Yes, I DO Know It Seems Like An Unneccessary Fuss Over A Refrigerator!

However, people who have known me for the better part of my adult life understand exactly why a cheap fridge, economy model, no added extras, is a thrill for me; why simply having a shelf to divide the freezer compartment in two is a huge deal.  When you have lived in as many dumps, dives, tenements and church manses, (which are sometimes interchangeable with the first 3 types of housing listed) as we have over the past 50 years, a refrigerator that arrives with the packing tape still wrapped around the doors, a refrigerator that is new and clean and has never before been used by anyone other than myself is an amazing blessing indeed.

We have lived in places with carpets so old they were not only fraying at the edges, but had huge spots of rust, animal defecation stains and open holes in the centre of them.  We have had stoves that only had one out of four burners that worked, ovens that allowed us to play the "let's guess what temperature I am actually set at" game, dishwashers that didn't have access to sufficient water pressure to clean the dishes and had to be abandoned, mouse infestations, cockroach infestations, moth infestations, buckling linoleum, holes in the walls, broken kitchen cabinet doors and handles, chronically leaking pipes, rusted out sinks, stained cracked toilets, torn curtains, shattered window blinds, broken windows and tub faucets, torn siding and roof shingles, missing eavestroughs, counter tops that were so stained that no amount of bleach or scrubbing would clean them properly, furnace ducts filled with all manner of things people had dropped down into them in, those things catching and hanging onto huge batts of dust, dangerously broken wooden steps and decking, rusted out clothes washers and a dryer that gave us electric shocks upon using due to electrical insulation problems in the house, and my favourite of all....a connecting passageway between a manse and our church that had a giant hole in the roof where the rain fell through in such huge gushing torrents and the snow formed such deep drifts under that hole that we had to wear our coats, hoods up,and boots to race through the passageway between the buildings, (even a shovel needed to be used on occasion to clear the way), if we had some good reason not to take the long way around the outside of both buildings. Most all of these places were considered acceptable accommodation for us either due to chronic illness induced financial issues making rent next to impossible to come up with for any better sort of accommodation, or "in the name of ministry", which made those places a lot easier to take.

This list is NOT a complaints list, we made the best of each place and we did have a break for a few years after we built our own house before illness struck again. We are quite good at making the best of such situations and have become fairly skillful at it, thankfully. This post is simply a statement of facts to explain why I am so apparently unreasonably ecstatic with yesterday's delivery to our kitchen. 

Yeah....a brand new fridge, no matter how basic it may be, IS a huge thrill for me and I don't mind admitting it. I am DELIGHTED to have it and am grateful, grateful, grateful!!  I know most of you who have known me over the past few decades totally understand. And may the rest of you never, Lord willing, experience reasons of your own to understand.  Amen!

Playing With My BRAND NEW Refrigerator!

My husband just got into his beddy-bye for an afternoon nap after a very busy day of walking a few kilometres to doctor's appointments, cleaning hundreds of dead mosquitoes off our car after our Sunday trip out of town, (yes, the little turkeys are still hanging on, invading house and car, biting like crazy while we await a good hard overnight freeze to finish them off), hauling ice packs out of the old broken down fridge and helping haul it across the kitchen so our new one could be pushed into place.

Yup, we have a brand new, never before used by anyone fridge/freezer, so new the tapes were still in place to keep the veggie and cheese drawers and outside doors closed for transport.  WE ARE DELIGHTED!  

While it was having its initial hour of emptiness to cool down properly, we headed to Chuck's Roadhouse for a VERY late lunch...about 2:30pm.  (The food is good pub grub type food and their 11am to 5pm lunch menu features excellent prices for just the right sized portions of food....the Baja tacos and Cuban sandwich were delicious, although my husband said the fries could have been crispier! While we waited for our food we had a good look at the 2010 Harley Davidson bike on display....the front disc brakes were kind of new to us....fascinating to look at.)

As soon as we got home and checked that the cold level inside the fridge was correct I started removing all the frozen foods from the camper freezer so I could organize them properly. This new freezer compartment has a SHELF so it was much easier to arrange the foods and separate the meats from the breads and veggies while the small bags of frozen herbs and fruit fit easily into the two shelves in the door.  The main refrigerator unit is just slightly smaller than our old fridge, BUT the two inside the door shelves are twice as wide. They held what the old door shelves held, plus all the other condiments and jams and sauces that didn't fit in the door of the old fridge. So, plenty of space even with the cheese saver drawer tucked into the shelving in the centre of the unit.  A quick wipe off of the exterior to remove a bit of dust and another quick wipe inside the fridge before it got cold, then the joy of having a NEW REFRIGERATOR had me laughing and crying at the same time.  I do not remember the last time we had a brand new fridge in any of our previous rental homes and we started renting in 2001!!  Twenty-five years of well used fridges and freezers. What a blessing this new unit is. 

