Fridge Repairs

THE TINKLES

David and I arrived at the appliance repair place to let them know that our refrigerator was still not well and to ask what they were going to do about it. And by not well, I mean that it was still incontinent; and by incontinent, I mean of course, that I’m tired of our thirty-something-year-old fridge continuing to pee on the floor, which it had been doing for nigh on a month by this point. We’ve had our refrigerator for a very long time, well… we’ve had it longer than we’ve had Lauren and Ryan, so it’s “family;” and I just wasn’t ready to put it down simply because it had a bad case of the “tinkles.”

You take into account that when housebreaking puppies there’s going to be a few accidents. It’s inevitable. Still, does anybody really expect that one day their refrigerator will do the same? I actually watched as it did its business right in front of me. I asked, “What are you doing, Fridge? What’s the matter with you?” At least a puppy would have had the decency to look embarrassed when confronted. Instead, our fridge had the audacity to just ignore me while continuing to do what it was doing. That’s when I called the vet. I mean David called our homeowner’s insurance company while I got the mop.

HOMEOWNER’S INSURANCE, YAY.

The Insurance Company eventually sent out an appliance repair person within two days after I…I mean, David complained that they’d literally ignored us for a solid week.

We will not be ignored, Insurance Company!

Again, not that I talked to them. But after my repeatedly asking David whether the insurance company had returned his phone calls (now well over a week) and David saying that he hadn’t heard back from them yet, I started getting annoyed. David told me, “Look, I’ve called. I’ve left messages. I’m not calling again and that’s final.”

Well, that just wasn’t acceptable. Call me “Squeaky Wheel,” y’all. Since David was done for the moment, I called their number on my phone and stayed on the line for over an hour until we were “next in line to speak with an available representative.” Then I handed the phone over to David because I sensed that I’d been brainwashed by the Muzak they kept playing over and over and over while I was on hold. It may be against the law to use subliminal messaging in movie theatres, but I don’t know that that’s the case when listening to Muzak while holding on a phone call. Either way, I wasn’t taking any chances because by then, my brain was mush.

“Yes,” David told the representative on the other line. “Someone was supposed to get back with us. I even left messages,” he said. “No, no one’s called us since I called a week ago Monday. I’m sure. It will be when? Another week? I don’t think that’s going to work. We’ve already been waiting for over a week. Yes, it’s our refrigerator. Oh, okay, that’s better. This Saturday? Great. Between noon and six? Yes, that’s fine. I’ll be here.”

THE DIAGNOSIS

When the repair guy came out, I wasn’t at home, which was probably a good thing. Or then again, maybe not. David informed me later that we had a torn gasket on the bottom of our refrigerator door that needed to be replaced. According to the repairman, the gasket was allowing outside air to seep into the refrigerator, which was causing a problem with condensation. So the condensation was filling up on the bottom floor (under the drawers) of our fridge (as water) and then it would overflow and trickle out onto the ground. Hence, we were having to mop up water every couple of days.

RUSSIAN ROULETTE?

Not that I said much to David, but it seemed like there was an awful lot of condensation for such little air seepage, if you asked me; although no one did. But if that was, indeed, the case, then that also meant our fridge probably wasn’t staying as cold as it should, which meant that eating anything that could easily spoil — well, we were playing Russian Roulette with our food, were we not? And that, I did emphasize to David.

“No one’s going to get food poisoning!” he tried to assure me.

“Fine, then!” I said. “From now on you get to be our taste tester. We’ll let you eat first and if you aren’t sick within the next couple of hours, then Ry and I will eat.” If nothing else, that made David  think twice.

According to my husband, the repair guy was going to have to order a part. Once the part came in, if he could actually get a replacement part that would fit, then he would be able to come out and do the repair. If he couldn’t find a replacement part…then…well, “let’s just see about getting a replacement part first and hope for the best,” the repairman suggested.

