There are times when you know an event is coming, and you decide to put off doing anything about it until it actually happens. It might happen today, it could happen years from today.
For us, it happened today. Our 17 year old refrigerator has sounded louder and louder as the years have gone by. Today it stopped making that awful racket, but it also stopped working, completely.
The first thing I did this morning was shop for a refrigerator. I went online and found several acceptable models that I could order, and we would have them within a week. Then I called the only local appliance store and asked them what they had in stock, and they had a Frigidaire, a comparative model at a competitive price, which was around $700.00. This is a relatively low priced model, although there were much cheaper ones available, which reviewers pointed out were extremely loud. We live in an open plan, a loud refrigerator is very intrusive, so those less expensive models would have been difficult to live with. They couldn’t deliver till Monday. That would be a long wait without a refrigerator. So I called Attila, who talked to his boss, who lent us the truck, that picked up the local new refrigerator, and delivered the refrigerator to our house before 3:00 p.m. today. And took the old fridge out to the yard! Whew!
So, the new refrigerator is sitting on the deck, waiting for Attila to come home and bring it into the house, level it and plug it in. Then I will go to work getting all our food into it.
My day was spent emptying and cleaning the old refrigerator. I filled the Koolatron, with the most perishable items, like milk, and turned it on. My first attempt set the Koolatron to heat, but luckily I remembered to look at the manual and corrected that within minutes. Then I filled two coolers with the contents of the freezer, and filled three boxes with the rest of our food. Then the old refrigerator was cleaned and ready to go out the door.
We had been saving vegetable scraps in the freezer, to make broth. Those scraps went into a pot, were covered with water, and set to simmer on the stove. Also saved were organic orange peels, which went into another pot, and set to simmer on the stove. A few items in the refrigerator were beyond saving, so out they went to the garbage can.
There are worse ways to spend a day, as I found out earlier this week with the preparation for the colonoscopy! So there are no complaints here!
Just to note, the refrigerator I REALLY wanted, but did not need, and could not afford, was a Leibherr CS 1400, which rings in it at about $3600.00. Many happy owners report that they are very, very quiet, which is what I consider most appealing about it. I can dream.
Here it is, just after midnight and I finally got the last of the frozen food into the new freezer! Tired and happy, I think it is time to turn in for the night.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
14°C
Date: 11:00 PM EDT Thursday 8 August 2013
Condition: Mainly Clear
Pressure: 101.5 kPa
Visibility: 11 km
Temperature: 14.4°C
Dewpoint: 13.8°C
Humidity: 96%
Wind: WNW 5 km/h
Quote
“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
Helen Keller
1880 – 1968
Thank you for the wonderful quote from Helen Keller. It reflects my philosophy of life but states it so much more eloquently than I could ever have expressed it.
I hope your new refrigerator gives you many years of good service. We had to replace the refrigerator in our new house, and due to size restriction, only one model would do, a G.E. It has bursts of noisiness, but fortunately, the bedroom is at the other end of the long (but narrow) house.
I used to think that if you had a refrigerator you were set for life with it. Since we’ve lived here (27 years) we’ve gone through 3 of them and are on our 4th one now. They just don’t make things like they used to I guess. What a project to transfer cold food! You just never know when you wake up in the morning what will face you that day, do you?
Ah, but yes. The philosophy of, “Wait till it breaks and then I’ll fix/replace it.” Makes a lot of sense when it’s an expensive item, particularly one that’s not repairable, or would cost more than it’s worth to be fixed. You knew you were living on borrowed time, as it got louder and louder…. A least it chose a time to die when you were home, and not at the city house for a week. What a mess that would have been! Glad it all worked out with a local refrigerator company, so you didn’t lose food, waiting days for delivery.
Sandra, Helen Keller really strikes a cord for me too! The world is so lucky that her parents were affluent enough to hire Anne Sullivan, the woman who changed her life and contributed so much the world. The chain of kindness and respect was strong in both their lives.
Joan, that is the key I think, to have the bedrooms far from the kitchen. At our country house the bedrooms are at the other end of the house, but the living area is open plan, so we spend our waking hours with the refrigerator as a constant companion. When it complains, we know about it.
At the little house in the city, the house is so small that everything is close to everything else. The current refrigerator there is second hand, older and very high end. It is noisy! We are used to it now, and can sleep through it’s usual complaints.
Bex, as “Roseanne Roseannadanna” said, “”Well, Jane, it just goes to show you, it’s always something–if it ain’t one thing, it’s another.”
Makes life interesting though, doesn’t it!
You are so right Sarah, if the refrigerator had failed while we were away for a week it would have been quite a homecoming! I shudder to think!
Crazy world that easily reparable, basic items are not made. I guess no one buys basic functionality, the bells and whistles are just too appealing. I do admit to preferring the self-defrosting freezer, it was truly a pin in the patootie to defrost those old refrigerator freezers manually!
In my fantasy world companies offer inexpensive basic models of essential items like refrigerators, toilets, and cars. Then for a modest price they would add custom features, like self-defrost, dual-flush, and cruise control. And everything would be built to last, with parts available everywhere. Again, I can dream.