Yesterday I had a long distance chat with an Island friend who told me she knew "it was a long shot and an unlikely possibility" that we would get a brand new fridge in our dilapidated unit and I agreed with her.  Well Penn....the Lord answered your prayer for us with a resounding "YES!"  And here is how it happened:  when the office manager called this morning assure us that a refrigerator had been secured she explained to me why it had not shown up yesterday when we expected it.  Turns out there was indeed a used one sitting in the warehouse that she earmarked for us and it actually was delivered: to the WRONG UNIT!!!  Since there are tenants in this unit....who no doubt wondered upon returning from work last evening why there was a different refrigerator in their home, (and what happened to the food in their old one I have no idea).....the refrigerator wasn't able to be removed from there and then re-delivered to our place, SO since it had been the only used one in the warehouse, there was no other option but to order a brand new refrigerator from their usual supplier of such newness.  THAT Is how WE ended up with a brand new refrigerator.  Penn, thank you for encouraging me yesterday to feel free to at least ask God if it was possible to receive a new fridge, even if still being prepared to accept an older one.  I didn't truly believe you and I would see that kind of answer.  (I realize there are a couple of other friends and family who also told me they were  praying for a new unit and I thank you so much and hope this answer encourages you in your prayers as much as it did me in mine.)

Oh happy day!!  We have leftovers from last night's meal at DarBar thawing for a late dinner.  It has been a blessed day.  Tomorrow the blessings continue with coffee hour with my Thursday buddy and Friday we are having friends in for dinner.  That will be a lovely start to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend! 

The weather is supposed to be less than wonderful between here and southern Alberta on Sunday into Monday of the coming week but then things should dry out and warm up a bit for our quick trip west. 

 

SLOOOOOOOWWWWLY Goes the Refrigerator Replacement, Hohoho!!

 In honour of the Cherry Cream Soda font I MUST use pink for this post!!

The saga of getting another fridge continues.  By 1pm today we realized we likely were not going to hear from the refrigeration technician, so my husband hiked across the parking lot to the office to ask what was going on.  As we suspected, the employee from the management company struggled with his English comprehension and didn't understand why we still had food in the refrigerator portion of the unit if it wasn't working, didn't realize that my husband was NOT telling him that unit was still working and didn't understand why there was over twenty dollars worth of ice slabs in plastic bins in there keeping the food sufficiently cold as to keep it all from being wasted.  He apparently told the tech that our fridge was still working so there was no rush on the order.  Sigh....why are we not surprised. Even the staff for whom English IS their first language don't seem to comprehend what we are telling them a good deal of the time. hahaha

So the office staff worker called the warehouse to see if there are any fridges in stock that are in working order. She finally got a response around 4:30pm and the response is there is a fridge and the tech will try to get it to us sometime tomorrow.  In the meantime we had to purchase another ten dollars worth of ice ($31 and counting...) after dinner tonight to get our food through safely until tomorrow until hopefully at least noon. The office staff worker begins her shift at 10:30am and will call to let us know, if she can find out that is, when the tech and the fridge will be arriving.

Unfortunately my husband has an eye appointment at 11am and will be leaving at 10:30am to be there on time. So, he will have to leave me to deal with this call, or with the tech should he arrive before or without said call. Tomorrow will mark my third day in a row of having to stay home all day waiting for assistance with the fridge.  Sigh.....I was really looking forward to going to his appointment with my husband so I could look longingly at all the expensive eye glass frames while he is in with the doctor and start thinking about what kind of frame I want to purchase after my own annual eye examination later this fall.  After accidentally sitting on my present very delicate frames that I've had only one year, they were so bent and took so much work for the frame techs to straighten out, it is unlikely I will be able to put new lenses into them safely ever again.  At present one of the original lenses is remaining in place "just kinda barely", so....guess it will be an expensive experience since I only get coverage for frames once every two years and then only if my prescription changes, which I suspect it may this time. Whatever....eyes are so important, so they are worth spending money on.

Tonight we had a wonderful time.  We met a now retired former colleague of my husband's and she treated us to a meal at DarBar.  Yum, yum! I decided to have a simpler meal tonight so ordered off the appetizer list: a chana curry with fried bread....basically a fluffy puffed up pillow of thin bread dough that was able to be dipped into their home made tamarind sauce...to die for....and then one of the best green salads I have ever had there, plus a helping of raita.  Gosh, it was a full meal even without eating both rounds of fried bread.  It was unexpectedly delicious...not a great fan of chana as a rule...and I was not expecting that amount of food from the Appetizer list. WOW!  I will order that again.

The conversation was wonderful and contrary to the last time we saw our friend, her face is smoothed of all the "worry wrinkles" from her last position in her career, she has lost weight; she looked so happy after her first year of retirement. She was cheerful and talkative.  Gosh, it was a wonderful time together.  We all look forward to getting together once again.  ( have been trying to think about what else it was that was different about her this time and it just struck me that this is the first time I have seen her without her clergy collar. She was completely clad in "civilian dress" and I can't believe how different she looks.  Incredible.)