STRESS

So we waited for the couple of weeks for the repair part to come in. Then we waited for the guy to come out and fix our fridge. Again, I left it to David to deal with this because I’m not supposed to “stress” according to my doctors. And I’d already been stressing for about three weeks on just this one thing alone — but those who follow my blog know — I had a lot of other things I was stressing about as well (and still am.) We’ll just call this “refrigerator stress,” the “cherry” on the stress sundae that was the entire month of July 2021.

THE REPAIR

So the repair guy did his best to fix our refrigerator’s torn gasket before realizing that the new gasket didn’t quite fit the way it was supposed to, which required him to — no surprises — call his supervisor. So after several minutes on the phone, he then delved back into the repair before declaring the fridge was fixed and went on his merry way, according to David.

I’m so glad I wasn’t there when he came out again.

THE CALL BACK 

We got a call the next morning from the repair place to see if we received decent service and to make sure our refrigerator was working again. I’d already told David that the door had lost a lot of suction whenever I opened it. There was very light to barely any resistance when I opened the refrigerator door, which meant that if we weren’t careful, it would be easy for the door to accidentally remain open when we’d thought we’d shut it. If it stayed that way for several hours, then food might go bad pretty damned quickly. So that was a fun thought.

David and the person on the phone from the appliance repair store decided that we should wait a day or two to see if the new lack of suction issue was going to be a problem. David said we’d keep an eye on it to make sure this wasn’t affecting the temperature inside the fridge. Then they hung up. After that, David decided to check out one more thing. Lo and behold, guess what? Yep, the “condensation” problem wasn’t fixed after all. Again, liquid was pooling at the bottom of our refrigerator.

NOT AGAIN!

We called the appliance repair place back immediately but hung up after thirty minutes of waiting to speak to the next available representative. Over the next couple of days, David, again, left messages that the initial problem wasn’t fixed. Finally, three days later without anyone getting back to us, I told David, “Know what? Let’s just go down to their shop and talk to them in person. They aren’t that far away.”

The irony is that while we were on the road to their shop, a woman from the repair shop finally returned David’s call. David pulled off the road and stopped so he could talk to her. However, between her heavy accent (think Boris and Natasha-esque accents from Rocky and Bullwinkle), the outside traffic noises, and a weak telephone signal, David finally told her, “I can’t really hear you. We’re on our way to talk with you at your shop. We’ll be there in about ten minutes.”

DMITRI

When we turned into the repair shop’s parking lot in the industrial area of town, we noticed a big, burly guy standing outside in the heat. He was in his mid-forties to early-fifties and smoking a cigarette. I told David, I bet he came out here to see what crazy person was coming to “talk” about the incompetent service they received. What kind of repair shop keeps a bouncer around for security? What kind of repair shop actually needs security?”

David said, “He’s probably just another customer.”

We got out of our car and the guy approached David and said with a heavy accent, “Are you here to talk with me?”

David said, “It all depends. Who are you?”

ACCENTS

I won’t go into all of what was said with the owner, Dmitri, who was not a bouncer — at least not formally. But at one point, Dmitri apologized with, “I know the heavy accent makes it hard to understand, especially over the phone.”

David said, “Oh. I’m sorry, I can’t help it. I’ve had a thick Texas accent all my life.”

Dmitri grinned.

Since he brought accents up, I wanted to ask Dmitri where he was from. Of course, I want to believe he’s from Russia because (of my stereotypical mindset) and his and his staff’s heavy Boris and Natasha-like accents. However, he might have come from say, Ukraine…and God knows I’m a little rusty when it comes to differentiating between a Russian accent and a Ukrainian accent…which both sound a lot like Count Dracula’s accent if you ask me. And I know for a fact that Dracula was from Romania…so…it’s a bit tricky.  Knowing that some people are a little touchy about these things, I wasn’t going to create an international incident by inadvertently asking an offensive question or saying the wrong thing to Dmitri because my curiosity and ADD got the better of me when this was all about my refrigerator. Remember my fridge? The one that’s incontinent?

