The Adventure of the Appliances

The refrigerator and dishwasher were supposed to arrive last Friday. Two days before, Home Depot called to tell us that the refrigerator would not be arriving, but had been backordered and would be here in mid-September. The dishwasher was not delivered either. The dishwasher installation man called to tell us he was running late, and we said, “No problem. There’s nothing here to install,”  We  all laughed and he was relieved as he was behind schedule. T

The dishwasher arrived Wednesday, but now cannot be installed until August 5.  This is not a real problem. I still remember how to wash dishes. Hhowever, going another six weeks without a refrigerator  to keep the cat’s insulin refrigerated – and provide ice cubes for gin and tonic, of course  – was a little more intimidating. Rather than go out to buy ice every day for the picnic cooler, we decided to buy a mini-fridge. I told Ron we would donate it to a worthy cause when we finally had our own up and running, and that he wasn’t supposed to get attached to it. Famous last words.

It will  be interesting to see if this adventure takes on the epic proportions of The Wrong Stove:

The Wrong Stove delivered from Sears to our first house in Corner Brook in 1989 just before Christmas and our flight to Calgary.  We ordered a white stove with solid elements, not a grey one with regular element. We didn’t mind eating out for a couple of days before going to Calgary, but then the Right Stove was back ordered for two months.  

After I complained, Sears told us to use the Wrong Stove in the meantime. Eventually The Right Stove arrived but  the oven failed immediately.  By then, Sear’s had discontinued  their local repair line. The dispatcher on the mainland thought the repair man would be able to pop in right after a job in Burgeo, not grasping that Burgeo was not a suburb of Corner Brook. It’s a remote outport,  almost 3 hours away on a desolate road. When the repair man finally arrived, he  declare the computer chip that controlled the oven and the timer was DOA. Remember the days when timers died within a year, but ovens went on for years.  Now everything dies within 10 years.

A week later, the repair man arrived with the part. Just as he  started to work,  a young starling flew up from the celler and into the kitchen.  The repair man went into shock. Turns out he was seriously ornithophobic. While he cowered in the corner, I found a large basket, cornered the bird, got it into the basket and released it outside. Puir wee thing – it was a frigid day and the bird had come down the chimney into the celler. They do that.  I calmed down the repair man and sent the story to Sears. I  told them I was a storyteller, and if they didn’t do something to help feel better about the whole thing  I would keep telling my story.  The $25 gift certificate didn’t do it . And Sears is no more.  If they had simply offered us a deep discount to keep the Wrong Stove, which probably would have been a better stove in retrospect, I wouldn’t have had the story.