A Bit Tired of Lemondade

You know, that saying “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade”…well, I’m kind of tired of the lemonade.  And the marmalade.  And the lemon curd.  And everything else these annoying lemons bring.

Last night I came home and was getting ready to reheat some pasta that Bill had cooked earlier.

I didn’t want sauce, I just really wanted butter and grated cheese.  Sometimes, super simple is best.

So I reached for a stick of butter…and it was soft.  Inside the fridge.  Now, I know the door is somewhat “warmer” than the rest of the fridge, but it’s still normally cold enough to keep sticks of butter firm.

Lovely.

I stuck my hand into the middle of the main part of the fridge and just felt the air.

It didn’t feel all that cold, come to think of it.

Oh crap. 

(Please excuse the language.)

I thought maybe I had lost the ability to sense temperatures (why would this happen?  No idea.), so I filled a glass with water from the filtered water pitcher and stuck a thermometer in it and shut the fridge and then checked back a minute later.  (Instant read thermometers are handy.)

I’m pretty sure the 60’s aren’t food-safe temperatures.  In fact, I’m damn sure.

“Oh, Bill?  I think we have a problem here.”

He was none too pleased.  And even less so when I opened the freezer and the things on the top shelf were slightly smushy.

I dumped some things out, and we carted some things down to the smaller freezer in the basement, and I spent too much time opening the refrigerator door and staring or moving my hand to different levels, checking for thermal clues.

Yeah, thanks to me, the temp went up to 68 in a relatively short time. 

There’s a little panel of display lights at the top of the fridge as you open the door – the little buttons give you the option of making the fridge or freezer colder or less cold.  There’s also a button, which I hadn’t noticed before, that read On/Off.  Hm.  So, since sometimes when the computer’s acting funny I can just shut it off and restart it and it’s fine again, I figured why not give it a shot.

So I shut it off……………….and turned it back on.

And, weirdly, things seemed to improve – I felt a bit of freezy air wafting in through the little vent thing that comes from the freezer to the fridge.  (I looked up diagrams of fridge/freezer innards, so I know stuff now).  Maybe….

I ate my pasta, we watched a bit of TV, and went to bed with fingers and toes crossed.

That’s probably why I had weird dreams.

And – nope, nothing was any better this morning.

Drat drat drat.

So this morning I started moving more stuff out of the freezer…and after coming across many little ziploc bags of chicken bits and pieces, I figured I might as well make chicken stock.

You know how the band played while the Titanic went down?  That’s the sort of mind set I’m adopting today.  I dread the repair cost…this whole thing is messing up my day off…I sort of want to curl up in a ball and put my hands over my ears and ignore shut this all out…but none of is avoidable, so I might just as well make chicken stock.

Plus – silver lining here – I’ll CAN the stock, so it won’t have to go in the FREEZER.

YAY!

AND…there’s a bag of frozen cranberries…I’d also been thinking of making cranberry jelly for Thanksgiving…maybe I can knock that off the list as well.

I know I sound like I’m having some sort of fainting spell over a small matter, and perhaps you have the urge to throw my smelling salts at me.

But there are a lot of other lemons we’re juggling at the moment, too.  Not just this one thing.

So…like I said.  Enough with the lemons.

Summer’s over.  No more lemonade, please.

Comments

[Kris]

[sigh] Nothing like getting kicked while you're down, eh? I'll be happy to come over and help you make candied lemon peel. I've gotten pretty good at it around here. Lemons seem to be a bumper crop.

[liz]

Maybe you could switch to cherry pits? I get those all the time, someone else is getting the cherries. Chin up. And if it makes you feel any better, your blog is the highlight of my day. :)

[Jane M]

Well to make you feel ANY better, BOTH our washer and dryer crapped out the same day! Repair man came after 4 days...fixed the washer, can't fix the dryer - didn't have the parts...and don't even ask about the cost! So we did 3 loads of wash last night and hung them out to dry all around the kitchen. AAAAH at least we got our washer back - and so it goes. I feel your pain.

[Kat]

Wish I were closer. I'd be happy to hold some of your lemons for you. Then maybe I could just drop a bunch of mine?! Better yet, we could stand at the top of a hill and just toss ALL our lemons over the side and go have a coffee. Yeah. And if the barista DARES to put a little lemon rind curly bit in our espresso we'll laugh really hard and throw it right back in his face and tell him to give us chocolate instead.

[Nic]

Ugh that stinks! but at least your making the best of it.

The other day I took a cake out on delivery, 1.5 hours there and back approximately. When I came home I found my fridge door standing wide open, I never shut it after I took the big heavy cake to my car! Nothing like throwing away most of the contents of your fridge. I hope you get yours fixed soon!

[lulu]

Just wanted to give you a pat on the back for your positive and energetic response to all that. I sure sympathize. I can't seem to get the energy to tackle this mess of mine, but I sure can't whine as I'm lucky the house didn't burn down this summer. So, yup "no more lemonade" sounds like a great idea for awhile. :)
Hope you'll will be having ice-cream on the porch real soon!