Here’s what David and I found out from Dmitri—

  • Our old refrigerator was made in the US over thirty years ago. Today, most refrigerators are made overseas in China as are replacement parts. We don’t use the metric system. China does. Therefore, no replacement parts are going to fit perfectly because the measurements get lost in translation. That may or may not explain why we have less suction/vacuum seal with the new gasket in place.
  • Also, we were told that new safety standards have been instituted. With less door suction, kids are less likely to get trapped inside.
  • If we wanted, Dmitri could send another repairman back out to see if the forced-to-fit-in-place new gasket was causing the condensation problem we’re continuing to have. If they’re not able to fix the problem, then they’d notify our insurance company who will probably give us a new refrigerator from their stock or give us a specific amount of money to buy something different because Dmitri will write off our fridge as “unfixable.” In his estimation, this is what was most likely to occur.
  • After discussing the problem further, though, and my suggesting that maybe the gasket wasn’t what was causing the condensation problem to begin with, Dmitri looked at pictures the repairman had taken and thought about it a little more and decided that maybe Varden, our repair guy, just went with the obvious problem (the torn gasket) but should have, perhaps, investigated a little further. It could be that there was something blocking the drainage line that was causing water to back up into the refrigerator. He’d send one of his best guys out to see if that was the case since Varden, with less experience, might not have encountered this issue before. He said he (Dmitri) was his “best” guy, but maybe he could send out his second best.

DRINKS ON THE HOUSE

At this point, I told Dmitri, “Hey, if you come out, I’ll have a cold…beer waiting for you. Well, cold-ish, all depending on how well the refrigerator is working.”

He gave me an amused look. I think he thought I was going to say “vodka,” not beer because…well, you know. But I wasn’t about to be so trite. He laughed and said I reminded him of his wife, who was constantly trying to get him to repair their Samsung refrigerator he had brought in from California. He said he still needed to make adjustments to it, but it worked perfectly as a garage fridge and it kept his beer on the icy side, just like he liked them. His wife, however, wanted the Samsung in her kitchen to keep food cold not icy. “What can I say?” Dmitri explained. “I’m a repairman who has a fridge that needs to be repaired.”

“Ah, the cobbler’s children have no shoes,” I said knowingly. He looked at me without recognition of what it was I was saying. “I understand what you mean,” I clarified. Then I asked, “Well, if it gets down to it, and I have to get a new fridge and I don’t get to talk to you again, what brand of refrigerator would you recommend?”

DMITRI’S RECOMMENDATION

Dmitri said, “Well, they’re all made in China now, so they’re all about the same. They last for a little while and then they break down. GE’s pretty good. I’d stay away from Frigidaire and LG. I’m sure that whatever your insurance company provides will be just fine. But if you want a really good refrigerator, then you’re probably going to have to spend $20,000 and get something high end like Wolf, Subzero, Thermador or Viking. There are other brands, too.”

“GE it is then,” I said. “Sorry, Dmitri, we just don’t have beer worthy of a $20,000 fridge.”

Dmitri laughed. “Hey,” he said as he walked us to the door, “Things break down. You fix them or replace them. I was born way across the world. Then I lived somewhere else. Now I live here. As long as I wake up, it’s a great day. Nothing else is more important than that.”

CONCLUSION ABOUT OUR FIELD TRIP

David and I decided that our trip out to the repair shop was well worth it. We learned a lot that we wouldn’t have if we’d talked to some person over the phone. And, hopefully, Dmitri learned that we weren’t just entitled assholes coming out to stir up trouble; that we were just perplexed customers with a sense of humor who would really like to get our refrigerator fixed.

Of course, in hindsight, I’m suspicious of Dmitri’s whole operation. It’s purely speculative on my part, but…could he really be a Russian mobster fronting as an appliance repair shop owner? Hello? “Did you hear what he said — that as long as he wakes up, it’s a good day, David?”

“Yes,” David said.

“Don’t you think that’s a little…too real? Like maybe he worries he won’t wake up…because maybe he lives a dangerous life?”

David says I watch too much TV.

VARDEN RETURNS

A week later, repair guy, Varden, (the same guy who came out the last two times) was back for a third time. He asked David, “What’s wrong with your refrigerator now?”

