Self Flagellation--of a sort

  Not the act with a whip, but of immersing oneself in extreme criticism.
If an ex- FBI Director can use it to his advantage or as a means of finding peace, why should I not engage in the same pursuit.
  I have in my house an automatic bread-making machine. They were very popular some years ago, but lost popularity, in the fashion of  the Milkshake Duck.
  It seems no one wants a bread making machine anymore, so before throwing it in the trash, I decided, hey, why not give it one more try at producing a loaf of home baked bread.  Like Oprah, I too love bread.
   I have a distant memory of having used the machine once before, with so-so results. There was nothing special about the bread. I seem to recall that maybe there was some issue with the ingredients. The yeast may have been too old, or, more likely, I'd used all-purpose flour instead of the recommended bread flour. 
       This time, for its swan song, will be different. I bought new yeast packets and, for the first time in memory, invested in bread flour. I carefully followed all directions, cleaned and inserted the kneading blade, loaded all ingredients into the bread pan, selected the basic program, and pressed Start. The machine turned on and after the designated time of something over 3 hours, the beep sounded, signaling the bread was baked and ready.