Freezing
I suppose it’s fitting that a turn of weather has made it feel freezing cold, even as my freezer has died.
Yes, I know it’s not really freezing. But when just a few days ago, I was wearing shorts and sandals and sweating profusely at the fair, it’s freezing in comparison.
Saturday, I realized as I tried to grab a container of Ben & Jerry’s from my freezer, that it was not frozen. I opened it, expecting something slightly soft, but instead, I had chocolate brownie soup.
I didn’t know what to do.
I checked to make sure the door was shutting. I decided to change the water filter, long long overdue. I knew that wasn’t it, but I figured I wouldn’t let the repair guy tell me it was the water filter. I cleaned a grate. I took the grate off and cleared out years of dust bunnies, not all generated by me.
I threw out almost all of the food and cleaned a big puddle of melting salmonella mess at the bottom of the freezer. And now that the repair guy isn’t coming at least until tomorrow, I throw away any chance that any of it was good. I was trying to lie to myself and tell myself it was no different than defrosting some chicken, so I could save the chicken … but I think the time for lies is over.
The freezer is cold. It’s probably as cold as the refrigerator, but not cold enough to freeze anything. So probably the chicken is safe.
I’m taking no chances.
Unfortunately, that’s a lot of chicken to throw away. We had a huge economy pack untouched, as well as some smaller stuff frozen.
All that I will have left, after stealing myself to throw out a ton of expensive chicken, is that soupy container of Ben & Jerry’s, which I use as a thermometer to tell me that the freezer is still not freezing stuff.
This also means no ice for my water, and the water doesn’t taste that good right now because the filter is still needing to be cleared out. I tried putting several glasses through, but it still tastes gross to me. Ironic that the very dirty filter produced better-tasting water than the new filter.
So now I’m thirsty and I’m coming down with something. I’m cold, and I’m not going to turn on the heat yet.
Worst of all, this freezer/fridge combo is probably less than five years old. It’s shiny, it’s nice, and it doesn’t work. I should start complaining about how durable goods are no longer durable, but the thing is, fridges are different. Or they’re suppose to be. I can’t just drop money on a new one, because I’ve seen the receipt for how much this one cost.
Lovely weekend. Let’s greet the week!
Ugh, what a bummer. There are few things worse than being a homeowner and having an essential appliance break; they are not cheap. We had to replace our dishwasher within a month or two of moving in. Yes, I know a dishwasher isn’t essential…except it is essential to me, who hates to do dishes but doesn’t mind loading a dishwasher.
A dishwasher is essential to me these days too. Right after we moved into the condo, we noticed that the dishwasher and garbage disposal weren’t working. It turns out when they were spraying for termites and replacing damaged wood just prior to moving in, they cut the power supply to that area of the kitchen. We were highly displeased.
Here’s an update on the freezer situation, which is almost worth another blog entry, because of the horrible week I’ve been having:
Guy showed up bright and early this morning, fixed the freezer with a $30 part and charged me $225 for about 15-20 minutes of work.
I guess the good news is that the freezer is working again, and he said it was nothing I could have prevented.
I’ve been sick, so I went back to sleep and woke up with the intention of getting some hot cereal, only to find out that the power was out.
So then I was afraid that the food in my fridge was going to go bad too. Luckily, the power went back on before I left for work.
Oh, and Data is constipated pretty good this time around. I’m bleeding money at this point. I’m trying to avoid a trip to the vet and the end result of a nasty, messy enema or two.