What could have been tragic

I had a real scare this morning. I thought my coffee maker was broken!

This is my coffee maker.------------>

Except mine has an insulated metal carafe, which is good because I tend to break the glass ones. Notice the water reservoir on the right. This is one of the features I really like about the coffee maker. I take the reservoir out, take it to the sink and fill it with cold water. Then I simply push it back into place, push the button, and the coffee maker begins to hum and gurgle in the most loving, soothing way. Pretty soon the carafe is filled with delicious fragrant coffee.

But it didn't go exactly as predicted this morning. I followed all the usual steps. I put a filter and fresh ground coffee in the basket, made sure the carafe was in place, then filled the water reservoir and put it in the slot. And pushed the button. And nothing. NOTHING I tell you! I nearly panicked. I pushed the button again. And again. And again again again again... Still nothing. I unplugged and replugged it. Nothing. I set the automatic brew feature for one minute past the time that was showing on the display. The little LCD display told me the thing was set. I wait the rest of that minute, then nothing. I took my glasses off. (I am very near-sighted and can see very clearly as far away as 2 inches from my nose.) I got my eyeballs right in front of the display and pushed that damn button again. And again. You know the song now. Sing along if you'd like.

And then, with my nose just fractions of an inch (or millimeters, for my Canadian readers) away from the display and the reservoir, I noticed that the reservoir wasn't pushed in all the way. I gave it a gentle push. All of a sudden, the sound of water gurgling! Happy joy! I pushed that damned button again and lo and behold, the soothing sounds of water gurgling and electronic stuff heating it. Pretty soon I hear the drip drip drop of the newly minted coffee hitting the bottom of my carafe. Ahhhh. Bliss.