We Interrupt This Series

I have one more post-election post to make. I had intended to make it many days ago, but life got in the way.

First there was babysitting grandsons. Ephraim and Ezra were with us for a few days while their parents got away. I took the vacation days from work and helped Lynda out with them. It was a great time. A couple of those days I rose early and wrote before the boys were up. I worked on my novel, however, not on a blog post.

Then, Wednesday before Thanksgiving our refrigerator went out. It was on borrowed time, having shown distress in September but then working fine. We decided to get by while we could. Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m., with Thanksgiving meal looming and desserts requiring refrigeration being prepared is perhaps the most inopportune time for the thing to finally say "Twenty-five years is enough. Goodbye." This fridge was original to the house, we think; it was there when we bought it. At that time there was no going out and getting another one. Nor on Thursday. Friday might have been a possibility, but we were tied up with company until about 7 p.m., and Saturday I couldn't get the other half of the team moving very early.

We finally got in to Sears around 3:00 in the afternoon. We found some things we wanted, but weren't clear that it was the right way to go. I should add that we have a second fridge in the garage, an older one. When the inside fridge went out, we crammed that as full as we could, then bought ice and tried to keep the dead fridge somewhat cool. Every day I bought ice and changed out containers. It was tiring. We didn't buy at Sears, even though the sale on the model we liked would be up the next day.

Sunday we decided to go a couple of other places before going back to Sears. The local appliance store (not a chain) that everyone speak highly of was closed on Sunday. We went to a couple of the chain stores, and found what we really wanted at Lowe's. The problem was it wasn't quite right. Our wall oven is also on it's last legs, the lower heating element being out. Our built-in microwave and our dishwasher are also showing signs of distress. They had a sale on a package of all of those, but they wouldn't fit. The Lowe's department manager, after we waited an hour for him to break free from another customer, said he couldn't do any swap outs of one model for another. We either bought the package or the individual units we wanted at the price listed, either the regular or sale price.

So we bought nothing, and I hauled some more ice. The sale at Lowe's on the fridge model we wanted went through Monday. They also had a sale on a wall oven up the same day. It would require a little modification to our cabinetry to make it work, but it would work. I went in the middle of the afternoon and learned 1) they had sold the last of that fridge in the store and to order it would take a week or more for delivery (I immediately had ice visions), and 2) they really couldn't sell me the wall oven without first sending out a man to measure for it, and they couldn't get a man out for a couple of days. Or, I could buy the oven at my own risk. Since I had to go to another Lowe's store to get the fridge, I told them what they could do with their wall oven (okay, not really) and left.

I'm sure this story isn't all that interesting, so I'll make it short. At the other Lowe's I bought the fridge. They put it on emergency delivery for Tuesday evening. It arrived at the house at 5:30 p.m. We had to cut back some carpet to remove the old and install the new, but it was in place by 6:30 and for sure cooling within an hour. How good it was to hear the first ice cubes tumble down from the maker.

I'll find an oven repair man over the next couple of days, and get that taken care of. Then there's the master bedroom mattress to replace, the microwave, the dishwasher, the furnace services, and a couple of other things. But just having the fridge in place has allowed me to relax for the first time in a week. Maybe tonight I can write a little.