David answered, “It has the same problem it did when you came out last time. Hey, didn’t you have long hair before?”

“Yeah,” Varden said. “I cut it.”

“It looks great,” David said.

This time Varden pulled the refrigerator away from the wall and looked a little closer in the back. It turned out that our drain line needed to be cleaned out.

BOTTOMLINE

Anyway, fingers crossed, our fridge is back in fine form. It’s been almost a week since it was repaired and we’ve seen no signs of water pooling in the bottom and no peeing. The suction on the main door is still weak and I suspect there’s nothing we’ll be able to do about that. Dmitri suggested that we could compensate if needed by adjusting the thermostat a little lower, “but not too low because you don’t want to end up with frozen eggs,” he advised.

We haven’t touched the thermostat, thus far. But as you can imagine, I’m keeping an eye on our half-full jar of mayonnaise…and also now, I kind of want to put an egg in the freezer to see what happens.

NEW STRESSES AWAIT

Anyway, gotta go. Our telephone landline is down for the third time in less than a month. David’s been on the phone holding for quite a while with yet another friendly telephone service representative. Jeezy Petes! What’s up with anything and everything mechanical or technological in this house? I’d love to say all of this…stress…is going to end one of these days, but I know it’s not. Well, hopefully, it will when I die, but I’m not ready to leave just yet. I mean, we just got our thirty-something-year-old vintage fridge repaired. My beloved almond aka beige fridge with a textured surface so it won’t show fingerprints is invaluable as far as I’m concerned. It has the freezer on top and the rest of it is just refrigerator. It has an automatic ice maker inside the freezer. Other than that, there’s nothing fancy about it. There aren’t any computer chips in it, just ice cubes. I’m hoping it and I will last another thirty years; though we both might need to have our drainage lines cleaned out once or twice.

Instead of stressing over never-ending stress, I think I’ll take David, my beloved husband and sharer of burdens great and small, an icy cold beer. Think I’ll have one with him.

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Okay, now music. This has nothing to do with the post above.  During the middle of the night (a Sunday night/early Monday morning) after Lollapalooza 2021 in Chicago, I was just reading random things on my phone. Foo Fighters headlined that event and someone put the entire Foo Fighters concert online. That’s when I heard “Nausea,” sung by Dave Grohl’s teenaged daughter, Violet. It’s a song from the punk rock group X from the 1980’s. It’s a good thing I like this song because it’s been stuck in my head ever since. This version, however, comes from Jimmy Kimmel’s show. So, I guess this is my new favorite song, y’all. I hope you enjoy!

 

late addition video inspired by Christopher from Freethinker’s Anonymous’s comment below, y’all!

Sparkle on, y’all!

Mona

38 thoughts on “Fridge Repairs”

  1. We call them iceboxes here rather than fridges, and at thirty-something years old, you may very well have a genuine icebox! My inferior 2009 era icebox is 12 years old now, and I’ve always felt like its probably running on borrowed time. I’ve never heard of anyone keeping one anywhere near as long as you have! May the kitchen gods continue to bless your beloved family icebox!

    Reply
    • Hey Evilsquirrel,
      I haven’t heard the word “icebox” in forever. My dad refers to what his family had as an “icebox” when he regales us with tales from his boyhood. I think at the time, they actually put big blocks of ice in it. Where they got the ice from? I haven’t a clue. I’ll have to ask him the next time I see him. I’d say twelve years is a pretty good run after reading some of the others’ comments. As far as I’m concerned, I plan on keeping it as long as it works and can be fixed whenever something goes wrong. Thank you for the blessing. I hope your “icebox” continues to be equally blessed. 🙂 Mona

      Reply
      • You must have never watched The Three Stooges! They used to have ice delivery men back in the day who’d haul those big blocks out of their truck and into your lukewarm icebox for you. Another exciting career eliminated by progress….

        Reply
        • Evil,
          Loved the Three Stooges! My question is, where did the ice delivery men get those big blocks of ice? Who and how did they make ice back in the day? LOL. Mona

          Reply
  2. David’s remark about his thick Texas accent to put Dmitri at ease has endeared David to me forever. You got you a good ‘un there. (But hey, you know that!)