Although it is well before 11pm I am more tired than usual tonight so am going to get to bed right away.  I think the stress over the mix up with the fridge has gotten to me, plus being stuck inside for 3 days in a row has precluded going for any long walks, so I am craving exercise.  Maybe tomorrow after the ruddy fridge arrives?  Stay tuned to the never ending saga of refrigeration!  

The End Of The Journey

The Cloisters:

Everyone who goes sightseeing in NYC needs to take the time necessary to travel to the northern end of Manhattan Island and take in this amazing collection of medieval art.  Incredible site and incredible collection. Sorry I don't have the photos I was expecting but at least you can see something of the hilly grounds and amazing building cobbled together by John D. Rockefeller to resemble an ancient monastery, which it never was.  It is now managed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Worth every hour needed to get there and every penny spent on admission.

  

The cliffs across the Hudson River

Medieval wall tapestry

Enlarge on your screen (Shift +) to read the descriptive panel

The last photo sums up the serenity I experienced throughout the trip from the time of landing at La Guardia to the moment we flew back out again:

Aaaaaaahhhhh...now THIS is a relaxing trip!

 And now it is back to regular life as we know it, waiting for the first possible snowfall and freezing rain on Thanksgiving Sunday and/or Monday! Fortunately it isn't supposed to stick around for more than a few hours....oh Lord, let that be......can I get an "Amen!"??

And That's That For Our Trip South!

 The Morgan Collection:

 

Floors.....

....and Ceilings

More from the giant collection of books

Library decor

Another shot from the library collection

The seal of King Nebuchadnezzar Reign 605 to 562 BC

The collection of royal seals and Mesopotamian jewellery certainly does give credence to the idea that J.P.Morgan was indeed a robber baron.  It is an incredible collection, that's for sure.

Still Waiting On The Fridgeman!!

 No sign of our refrigerator fellow yet so we will give management until noon, then call if we have not yet heard anything.  Our cost for ice blocks to retain sufficient cold in the refrigerator compartment has climbed over $20 as of last night and I don't want to think about how much power we will be paying for to continue running the camp freezer unit.  I know they are busy and the department is badly understaffed, but I am not interested in losing any more food than we did when we had to throw out some smaller freezer items on the weekend before the freezer unit was up and running and my husband is definitely not interested in spending any more money on ice blocks.  So....we shall see how it goes today.  

My walking partner and I were unable to spend time walking and visiting today as she is not well, but she was able to stop in long enough to pick up a book she lent to us recently and have a brief chat before she was overcome with a coughing fit and fled so that she wouldn't spread her illness to  us. Bless her heart.

I had a nice chat with an Island friend, so that was fun interlude in a busy day.

Got a bit of a sad surprise this morning: I told a friend on the weekend that I would drop by the Diabetes Canada office here in Regina and pick up some information she needs after finding out her rather high blood sugar count showing up in recent medical tests.  Surprise surprise (NOT!), this branch was permanently closed fairly recently.  After some online checking and a phone call to their central phone number all I can get my hands on here is whatever info is on the national website. While most of what I need for my friend is there, it is scattered all over the site instead of being neatly compacted into one small booklet like I was given when I was first diagnosed.  My friend is quite capable of accessing the website on her own and I sent her a list of what to look for, so hopefully she can get some more assistance from her GP about whatever may be available in her own city for written information that is more concisely organized than having to cobble it together from the many pages on the website. 

I will do one more short post with a handful of photos from The Morgan and The Cloisters and that will be it for photos.  We are appalled by the number of photos that didn't turn out well enough to post. For some reason my husband's camera has ceased to adjust the light conditions for taking photos.  Oh well.  WE know what the photos are of and our memory retention is good for now so, it will be fine. 

We are having another cool but sunny autumn day today.  I love seeing that blue sky with only a few scattered clouds.  Looks like the possibility of flurries and a bit of short lived freezing rain toward the end of the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend but then it should be clear, if cooler, again.

 

 

A Couple Of Photos From the Metropolitan Museum

Upon looking more closely at our sad collection of photos and what few decent ones I have been able to post here, I think I will wrap up with photos from only two or three more places we visited.

Today I will post a few from my evening with my son at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  We concentrated only on the Japanese ceramics and the musical instruments exhibition and most of the photos were pretty blah.  Anyway, here goes:

 

From the Ancient

To the Modern

And Everything In Between:

 

"Blow, Gabriel Blow!"

What the heck??!! Fascinating instruments!

A quick visit with two of my son's favourite paintings!

Note the perspective and also prayer shawl in the middle section.

The panel photos are too blurred to share, so if you are interested in the artists and histories of these two paintings, just move the image into Google and make your discoveries.

Have a great day everyone!

PS the maintenance man was just here to check the fridge, took some photos and did some freon tests and is now on the way to locate the person responsible for finding us and delivering a replacement fridge either today or tomorrow.  YAY....hopefully we won't have to spend a second fortune on ice packs in the meantime.