Money Pit Monday

How was your holiday? I hope it was relaxing and wonderful because ours...was not.

Crisis #1

We returned from a lovely 2 night stay at the cabin just in time to make it to most of church. Except that when we walked into the house our refrigerator was making the most horrendous noise. It was so loud it resonated through the whole first floor. It stopped intermittently and then picked back up again. We knew this was not a good sign. In fact, our fridge had been making squeaky, rattling noises for about a week already but we just hadn't found the time to get it looked at. Anyway, we addressed the situation right away--the sound was driving me crazy and stressing me out and I only had to be at church for the last hour so I could teach the YW. After Google searches, a call with Geek Squad (yes they do appliances), disassembling the back and locating the issue (the compressor fan), vacuuming everything, wiping down any surface we could reach, and unplugging and replugging-in the fridge, nothing changed. The same awful sound started right back up and swept through the house.

After making it to just one hour of church, we camped out in the basement away from the noise. And since we had left Joseph's car at work during the weekend we headed over to Draper to retrieve it--a nice little outing on a Sunday evening--away from the noise of our fridge. The kids and I had never seen Joseph's office so we went inside and had a short tour of the new space. When it was time to head home the kids were cranky and demanding their daddy. So Joseph tossed me his keys and sent me to drive home in peace in his fancy Cadillac while he drove the crazies in our family car.

Crisis #2

It was a lovely and quiet ride home. So lovely in fact that I decided to take a small detour and drive about a mile past my house up to the Black Ridge Reservoir--the swim site for next month's triathlon. I had only seen the lake once and wanted to check it out again. I should have just headed for home because just before I pulled into the parking lot I got pulled over. For speeding. On a road I have never even driven on before. And I had no wallet with me--left it in the other car. I tried to explain that it wasn't my car, I wasn't used to its power and I didn't know the streets up there...but the cop had no sympathy for me in my hubby's sleek car--none at all. And I was presented with a speeding ticket.

I came home to the awfully annoying fridge, found my hubby and cried on his shoulder. Actually, I always cry when I get a ticket. It's so pathetic but true--like I am a little kid in big trouble. It has been 5 years since my last speeding ticket so I was sad to have one on my record again...but I guess I was due (I do drive too fast...)

Crisis #3

Back to the loud refrigerator--after the speeding ticket I was fed up and tried to figure out how to simply quiet the thing down. I finally tried some WD-40 and it worked like magic--still making suspect noises but on a much quieter level. I was thrilled and knew we could sleep through the night without an angry rattling appliance.

A repairman arrived at noon on Monday and informed me that while he was checking things out the fan had died altogether and that my fridge was right then and there rendered useless. He ordered a new part arriving in the timely manner of one week away. Until then, a useless fridge. Perfect.

And we spent the rest of our holiday researching for and eventually buying a newer, smaller fridge for our garage. We have wanted to do this for a while to store extra goods and bulk items. But today, when we were forced to do so AND pay for repairs on our current fridge--it felt like an expensive let down rather than a useful investment.

To deal with all of the extra--I don't know what to call it except "stuff" (stress, unexpected errands, fines for speeding, worrying and rearranging) I went for a midday, hot and sweaty, good, hard 10 mile bike ride. I think I may have punished myself a little and ridden faster than normal on a route I am not used to but it felt great. I needed to work out the physical part of me to let go of the drama. And it helped a lot.

Now we have a nice new fridge in the garage stocked full of our perishables. Say hello to our new garage mate:

A huge thank you to Tim Freiss for 1) living in Herriman 2) being home today 3) needing to head to Lowe's yourself yesterday and 4) taking Joseph with you in your big truck so we could purchase a new fridge and get it home pronto.

Thank you, Cec, for being related to such cool people.

Thank you for even reading to this point. My sad little adventures seem pretty insignificant in the large scope of things--so I'll take them.