More bad news...or is it?

The day after my van died, our refrigerator died. Like my car issues, the refrigerator has always been a thorn in my side. Let me count the ways:

• Tom purchased it while I was out of town. I had no idea what it looked like.
• The seal around the freezer broke. We had it repaired.
• The ice maker kept freezing underneath the catch bin. We had it repaired.
• That repair did not fix the problem. Every week we had to take off the bin and defrost it.
• The dispenser on the front door dripped water. I always had streaks.
• It didn't hold much food.
• It was hard to clean (although that was more due to our small space than the refrigerator)

I swore I would never purchase a side-by-side refrigerator. Yet, somewhere between my old and my new one, I changed my mind. It was a mistake. Why I thought there would be more room is beyond me. Unfortunately, there isn't. Don't kid yourself.

The repairman appeared. He was a man of few words. That is until he saw the magnet on our refrigerator from Oleg's family. Then, his whole face lit up with joy.

Him: "That's Ukraine!"

I explained how my daughter was dating someone from Ukraine. He told me that was where he was from. We were buddies from then on. He first thought the problem was simple. I waged internally with this news.

Me: "This is good. We have car problems that are going to cost an arm and a leg. We can't afford another expense. But I hate that refrigerator. It doesn't work. Why can't the damn thing die? No! No! We need this to be an easy fix!"

Things like that. 

He had to pull the refrigerator out from the wall, and he wasn't keen on letting me sweep behind it. So every time he disappeared to his truck, I'd take a stab at cleaning up the dust bunnies and various nonsense that had fallen behind the refrigerator. I washed all of the internal pieces that he took out. I was quite the little helper. Meanwhile, my food, which was semi still frozen, was defrosting on my kitchen table.

Then the repairman announced the problem was not simple. He had defrosted the refrigerator to where it worked, but the part we needed would be $500, and it would take six weeks to arrive. I called the hubby and handed him the phone. They discussed it. Tom asked for his opinion. Fix or not? I crossed my fingers and internally hoped for not, and when that came out of my Ukrainian friend's mouth, I happy danced around the kitchen.

Yes, people, I was happier about getting a new refrigerator than I was about getting a new car. Ah, the life of a housewife!

I immediately jumped on researching and had several picked out to look at when we got to Home Depot. Tom had one in mind that the finance guy at the dealership had suggested. When Home Depot's employees were not helpful--or courteous--we went to Lowe's, where we had a delightful, helpful employee. In less than fifteen minutes, we were the proud owners of a new appliance. And yes, it was the one Tom wanted. But, in my defense, it was on sale and AVAILABLE THE NEXT DAY!! 

It doesn't exactly fit in our small space. It encroaches past the door leading to our garage, and despite the removal of the molding and other stuff on the wall, it is a problem we decided we could live with. We did discover that a roller was missing from the drawer in the refrigerator, but Lowe's assured us they would bring out a new drawer the following day. 

Instead, they brought us another refrigerator. I'm not kidding. When the lady called to tell us this was how they did things--and she was scoffing and rolling her own eyes at admitting this--we told her there was no way in hell we weren't just taking the drawer. 

Which we did. The delivery people loved us. And I love my new refrigerator, even though I never use the knock-knock feature for the light to come on so that I can see what's inside my refrigerator even before opening it.

I also did not hug my old refrigerator like I did my van. I shouted good riddance and then happy danced all around the house.

But that's it. Nothing else can break. Seriously.