Cwyn's Tea Kettle Problem

It's time for a new tea kettle. Or new kettle set-up. Nothing brings out the Tea Ware OCD more than the idea of a new water boiling system. First we have the nightmare of actually shopping for something other than tea. I make my son eat whatever the Thrifty Mart behind the house has for sale because I am NOT getting in the car to actually go to a store. Once I get past the nightmare of shopping for something, I immediately nit pick potential purchases to the point of exhaustion and end up not buying anything.

Here's what happened. I had a Hamilton Beach stainless steel electric kettle which served me well for about 4 years. Last spring it developed a leak around the plastic water level. Now I hate anything plastic on a tea kettle but at the time this kettle was the least offensive of all those I considered. Tried everything in the house to re-seal that leak, but all solutions succumbed to either heat, expansion, or water exposure. So, I was forced to toss the kettle, still working perfectly well mind you.

My old tea kettle

Next, I tried a vintage Japanese ceramic hot pot I bought on Ebay. That kettle went down because of my next problem. Old Cwyn. Ever heard of her?? Right. This is an old lady who forgets she plugged in the tea kettle and lets it fry until the heating element explodes. She falls asleep. Her Hamilton Beach had an automatic shut off. My current tea kettle, just a stovetop enamel, has a perfect quarter-sized round burn with a pin size hole in the middle because this old biddy left it on the stove. She has a Safety Problem.

Current tea kettle replete with burn mark.

Really this is all an issue only because the kitchen is "out there" and I'm "in here" which usually means on or in the bed. I can't see the tea kettle out there and promptly forget I even put the kettle on. Even worse I sometimes dash out into the kitchen thinking I left the kettle on and nope, nothing burning. All this wasted effort and worry. The whole point here is I just can't see any reason why I need to get out of bed to get my tea. Why can't I just lie here and roll over and turn on the kettle any time? I don't need to interrupt my dreaming which lately has been about this guy I read about on Teachat called Henry, who supposedly is Selling his Red Mark. I keep dreaming about what Old Cwyn could be doing to get to Henry and his Red Mark. This sort of productive thinking goes out the window when I have to get out of bed and deal with problems in the kitchen. All I could accomplish will never happen unless I deal with my tea kettle soon.

So, I have these problems:

1. I hate boring shopping.
2. I might burn down the house.
3. I don't like plastic touching the water.
4. I nitpick any potential ideas to the point of death.
5. Older house wiring and non-grounded wall plugs, some of which tend to come out of the wall.
6. Hate spending money on anything except tea.
7. A son who can't be allowed to see Mother's depravity.
8. I'd be fine if I could quit reading tea forums, Influenced by Ideas.

Okay stop at lucky 8. I'm thinking of getting an electric portable burner to keep by the bed so I can use my virgin cast iron tetsubin gathering dust now in the cupboard. The tetsubin would stay hot longer, which might mean less energy spent heating water over and over. I could lower my gas bill by using electric instead and spend more money on tea. The downside to this plan is few burners have an automatic shut off. Here is one I'm thinking about.

Looks like it would play vinyl records too.

Will let you know whether I made any progress or if I've burned down the house in the meantime. I think I left the kettle on the kitchen.

Pacem in incendium domus.