I guess it could be worse.   And I’ll never again put food in that blender without looking inside!