Too old to ride the range

That came from an old joke: "Get off the stove, Grandpa, you're too old to ride the range.".  I thought about that joke yesterday when we had a range incident at our house.  Dorothy was cleaning the stove and in her zeal to rub off every speck of dirt she inadvertently pushed the self-cleaning button. (Actually, there's no buttons on the control panel just touch pads, so it's easy to accidentally set off an assortment of functions.) When the stove goes into the self-cleaning mode the oven door automatically locks.  She canceled the self-cleaning but the door remained locked.  I got out the owner's manual and found out that after the self-cleaning cycle finishes a timer unlocks the door after a reasonable cool down time. I told Dorothy that the door will probably unlock by itself in a few minutes, but she insisted that the door be unlocked immediately. Did she have a pie ready to go into the oven? No. Did she have a last minute order for a birthday cake and it had to go in there without delay? No. So, I tried a few things like unplugging the unit and giving it a minute or two to reset.  To no avail.  So I got the flash light and a screw driver.

 

I shined the light through those vents just above the door handle and could see the latch. Using a small screw driver I unlocked the latch and opened the door.  As soon as I let go of the latch it returned to the locked position. I kept the door open and the latch unlocked by itself within a moment.  I suspect it would have unlocked automatically had I done nothing. The important thing is that Dorothy wanted something done and I did it. As my role model Red Green says, "If the women don't find you handsome, the should at least find you handy".