A short story

This happened about 30 years ago. Wow. That's when I first started working for this company. Where does the time go?

I had just started working for this company and was trying to fit in. I took on every challenge that was handed to me and tried new things. Since this company produced a number of different computer boards and other electronic devices for sale, I made a point of getting familiar with each of them. Since it was a small company, we all did a little technical support, answering customer questions and even cleaning up around the office. I made an attempt to always be the first person to arrive in the morning and one of the last to leave. And there was a company coffee maker where we all took turns making a new pot when the supply was low.

At some point, I thought the coffee tasted a little off so I decided to clean the coffee maker before everyone came in that day. I was used to doing that. You just pour some vinegar in and run it through the brew cycle. Then you use plain water to wash out the vinegar. No problem. Except this coffee maker was a Bunn-O-Matic. They have a reservoir of hot water (I think it must hold four or five pots worth of water) so that there is no waiting for the brewing to start. There is always hot water available and new water just fills up the reservoir for the next time. So, when I ran the vinegar through the system, it was diluted by the large amount of water already in the reservoir. Plus, running it through the brew cycle only ran a diluted vinegar solution through the machine. Not only did it not really clean the coffee maker, there was still vinegar in the system. For quite a while. I remember running the machine through at least four cycles and I could still smell the vinegar. I didn't even try brewing coffee because with the overwhelming vinegar smell, I knew it was no use. I think I ran a few more cycles and it finally didn't smell anymore so I brewed a pot of coffee. It tasted terrible. I was going to have to dump out all the water in the reservoir and start over.

I couldn't find a drain so I had to tip the whole coffee maker on its side by the sink. I remember not being able to get it all out until I tipped the bottom up very high. When I did that, a tube that directed the hot water from the reservoir to the coffee basket fell out. It took me quite a while to find out how that fit together and when I finally figured it out and put it back in, I poured in more water and started a brew cycle (without coffee at first). But it leaked! There had been a seal around the pipe that fell out and I had either damaged the seal or put it in the wrong place. I tried re-seating it and that didn't work. I tried making a new seal with epoxy sealant and that stunk up the place and made the coffee smell bad.

Finally, someone else from the company figured out how the seal should be seated and it all worked. I think it took most of the day. And I never cleaned the coffee maker again. But at least they didn't fire me. I'm still here.