Death Of an Appliance

I decided to finish the Frosted Mini Wheats for breakfast this morning and end my binge on sugary cereal. However when I pulled the carton of milk out of the fridge, it didn't slosh, it sludged. Uh oh. I knew we'd been having a problem with the freezer--the ice cream bars weren't (bars) and the ice cream wasn't (iced). But apparently the whole unit is giving up the ghost. I could have called a repairman, but I think--though I am not sure--that this fridge might have been the fridge we had when I was a teenager. Maybe not, but it is an OLD unit. So instead of repairing it, we decided to replace it. I went online, and then the ruralness of our situation became apparent and Dave and I drove to the Home Depot in Kalispell and picked one out.

I had to face the hard reality that we are truly in the boonies here when I tried to order one online and have it delivered and I got the message, "We're sorry. Appliance delivery isn't offered to your area. Your nearest store may be able to offer other arrangements." So I couldn't get free delivery--or any delivery at all for an on-line purchase--but we were able to go into the store, pick from 3-4 models in the basic style we wanted that they had in stock, and schedule delivery for Thursday. We could have picked from a wider selection had we been willing to wait, but what they had was more than good enough. And for $48 they will deliver, unpack, set-up and install (water line) the new one and haul away the old one. I call that a steal of a deal.

On the way home we stopped at the Tamarack Brewing Company in Lakeside for lunch. They have some of the best food and best beer on the lake. It's too bad that Lakeside is right outside of Kalispell and so clear on the other end of the lake from us (about a 45 minute drive). Wish they were in Polson. They also had a gorgeous firepit outside made by Big Sky Backyards. I looked them up and fell in love with the the one below. Someday it might adorn the garden at Stone's Throw.

As we are mostly sans fridge, we will be eating out for a few days. Or Dave could shop daily for fresh food and we could pretend we're Europeans who grocery shop everyday and who neither store much nor have big refrigerators. I will, however, see if the neighbors can keep our ice cream for us till Thursday. And I can't wait to have ice and water in the door again!!!!! The old Kenmore certainly didn't have it (its ice maker hasn't even worked for the past few years) nor does the Thermidor fridge at Stone's Throw have ice or water in the door. Come to think of it, we didn't even have ice in the door in Atlanta--just water. We haven't had a fridge with ice and water in the door since Jessie was one and we lived in Austin the first time! Oh I am going to enjoy this.