When we moved into this house almost 20 years ago, we acquired a large, electricity sucking, gold, side-by-side, behemoth of a refrigerator. It was larger than life and I thought it would die any moment. This giant gold refrigerator was over 20 years old 20 years ago. These days refrigerators last only 7 to 10 years. The gold color really dated our kitchen so I covered that up with artwork, refrigerator magnets (more on those tomorrow), newborn baby pictures (of kids that are now in school), a certificate from a whorehouse in Arkansas (yeah, that was a strange tourist museum), postcards from Europe, dog photos, recipes, coupons, dog obedience certificates, school photos, and anything else I could stick on there to cover up the gold. My photo shows what the refrigerator looked like minus the clutter. The refrigerator, although old, ran very well. Ice cream stayed frozen to just the right consistency. Milk 
stayed cold. Vegetables did not freeze. Shelves on the doors were broken, the door gasket hung to the floor but the refrigerator refrigerated so I didn't replace it. Why replace something that is not broken? Because it sucked electricity? Well, that is a good point but I just couldn't throw away an appliance that still worked. And if I had thrown it away, I might have had to replace it more than once by now. I always hoped that the refrigerator would not die in the middle of summer. I wanted to be able to use the cold garage to store things temporarily. This week the dinosaur finally started to die. Although things were cold, they weren't cold enough. My sugar free Popsicle sticks pulled out of the Popsicles forcing me to eat them from the plastic sleeve and get an ice-cream headache. I don't have a refrigerator thermometer but I would guess things were about 10 degrees warmer than usual. So I decided to replace the refrigerator. Now I could have gone and gotten a new refrigerator at one of the big box stores but I didn't. I just don't like the service at those places. Instead I chose a small, local, Christian appliance store. Christian you ask? Yes, Christian. Bible verses adorn their sign on the road and their bills of sale. My produce is now blessed. I chose a much smaller, freezer on top, white, energy efficient refrigerator. I got a good price on it too. As my salesperson was writing up my bill of sale, I was contemplating how different an experience this as compared to Best Buy, Home Depot or any other big box store. I was sitting in a small office next to an old fashioned desk. The walls were covered with fake wood paneling. The salesperson used a calculator to total up my bill. While she worked another employee came in and asked, "Would you like a hot dog or a cookie?" It struck me funny and I laughed out loud. She raised an eyebrow. I apologized for laughing, "I'm sorry, that struck me funny, but it was VERY GENEROUS of you to offer, no thanks." She responded, "I also have chips!" I just don't expect a free lunch when shopping for appliances but that is what happens when you don't go to a big box store. The next day my refrigerator was delivered (no charge) and the dinosaur was hauled away (again, no charge). For the first time since I've lived here, the dishwasher, stove, and refrigerator are all the same color. The whole room looks different. My broccoli, vegie burgers, milk and oranges are cooling in my Christian refrigerator and all is well. I expect my electric bill will go way down. But in a way, I'll miss that gold dinosaur. It had seen a lot of living in it's 40 plus years of service.
stayed cold. Vegetables did not freeze. Shelves on the doors were broken, the door gasket hung to the floor but the refrigerator refrigerated so I didn't replace it. Why replace something that is not broken? Because it sucked electricity? Well, that is a good point but I just couldn't throw away an appliance that still worked. And if I had thrown it away, I might have had to replace it more than once by now. I always hoped that the refrigerator would not die in the middle of summer. I wanted to be able to use the cold garage to store things temporarily. This week the dinosaur finally started to die. Although things were cold, they weren't cold enough. My sugar free Popsicle sticks pulled out of the Popsicles forcing me to eat them from the plastic sleeve and get an ice-cream headache. I don't have a refrigerator thermometer but I would guess things were about 10 degrees warmer than usual. So I decided to replace the refrigerator. Now I could have gone and gotten a new refrigerator at one of the big box stores but I didn't. I just don't like the service at those places. Instead I chose a small, local, Christian appliance store. Christian you ask? Yes, Christian. Bible verses adorn their sign on the road and their bills of sale. My produce is now blessed. I chose a much smaller, freezer on top, white, energy efficient refrigerator. I got a good price on it too. As my salesperson was writing up my bill of sale, I was contemplating how different an experience this as compared to Best Buy, Home Depot or any other big box store. I was sitting in a small office next to an old fashioned desk. The walls were covered with fake wood paneling. The salesperson used a calculator to total up my bill. While she worked another employee came in and asked, "Would you like a hot dog or a cookie?" It struck me funny and I laughed out loud. She raised an eyebrow. I apologized for laughing, "I'm sorry, that struck me funny, but it was VERY GENEROUS of you to offer, no thanks." She responded, "I also have chips!" I just don't expect a free lunch when shopping for appliances but that is what happens when you don't go to a big box store. The next day my refrigerator was delivered (no charge) and the dinosaur was hauled away (again, no charge). For the first time since I've lived here, the dishwasher, stove, and refrigerator are all the same color. The whole room looks different. My broccoli, vegie burgers, milk and oranges are cooling in my Christian refrigerator and all is well. I expect my electric bill will go way down. But in a way, I'll miss that gold dinosaur. It had seen a lot of living in it's 40 plus years of service.
2 comments:
poor fridge, but epic post. : )
I'm glad our fridge is blessed, but it's a little weird that Jesus or God would care about how well our refrigerators running. God must have gotten annoyed by all the prank callers.
I thought about writing a post about how one loaf of bread and one can of tuna multiplied while I was gone and how the water in the Britta filter turned into wine but I don't want to offend anybody so I didn't.
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