    Reply
    • Hey Lille,
      It sounds like you’re settling into your new digs. I’m glad it’s working out for y’all. And you don’t have to tell me twice, I agree about David. Of course, there are those moments…LOL. M

      Reply
    • Hey Lee,
      Should I be nervous? I mean would you have fixed “that sucker” or would David and I have been the suckers after you and YouTube left us in a “fix?” Ha! See what I just did there? I’m sure you would have done at least as good of a job as Varden and probably much better! What was your phone number again? Ya know, just in case. Mona

      Reply
  3. A 30 year old refrigerator! I can’t even imagine. We’ve been here 20 years and have had 2. As for brands, one was GE and it wasn’t that great but our current one is Kitchen-Aid and I like it. Nothing fancy though, just keeps beer and other items cold.

    Reply
    • Ally,
      And see? Our refrigerator is a GE. We also have a GE out in our garage that’s at least 25 years old. Times they do change. I’ll keep Kitchen-Aid on the list for the future though. Also, I’ve always wanted a Kitchen-Aid…mixer that is. So if we end up getting a Kitchen-Aid fridge, I might just have to slip in the mixer (cobalt blue.) Glad yours is keeping everything chill. 🙂 Mona

      Reply
  4. Well Mona, your life is definitely an adventure! And that’s a good thing, now how can anyone write about a peeing fridge and a guy named Dimitri all in one?!?! I mean it’s like your writing a sitcom, a good old fashioned sitcom. Dimitri the Bouncer Fridge Dude meets Mona and David….from TEXAS! lmao. Okay at your end it might not have been that funny just a stress filled headache, to add to more stress to that stress sundae of yours. Man, I just bought my house and it came with the appliances, which don’t match by the way. Now I’m going to keep an eye out hoping my fridge doesn’t pee on my kitchen floor.

    Reply
    • Hey Huntress,
      All I know is that between your life and mine…if it’s not one thing…then it’s your mother or my father! LOL. As to how I ended up writing this? Well, all I can say is that truth provides the best stories because I sure as hell couldn’t come up with this out of my own head. Also, if your fridge starts peeing, just remember, the drainage line is probably the culprit! Don’t let any repair guy convince you he needs to put his hands on your gasket! Mona

      Reply
  5. I’m surprised that your insurance company and the repair service didn’t just tell you to replace it. I’ve had nothing but Kenmore refrigerators from Sears, because there’s always a Sears around. Only not so much any more. Not that I’d every buy one, but those ‘see through door’ fridges look awesome – especially if you have kids who just gaze at the contents without selecting anything. My best wishes for it’s continued good health!

    Reply
    • You know what Barbara?
      It’s been so long since I’ve even been to an appliance store…do they even have those anymore? I’m not even sure what features the new refrigerators have, but I can tell you this much, I bet they load them up with features that we really don’t need, just so they can charge an arm and a leg for them. No thanks. I want a sturdy, hardworking clean machine that will do its job for decades to come. Thank you for your best wishes. As I said before, I’m hoping that it continues to work for another thirty years. Actually, I think David said he got this refrigerator in 1988, when he bought this house. So the refrigerator pre-dates me as well. Ry was born in 89 and Lauren in 90. Ry’s 32. So, yeah, I guess our fridge is about 33 years old. I think David bought well. Mona

      Reply
    • Boo,
      Well! I don’t have to take this standing up! Wait a minute…let me go sit down. Okay. Pppbbbssstttt! *grabs remote control and turns TV on*

      Reply
  6. So much to comment on here. We also have a home warranty company and depending on what our problem has been I either love them or hate them. Currently, I’m fairly pleased with them because when our AC went out early in the summer (before it got hot, luckily) they were responsive and fixed the issue on the same day they came out. Don’t ask me about the hot water heater at Thanksgiving or the stove at Christmas…I still haven’t recovered from those nightmares.

