The only good thing about yesterday is that we went to church. I don't know about others, but at least in church I can find peace because no one can hassle me, nothing can break down, and God forgives even my meanest, darkest thoughts about contractors.
Early Sunday morning we discovered that our refrigerator was not cooling correctly. The boxes in the main part of the refrigerator was "sweaty" and the boxes in the freezer were covered with a light frost. Uh, oh. The refrigerator is less than two years old since we bought it in January of 2012, and we have probably run it about 9 months total since that time. We set the controls to cooler and went to church.
After church we went to the store to pick up a bracket to "plug" a hole left in the post next to the tree since we had to raise the bottom rail to accommodate the roots of the tree. As we were about to leave the parking lot of the Home Depot in Clearwater, the Home Depot in Largo called to tell us that our special order U-Channels had come in. We need the U-channels to finish the panels next to the gates, so we could not finish them without the channels. We were about 5 miles away, so we decided to eat lunch out and to pick up our order before we went home.
After a delicious lunch at Culver's, we picked up our U-Channels at Home Depot. Would anyone care to tell me why eight U-Channels, which when nested within one another probably take up 4 square inches around at most, came in a box that was 12 inches square? The package weighed over 4 pounds on the shipping label, and the plastic U-Channels weighed probably less than 6 ounces total. Why do we waste so much cardboard and materials in our packaging -- to say nothing of the money that it costs to ship them?
When we got home, we discovered that our refrigerator was up to 60 degrees in the main compartment. Out came the portable cooler for some of our necessities, and the rest of our refrigerator contents we took to Steve and Chris' house. (Thank you both for your generous use of your refrigerator!)
Rick got on the phone to call a repairman. We quickly learned that to have repairs covered under any kind of warranty, we needed to have someone certified by GE. A call to them informed us that we would probably have to throw out what food we could not keep cool, and that the earliest a certified repairman could come to our house was next Saturday. Seriously?!? A week later???
Once we had the refrigerator empty, it started to cool down. We monitored it overnight, and this morning everything was back to "normal." We think that maybe we had too much food in the freezer and that somehow blocked a vent or overtaxed the compressor. We returned to Steve's house to get our food, and we resolved that if the refrigerator continues to work well, we will cancel our Saturday appointment and focus our energies on buying a small chest freezer. We could fit a small one in the garage, and that may serve us well.
Today a cool, hard drizzle has spoiled most of our plans for doing anything outside. I am still really sore from my fall, so I called the doctor's office at 8:30 this morning to see if I could get an appointment. I was told that Sheila, the nurse, would have to call me back. The time is now 2:34 p.m. and I have not heard from Sheila. I think it is time to find a new doctor.
The crappy weather today did not stop us, however, from moving forward with our fence plans. We picked up some boards that we had to build into a U-shape sleeve to slip inside the corner posts to use next to the gates. The wood is needed to support the screws that will hold the hinges for the gates and the latches to keep the gates closed. We had to rip some of the boards down; thank heavens that we had the Festool saw available. The whole task was not difficult, but it took us much more time than we has thought it would. In the end, though, we have four posts ready to support our gates once we are ready to build the gate walls.
The refrigerator continues to run well today. Go figure. The lesson learned is that we have overstuffed our freezer, and each evening from now until we go to Wisconsin next week, we have to have a meal from the freezer. Tonight, in honor of the continuing miserable drizzle, we will have white meat chicken and rice soup (thanks to Schwan's Foods) that is heating up in the crock pot as I type. Hot soup on a cold night. My idea of true comfort food.
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