The freezer froze up again. Not a huge problem, really—it’s more of an inconvenience. Thanks to the digital readout on the door, we know when it’s about to happen. The freezer side falls below zero, and the refrigerator side starts to climb into the 40s. The first time it happened, we called the repair man. We moved the contents of the freezer and the refrigerator into coolers while the repair man used a hair dryer to melt the ice. It took a couple of hours, and we paid him for the entire time. I learned a fun fact that day—the freezer side of a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer makes all the cold air and shares it with the refrigerator side. In our model, the tunnel between the two freezes up.
So the freezer froze up once more, but we had perfected the DIY repair. We bought a small refrigerator for the garage so there’s no more moving the contents into coolers. And we no longer lie on the ground to thaw the ice with a hairdryer. As it turns out, if you open both doors and wait for a couple of days, the ice melts on its own. Genius!
This is also the perfect time to clean and toss the old stuff that’s been buried away in the back of the freezer. Several years ago, my allergist recommended storing spices there. As I was checking the dates, I found a couple spices from 2017. My first thought was—2017 wasn’t really that long ago—should I keep it? I know, I know . . . gross. But admit it, 2017 doesn’t seem like that long ago – and it’s five years! I bet I can guess what you’re thinking. If the freezer freezes up regularly, how is it that spices that expired five years ago are still in the freezer? I don’t have an answer. I could produce some sort of lame excuse, but I’ll let you pick your own answer.
And speaking of time . . . Did your parents and grandparents lament how time goes by faster as you get older? Mine did. And don’t you hate it that they were right? I sure do.
When time passes so quickly, it’s easy for things to sneak up on you and catch you when you’re not ready. At our house, that thing is anniversaries.
This year, we’ve been married for 26 years. Wow, sometimes I can’t believe it either. Last year was our 25th—our silver anniversary. I didn’t get silver. I guess I should tell you that I didn’t give silver either. I think to celebrate an anniversary properly, the husband should give the wife a present to thank her for putting up with him. You may disagree, but this is where I’m coming from when I tell you that NOT getting anything silver for my 25th wedding anniversary has made me wonder what other anniversary gifts I may have been missing out on.
Did you know that there is an anniversary gift list? It tells you the proper gifts to give for every year of marriage. To my mind, this is further proof that husbands should be the anniversary gift givers. According to this list, the first year of marriage is celebrated with a gift of paper. The fifth year is celebrated with a gift of wood. The tenth year is celebrated with tin or aluminum. I guess I didn’t miss anything for the first ten years.
If you make it to year fifteen, the gifts start getting a little better. The fifteenth year of marriage is celebrated with the gift of crystal. The seventeenth year is furniture, and the twentieth year is china. Now, here we have the potential for some pretty nice stuff!
One year, my husband came up with beautiful hand carved teak chairs with leather seats. It could have been our 17th anniversary. We have some crystal and several nice pieces of china, so I guess I haven’t missed out on any gifts, all things considered.
After 20 years, the list suggests gifts only every five years. The people who compile the list must know that after 20 years of gift giving, one per year can be exhausting. They must know that time flies.