January 17, 2011
Our tea kettle doesn’t whistle here at the apartment. I can hear when it starts to boil. It usually takes almost the same time as it takes me to wash-up what has been left in the sink from the night before. So I have stopped using the microwave to heat the water for my morning coffee. The beep –beep-beep got annoying. But I don’t put the kettle on and leave the kitchen. I am too easily distracted and end up remembering the water and the coffee when it has almost boiled itself dry.

We always had a whistling tea kettle at home. Daddy made his coffee in a two cup drip style pot. The one with three parts stacked on top of each other: the bottom the coffee reservoir the middle the basket to hold the coffee grounds and the top where you poured the hot water. I remember a few mornings waking to the whistle and walking out sleepy headed and coming up behind daddy and tapping him on the shoulder, him turning with a smile and good morning kiss and me signing “water”. A big “O” forming on his mouth and smile as he put down the paper and stood up to go to the kitchen.