Left the bread in the bread machine a little too long

I think I see Saddam Hussein
- LOL
  After he’s been underwater for years

Thought this was a cat...

We have a bread machine at home and I remember using it about twice like 6 years ago. It smells sooooo good, and the bread was hard like a rock. Still tasty though.
- A coworker gifted me one 15 years ago or so, because he had it for years and never used it
  It's in my basement for 15 years. Never used it
  I should gift it to one of my coworkers

I'm generally one to avoid single purpose kitchen widgets, but am curious about these. How does isn't compare to just doing things in a basic pan in the oven?
- I get what you mean about single purpose machines, but damn if I am not jealous when I see the person in the bakery put a loaf of bread in the bread slicer and cut it into sandwich slices in less than 5 seconds.
  I don't need one... But it would make me happy.
- Cooking in the oven is a more natural shape and a better crust, but it’s all about the convenience. The reason for getting a bread machine is that you literally pour in the ingredients and press buttons, then come back a few hours later for pretty good bread. I definitely put it well above store bought, although I never had any that were good at sandwiches.
  Making your own bread may not be difficult but without the machine it’s very time consuming. It is so worth it to save all that time but still get to enjoy fresh warm bread right out of the machine!
  
  I agree with both you and the other reply
  However, I cannot for the life of me make a loaf of bread; but, I've managed to perfect the bread-maker. Like, using it every few days to make some fresh bread
  t's old-old. My parents used it when I was my child's age. It's loud, unfortunately, but it does a fantastic job. It has different settings for different flour types and I've gotten consistent results every time (after little trial and error. Thankfully flour is cheap)
  A half measure is to use it to mix/beat and proof bread before removing it and reforming it before putting it in the oven yourself
  
  There are really simple and good bread recipes that take almost no hands on time. Check out the 5 minute artisan bread recipes. It forever changed the way I bake. I have a bread machine and I haven't used it in years because these recipes are better and a trivial amount of extra work.

It happens. We’ve been making our bread for years now and we forget/aren’t around to hear the maker go off a few times a year.