    As for your vintage refrigerator? Keep that sucker going as long as you can. Today, we live in a “disposable” society. Everything made now is made the “planned obsolescence” in mind, i.e., it’s cheaper to replace than to fix it.

    Also, I just read an interesting article this morning about the “right to repair.” This particular article focused mainly on technology, but also referenced farm equipment. And, I imagine, this pretty much applies to everything. Basically, it said that everything today has some kind of software that helps it run and the manufacturer’s will only allow repairs by “authorized techs.” And that’s where I kind of lost the thread of the story. But somehow, in order to become authorized techs, these small repair places end up losing money and somebody (who, I don’t know) is hoping to somehow get legislation in place to force manufacturers to open things up so things can be repaired.

    I have pretty much decided that anything I buy – appliance, car, etc. – going forward will be as low tech as possible.

    Reply
    • LA,
      Appliances…shampliances. Glad you were entertained and I appreciate your good wishes in regard to our refrigerator. 🙂 Mona

      Reply
  7. Gigi,
    That’s fascinating and you’re right. Things are made to break down and then you have to have an authorized dealer work on whatever or its warranty becomes invalidated. So much easier to just buy a new whatever it is that’s broken…if you have the funds. Crazy, crazy world. I’m with you, low tech rules in my book! Several years ago, I wrote about our staycation when our upstairs air conditioner went out. You can read about that here if you want. https://www.waywardsparkles.com/camp-roughing-it/ Geez that was written five years ago? Five years flown. And while my oven didn’t go out on me at Thanksgiving, my computer, which had all of my Thanksgiving recipes went out on me. Macaroni Grill made a surprisingly good Thanksgiving meal that year…and no one really knew they were even open. Now I’m hungry for their sausage stuffing and roasted Brussel sprouts with balsamic glaze. Yum. I hope you do end up writing about your trials and tribulations with appliance repair. I love the way you write and I bet it would be exceptionally funny. Take care, my friend! Mona

    Reply
  8. I was reading this happily when I had to stop myself and go, why is this fascinating? She’s trying to fix her fridge… but somehow it was. I guess that’s the writer’s equivalent of a beautiful voice reading the telephone book.
    Also, the vacuum was so strong there were kids getting stuck in the fridge? LOL

    Reply
    • Sarah,
      Condensed version — Our fridge needed to be repaired. It was a pain in the ass to do, but now it’s better. LOL. I know you and Lille both sing beautifully, but trust me, you don’t want me singing about this or anything else…except maybe a little…”nausea, bloody red eyes go with nausea…my head’s gonna crack like a bank…”! (I’m headbanging at this moment…and now that song…the one I put on this post, btw, if you didn’t catch that before…is now stuck in my head…again!)

      I’m glad you caught that about the vacuum. It made me raise an eyebrow as well. I remember when they banned refrigerators from having latches on the outside, but I think Dmitri was doing a little CYA when he told us that they make fridges so they’d have “less suction” today…for safety purposes; which is why I made a point to write this. As if I would know one way or the other. And if Dmitri is Russian mafia, do you think I really want to argue about this with him? Unfortunately, when Varden replaced the gasket with one that didn’t fit the way it should, I think he screwed up the vacuum seal. Don’t think we can fix that. Ugh.

      Sarah, I so miss you and your writing. I hope you put new material out soon on your blog. I loved your comments here though. As always, not only do you get me, but you have a keen eye. Wait until I share my story about turning on our TV. It’s riveting! (I just sang “it’s riveting”…did that translate all the way to Missouri?) Heeheehee! Okay, I’ll stop now. Mona

      Reply
      • I had a strange year long dearth of creativity (certainly some of it lockdown related) but the lights seem to be coming back on upstairs… I really should do some posts again. But I tell myself that often…

        Reply
  9. From now on I will call you Squeaky because I had this funny mental image of you as Squiggy from Laverne & Shirley and David as Lenny and Dmitri as, well, Jean Reno from The Professional because my brain always crosses the streams. Hey, Dracula was technically Romanian but Bela Lugosi was Hungarian, and why did Constantinople get the works? That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
    The important thing here is your fridge doesn’t suck and “Nausea” is a great song but knowing that Dave Grohl has a teenage daughter makes me feel really old. I’d much rather think about what happens when you freeze an egg.

