And It Kept On Going

 I left off last post - Sunday - with my power restored an all well in the world.
I didn't get into the fridge much on Sunday - after a long power outage it's best to keep the door closed as much as possible until the temperature can balance out again.  I had cleaned out the lump of ice in the freezer, and it was happily spitting out cubes again, and everything was properly frozen.

Monday I had planned to take care of a few things and then head down to the cottage - I've set myself the challenge to see if I can make a puppet of Rocky (the alien) from Project Hail Mary) from Amazon boxes and hot glue.  This seems like a fun way to spend Memorial Day and maybe push back a little on the memories when this day would have meant getting up way too early, putting on my Rosie the Riveter outfit, waving to crowds in the parade while Bob drove the jeep, and later joining all the other military vehicle people for the buffet at Golden Corral.

 But I go to get the milk for breakfast, and I realize that it's cool - but not cold.  I toss in a thermometer - it's a little over 60 degrees instead of the required less than 40.  I set the temperature to go colder and shut the door.

I check back in awhile - nothing happening.  I spend some time Googling, then I empty the freezer top and bottom to aim a hair dryer at the air flow vents to be certain there is no ice blocking them.  I have to spend a certain amount of time pulling stuff from the fridge and sorting it into a couple of ice chests.  Then I shut the door and give it some time.  Nothing.

I unplug the fridge for 15 minutes then plug it back in again (my mind playing the line from the IT crowd of "did you try turning it off and turning it back on again).  Gave it some time.  Nothing.

Not much else to do, and it's still a holiday.  So this morning I call the repair place, and I'm lucky in that the tech had a cancellation and was out there in a couple of hours, and the problem is that the little motor that controls the vent and airflow from the the freezer to the fridge has burned out.  It's not a terribly complicated fix - if they had the part in stock, which they don't.  So I'll be living out of the ice chests for a couple of days (thank goodness for the freezer - I can just keep rotating ice blocks in and out).

Now for a spot of lunch and head out to the cottage.  Except that I get a text from Suzie wondering if there is anyway I can come in this afternoon.  They didn't have any volunteers, were short on  staff, and a big donation of produce was coming in from Cosco.  So I went in, helped offload from the truck, and sorted good from needs-to-be-trashed.

The good part about helping out on a Costco day is that after we sort and stuff our fridges, and have made up boxes to donate to other animal rehabbers, there's still a lot left over that we can take.  I normally load up - for both me and the chickens.

I don't have a fridge.

So now I have my two regular sized ice chests and two smaller ice chests on the kitchen floor and a path around them.

Awkward, yes.  Inconvenient, certainly.  In the grand scheme of disasters - not so bad.

Maybe tomorrow will be quiet.