Thursday, March 11, 2010

the life cycle of . . . refrigerators.

so today . . . for a short time, we were in possession of three refrigerators. yes, three.

for as long as i can remember, we have had either an extra refrigerator or freezer in the garage. i can hear you all asking, "why?" it does seem superfluous for a family who doesn't really cook all that much to have so much cold storage. but we need it. really. trust me.

i like to have a freezer full of food. and when you shop at costco and are only feeding a few people, you had better have a freezer, because all of the food comes in BIG bags. so i fill up my freezer and promptly forget what is in there . . .

this is easy to do, because the extra appliance is always kept in the garage, so i am not looking in it every day. and besides, i sort of think of that as "emergency food," which means i am sort of "not allowed" to eat that food unless there is an emergency. and so far, we haven't had an emergency. but as you all know, food does not last forever in the freezer. and yet, in my brain, it does . . . until i have to defrost the freezer, at which point i realize the truth and have to throw stuff out. and then replace it, with every intent of remembering what i put in there. and then i don't, and the cycle continues . . .

i have learned that, for me, it is much better to have an extra refrigerator. we all know that food doesn't last forever in the refrigerator, so it has a much better chance of actually being eaten. but the extra room allows me to stock up on tillamook cheddar cheese, whole grain tortillas, yogurt, and eggs, which means fewer trips to costco. and since refrigerators have small freezers, i can also stock up on frozen meatballs . . . and fudgesicles!

but the extra refrigerator in our garage stopped working a few months ago, so decisions had to be made. what to do, what to do . . . it was finally decided that maybe the kitchen should get a new refrigerator, and so today was the day--the great refrigerator rotation.

our delivery time was set for 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. everyone who has ever waited for a repairman or delivery knows that 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. means that they will arrive at 3:55p.m. everyone. so my plan was to race home at 1:00 and empty the current refrigerator during my lunch half hour, and then race back to school leaving rollie to wait for the delivery. i thought most of the food would stay cool enough until the new refrigerator arrived.

but my plan was thwarted when the delivery guys pulled up in front of the house at 12:35 p.m.--just before rollie got there . . .

when he arrived, rollie apparently raced into the house and started tossing food from the refrigerator onto the kitchen counters, while distracting the delivery guys by having them move the old, dead refrigerator out of the garage. then he had them move the now empty refrigerator from the kitchen into the garage, which had to be done anyway before they could move the new one in. by the time i made it home at 1:00, the rotation was complete, and the new one was in place in the kitchen, plugged in, and hooked up to the water--because this new refrigerator has water and ice in the door. (i know that is not a new feature any more, but it is new to us!)

our delivery and installation guys were awesome!

so my new plan became putting the food back into the new refrigerator during my lunch half hour. which was a challenge, because we went from a refrigerator with the freezer on the top to a side by side unit, so i had to think about how to put stuff into those tall, skinny, deep spaces. i was trying to make logical choices about where everything should go, but it wouldn't all fit in! as i was standing there looking at the pile of fast food packets (you know, ketchup, hot sauce, ranch dressing . . . yeah, i know you are thinking, "just throw them out!" but if there was an emergency . . . ) when rollie came into the kitchen and said, "is there anything you want me to put in the refrigerator out in the garage?"

:)

oh yes, i had forgotten. now we have a refrigerator in the garage. i quickly filled his arms with cheese, whole grain tortillas, and yogurt. and fast food condiments.

i can hardly wait for my next trip to costco . . .

2 comments:

mom said...

Interesting!! I am sitting here waiting for a delivery to be made between 2 and 5 today. However, I don't have to do anything but wait and I'm sure it will be closer to 5 than 2 as they are making 4 deliveries in Salem first.....Enjoy the new fridge...

Wendy said...

Rollie is a saint for living with you all these years with NO home cooking!