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Wednesday, February 11, 2004
I AM WOMAN HEAR ME ROAR part 3
Ah, the joy of gold-member referral stats. How would my life have been complete if I hadn't known that someone found my diary after Googling for "pee for ages"?
With that out of the way, I have to say that I have conquered yet another Tim-Allenish household job. My refrigerator had been leaking for years -- the water from the automatic defrosting cycle would, instead of going placidly down its little pipe into the evaporation tray in the back of the fridge, leak down into the fridge, through the two openings intended to be air vents to allow the cold air to circulate between the freezer and the refrigerator. I don't think I could have made that any more complicated-sounding, but I can try if you really want me to. Anyway. What this meant was that I had to have pitchers under those vents to catch the drips or else wind up with puddles of water in and around the refrigerator. I finally (after two years or so -- this started, of course, just after the fridge's warranty ran out) got fed up with this and called a repairman. He said it would cost us $60 for him to come out and run a wire through the pipe to clear out whatever's blocking it. My pupils dilated -- I could feel an I AM WOMAN HEAR ME ROAR moment coming on -- and I began to plan my attack. I emptied the fridge/freezer, defrosted it, found the drain tube, and ran an altered plumbers' snake down it -- and our refrigerator is now potty trained, so to speak. I have informed my husband that I will accept payment of the $60 in bookstore expenditures. :)
Gee, I wonder what Google hits that paragraph will eventually rack up...
Being the Master of the Leaking Fridge helped put me in a better mood yesterday; this was helped along by the fact that I am having an almost nesting-style organizational surge. I have cleaned all the fingerprints and goop off the fronts of half of my kitchen cabinets and drawers (I'll finish this tonight); I moved some infrequently-used-but-really-important stuff from my kitchen to the kitchen in our apartment next door, so that I could reorganize my cabinets; I bought and installed new shelf liner which involved much pleasant organizing; I designated a spot inside a cupboard for my husband's lunchbox/briefcase which will hopefully help us to keep countertop clutter under control. I do still have to clean out the catchall cabinets above the refrigerator (what designer's quirk, I wonder, caused them to make that cabinet without a door?) and under the sink. But overall I'm very pleased with the progress I've made toward a Susan-ish uncluttered airy kind of house, even if we are going to be stuck with the 70's-bachelor-pad-style knotty pine walls. I can at least improve what we have, even if I can't have (sigh) perfection. ;-)
