Dead Fridge

My refrigerator died. Actually, it didn’t completely shut off but it is not longer functioning as a fully operating appliance and my food is spoiling. I believe that it needs to be put of it’s misery.

I noticed a few weeks ago that I had water in the fridge part. It was dripping off the ceiling and things that weren’t supposed to be damp were all wet. Then the freezer that is supposed to be frost-free started filling with frost.

But I was kind of willing to live with all of that because I was pretty sure that my landlord wouldn’t buy me a new fridge based on the water/frost situation alone. Then, this past weekend, things got worse.

On Friday I had cereal for dinner. I usually eat cereal or something lighter for dinner when I have a big lunch and since I had lunch with a friend, I wanted something small for dinner. But the milk tasted off. Not sour. But it just didn’t taste right. I ended up dumping half the cereal. Two hours later I was incredibly nauseous and went to bed early.

Saturday night I fixed myself some leftover spaghetti sauce and rice (my dad’s version of “spanish rice” – really, that is what he called it). It tasted ok when I was eating it. But two hours later again I was incredibly nauseous. I went to bed and about fifteen minutes later I was in the bathroom throwing up my dinner. That’s when I realized that my fridge was no longer functioning.

After church on Sunday, I began cleaning it out. I took the temperature of some of the items such as the mayo and some lunch meat and it was 55 degrees! No wonder I was getting sick.

I called my landlord and he said he would be by in the morning to measure it and get me a new one.

This morning he came by and said he would replace it with one the same size. Then he called to say that Lowes would be delivering it around noon. I put what was left in the fridge on the table and cleaned out a plastic bin for the frozen stuff.

My landlord called as soon as Lowes called him to say that they were only 20 minutes away and I cleaned out my freezer. They then came in and took out the old fridge and brought in the new one. It is clean, white and works! Much, MUCH better!

There are a few kinks. The inside of the refrigerator is smaller than my old one. I had to get rid of some of the stuff in the freezer. But I will adjust and just store less than I used to. Also they didn’t get it leveled (my floors are slanted) and so my landlord will have to come over and level it. They also didn’t get my screen door back on the house correctly (they had to remove  both doors to get it in the apartment). But my landlord can fix that also.

I have always heard the warnings that food should be kept at safe temperatures. When you are eating outside, food that is cold needs to be kept cold. Hot food needs to be heated to certain temperatures. But I didn’t pay that close of attention to it because I figured people were just being fussy and making a bigger deal out of it than they needed to. Well, they are right. If food isn’t stored at the proper temperature, it can really make a person sick! This experience guarantees that I will pay closer attention to this in the future.