Is Your Refrigerator Running?

 Do you remember that old prank phone call from when we were kids? The caller would ask, "Is your refrigerator running?" You would reply, "yes" and then the caller would promptly reply, "Then you'd better run and catch it."

Well, yesterday, the answer for me would have been "no." When we first moved into this apartment I threw a few condiments and other random food that we hadn't eaten before leaving Syracuse into the fridge and a gentleman who was helping us move in told me that I should probably check to make sure that the fridge was working. I opened the door and saw that the light was on. It wasn't super cold in there but I figured that it had just been plugged in or something and wasn't concerned. I was more concerned with getting everything moved into our new home. The next morning we opened the fridge and it still wasn't cold - uh oh. Turning it up didn't help and we realized that we hadn't heard it run since moving in. We pulled it out, made sure it was plugged in, plugged it into a different outlet, etc and it still didn't turn on. Finally, Glenn turned it all the way down then turned it up and we heard the compressor kick in - yay!

Well, last night, we ate late and then the kids asked for ice cream before bed. Normally I would have said, "no" because that is just about always my first response. Instead I said, "sure." They pulled the ice cream out and it was completely melted - oh no! Glenn asked if I had noticed and said, "Maybe that is why the milk tasted a little funny tonight." We stuck a thermometer in the fridge and it said 60 degrees. Not good. (And our power didn't even go out yesterday like some people's did here in NY since we didn't have the heavy snow to take out power lines.) On playing with the dial we were able to coax the compressor to start working again sluggishly but I'm not sure if I can trust it.

Glenn recommended that I call Lynn to see if she had space in her fridge for some of our stuff since she had reprimanded me for not using her washer last week. She said that she did so we emptied our fridge and freezer. We plugged in the chest freezer in the basement and threw the freezer stuff that hadn't thawed yet in there, started cooking up some of the raw meat that had thawed, ran some of our fridge stuff over to Dan and Lynn's house, came home, bagged up the cooked meat and threw it in the chest freezer, and went to bed much later than I had planned.

On reflecting last night I was reminded of the biography of Joy Ridderhof that we read earlier this year. She said, "Are you rejoicing? Remember, the hard things make good rejoicing practice." This is definitely not one of the harder things that we've ever gone through but it is still an opportunity to practice so here is a short list of things that I came up with to be thankful for:
* I said "yes" to ice cream which helped us find out that we had a problem (not sure when I would have found out other wise as I don't really pay that much attention, just assume that things are cold.)
* Dan and Lynn made space in their fridge for some of our fridge stuff
* We have the chest freezer that Grandma & Grandpa Reynolds bought us back when they visited us we lived in Houghton (which we are still SO thankful for!) and it cools VERY quickly (it was 20 degrees in there before finally I went to bed last night)
* We didn't make the trip up to Aldi that I had considered doing yesterday since Glenn had left the van at home. I am, unfortunately, a hoarder in all areas, including food, so we could have had a lot more stuff that I would have been looking for places for!
* The fridge seems to be working again since what was left of our milk that Glenn had put in the fridge top freezer was frozen this morning. We'll have to keep an eye and an ear out for it though.
* I took an opportunity to ask for help (I hate asking for help. Asking for help implies that I need help which implies that I am not perfect... Stinking pride.)

I think we'll still need to contact the landlord. Not sure if the fridge is her responsibility, since it came with the place, or ours. Buying a fridge is not high on my list of things to do since all the rentals we've ever lived in have come with one (besides our very first apartment) but I'm trusting God either way.

So... is your refrigerator running? You better go check ;)