Failing Frigidity, Fatman

Everyone knows the old SNL skit based on the reality of refrigerator repairmen who are, shall we say, on the hefty side.

This morning was spent counting the moments until I had the joy of seeing one of such pulling into my driveway--yesterday's sudden lack of coolness in the fresh food area of my fridge had made a call to the repairman necessary.

Don't we love waiting for repair folk? It brings the steady tic toc of the kitchen clock, the wonderment at how exorbitant the repair costs will be, and the certainty that, at today's prices, almost any bill will be better than purchasing a new ____.  Fill in the blank with whatever major appliance you like!

Finally the "I'm on the way" call came at 10:02 am, and at 10:32 am, his van rolled into the driveway.

Perhaps the fresh food I had socked into the contraption just the day before woudn't be completely lost--things were still, after all, somewhat cool, and the freezer was freezing right along. 

The fact that the bulb had burned out below and had been replaced to no avail yesterday when this fridge-failing adventure began was a clue--or was it?

Using my excellent Solar Fire astrology software, I set up a 10:02 am chart for his phone call to "animate chart" and let the planets rise, culminate, set, as the houses and signs turned around the circle. And with protective Jupiter rising, I hoped silently that it wouldn't turn out too badly--this ten-year-old fridge had been a good one so far and it was too young to die, wasn't it?

Still they say that only the good die young, so how many years do you multiply in fridge years to equal human years--is it similar to dog years?  7 x 10 = 70 (uh oh!)

Well, my fridge adventure turned out quite well if you call $65 "well"--and with new appliances costing upwards of $1500++, I do. For this I am thankful!

The repair guy, Mr. K, said that the coil was slightly clogged (he didn't even have to move the fridge out from the wall--I had fretted about this dilemma because what lived back there would be disturbed and heretofore begin demanding regular meals.)

Mr. K gave me hints on fridge control settings which were not set for maximum efficiency since cold distributes from the freezer downward (in this GE model), so he reset them and said, don't touch.

"Georgia is too humid to mess with the settings--they put the power-saver setting there for advertising purposes--it means nothing."

My intuition exactly!

"See this ice," he said, pulling out an ice tray, "it's frozen but the ice is CRACKED. This means the cold air isn't reaching the fresh food section."

Ah Hah! a useful clue! And suddenly cracked ice didn't seem such a bad deal at all.

Thanks, Mr. K. 

And please forget about SNL skits. They really don't do you justice.

jc 10.3.06  1:12 pm