    Reply
  10. Christopher,
    Squiggy? Really? And Lenny? Not offended. at. all. Gotta admit, Dmitri does look like Jean Reno, though. And I hadn’t thought about it that way, but no, my fridge doesn’t suck. LOL. Also, glad you like the song, “Nausea.” So are you going to experiment and freeze an egg? M

    PS: Added in video from They Might Be Giants the “Instanbul (not Constantinople)” song/video. Thanks, Chris!

    Reply
  11. What a fun read, Mona! Proof that everything’s better with a dash of humor.

    The first house I bought came with an old ‘fridge. Ugly. I discovered they can be “painted.” I did so and for less than $100 it looked much younger and sexier. Worked like a charm, too, until one day it didn’t. Call my brother who replaced the motor and it lived on, at that point 25 yrs old. I sold it along with that house when I moved to Idaho.

    Building new in Idaho, I needed appliances. Friends were upgrading their kitchen; did I want their ‘fridge, dishwasher and micro? Hell yes! I didn’t pay attention to their age. The ‘fridge stopped freezing things a couple years ago – no more ice cream or popcicles for me. I checked its age: 26 years old. Living in a remote area, I didn’t have much hope for a reasonably-priced repair and my brother now lived a day’s journey away, so I opted to buy new.

    Having moved yet again, I’m on a new set of appliances (came with the house), all of indeterminate age but probably circa 2014 when the addition was built. Gotta say, I’m loving the huge capacity of the fridge/freezer; a much larger unit than I would have sprung for. I just hope it lives to be 25 or older and doesn’t develop any continence issues!

    Reply
    • Hey Becky or do you still prefer Rebecca at this point in your life…I mean from the blogging community? I know you’ll answer to either but I always like to call people what they prefer to be called, so…
      I hope you and your family are settling in nicely in your new home. Sounds like your appliances are behaving nicely, so that’s a good start! You are the second blogger friend I have that’s moved to Vermont this summer. Vermont must have some really great attractions. I understand they have a wonderful dog community, so I think your pups will fit in well. Also, here’s to another 25 years without incontinence issues!

      And lastly, thanks for your kind words! Big hugs to you, my friend! Mona

      Reply
    • Suzanne,
      Over time one does develop an intuitive sense about these things, especially when one watches too much TV, right? LOL. M

      Reply
  12. Well, what can I say… How ’bout “If it ain’t one thing it’s something else”? :/ I know the stress of having things go nuts and quit working properly. Story of my life. I hope your fridge stays alive a few more years and by now I hope your phone line is fixed, too!

    PS Had to laugh at your “incontinent” description! 😀

    Reply
    • Deb,
      That’s very apt. And it’s quite often two or three things at once! Ugh. Fingers crossed, spit and do the cross sign over that damned phone line. For once, I’m glad I was able to make you laugh because your Friday Funnies always make me laugh! Hugs, Mona

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  13. You, my dear, know how to tell a story! And I am beyond impressed that you and David went as far as you did to save your 30 year old fridge. That is something! About the “Nausea” video-have you seen “From Cradle to Stage” yet? It’s on Discovery + It is an awesome, I think 6 part, documentary produced by Dave and his mom. There’s one episode in particular where he’s sitting at home with his mom and Violet, and it’s just lovely. She has real talent-thanks for including that. I had never heard that song before but I’ve always been a fan of punk rock.

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    • Rhonda,
      No, I haven’t. It’s on Discovery +? I have that! Done this evening. It’s only 10:30 here. I can do this!
      Also, thanks, I’m glad you liked the story. Trust me, I’m willing to fight for this fridge. It’s doing fine at present (knock on wood, etc. ad-NAUSEUM!) Ha! Did you see what I just did? Okay, I’m done writing for the day! Off to watch Discovery +! Thanks, Rhonda! M

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