Power And The Big Chill

Well, I fell kinda silly now. But at least the fridge is working. And I have a story to tell!

Last night about ten thirty the fridge stopped working. I discovered it at about midnight when I went to get my third meal of the day. (My schedule is weird.) My brother had discovered it an hour or so before me, but didn't bother telling me. (I know this because he said so when I told him about it.) He suggested that we put all our frozen food into a cooler chest with some stuff to keep it cold. Now this would have kept the frozen food frozen for three, maybe four hours. Luckily it was below freezing out last night. So I quickly stuffed all the frozen food that would fit into a Coleman camp cooler that I usually use to keep things cold on the way home from the store and set it outside. There was part of a bag of frozen veggies left that wouldn't fit. In the meantime, said my brother, we'll just keep the fridge door closed. (My brother is a pie-eyed optimist about things that need to be fixed.)

This morning I checked the part-bag of frozen veggies; part-thawed, not good. I put it back as a way of checking how thawed the fridge was getting. Then, just in case, I washed my hands at the kitchen sink. That's when I noticed that the radio was have under the kitchen cabinets was also off. I checked the clock on the wall above them; it wasn't running! Now why would all three items, nominally plugged into the same outlet not have power? So I examined the outlet. That's when I remembered what I'd done several years ago. There weren't enough outlets for everything we wanted to plug in; the fridge, the clock, the radio and a fluorescent lamp over the kitchen sink to wash dishes by. So instead, I'd plugged a power bar into the outlet and everything else into that.

I pushed the switch on the power bar. The clock started running, the radio came on and when I opened the fridge door, the light came on. The fridge didn't start pumping heat out of itself right away. As I started on breakfast though, I heard the compressor softly buzzing. I went and fetched the Coleman off the front porch and stuck the frozen food back in it.

Thank goodness! I had trouble sleeping last night wondering where I'd find the money for a new fridge!