a tale of tails, tenacity, and tedium, as told by me, usually barefoot and bellowing

Friday, August 19, 2011

I Really Messed Up...

and I think it was a lesson for me...so the story begins.  Hubby finally hooked up my ice maker on my new fridge, we'll not mention how long that took.  We just had the old farm house fridge and no ice maker had ever been plumbed. 

I must mention, Hubby is about as good with a plumber's wrench as he is with a saw.  For those of you who do not know him, that's not very good.

He wanted to surprise me!  He plumbed it and for a half day waited for the water to fill...the ice-maker was turned off.  After he discovered that, he kept looking in the freezer for it to work.  He could not wait, after I was home thirty minutes, he told me, I have a surprise.  I said, ohhhhhhhh...thinking many things because this man of mine can still surprise me.  He is grinning and says, I hooked up the ice maker but it's not working. 

I go to proudly look at the empty ice maker and brag on him.  I casually ask if the water is working.  He goes into a frenzy, pulls the fridge out, checks the water line, unhooks, and drains it into a bucket.  After he puts every thing back together, I notice lots of frosty ice packs and tiny icicles hanging form the shelves...condensation does freeze.  I find the BOOK and read, ice maker will not fill until ice maker reaches 15 degrees.  How can it reach fifteen degrees when the freezer is open and someone is watching it??

He rants some, I rant back, I tell him he is a pure joy, and he says I am, too.  We head different directions.  After he goes to sleep and stays out of the freezer, the ice maker begins to work and has been working ever since.

My pay back for being mouthy met me at work.  We had a power outage two days ago. A truck hung on some power lines and broke a pole on the highway.  My little fridge at work has a tiny freezer which I never bother to defrost because I just use the bottom.  Well, no power plus hot building equals big mess!!  The ice refroze into a solid chunk of ice about four inches thick. The bulging little freezer door did not allow the door to close properly so between my real work and customers, I dragged the fridge outside to thaw in the hot sun.

Thank God and the appliance king for frost free refrigerators...I got a chisel and a hammer and proceeded to help the ice leave my freezer.  I guess, you can just about guess where my stupidity is going to lead me.

I knew the ice was not gonna melt before time to go home.  So I chiseled and whacked and was going pretty good. WHOOOSSSH!  Did you know in those teeny tiny freezers, there are raised ridges that contain coolant lines???  I know...now!

I tried to tape the hole...no duct tape.  I got the ice removed with no further damage to the appliance.  My arm is bleeding but the fridge received no more injuries.  While I am doing this, I am also making change, sweating like a horse, selling the product I am there to sell, answering the phone, doing business,  all with a smile.

I finally drag my ice-free, damaged ice box in thirty minutes before quitting time, plug it in (I have taped my hole) and it goes SPPPPPPEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!   Then I think, is this poison?  Is it flammable?  I am a idiot...all kinds of things going through my head.  Unplug and close up, only choice I had.

Moral of this story, the reason for pay back from the old "what goes around, comes around" theme, is don't make fun of hubby's mistakes or you will make one even worse. One that makes you look totally stupid. 

As I drink my warm drinks next week and eat crackers and peanut butter, I  will remember this lesson!

24 comments:

Irene said...

You can have it fixed. Have the coolant replaced and the hole patched. It is possible. It happened to us once.

labbie1 said...

Oye! Poor thing!

Rudee said...

Owie. At least you can pack some ice from home into a cooler and work around the broken work fridge.

Hope your arm is healing.

24 Paws of Love said...

Been there, done that! LOL!

My husband is a genius with any tools or device, yet I still question him about everything little thing when something's not working. Sometimes I win, but most of the time I don't. You'd think I'd learn by now...but there is something this cement head I have that I have to keep on banging that wall!!

Thank you for the chuckles.

Is the ice machine still working?? :)

Empty Nester said...

Yep, karma's a biotch!

Country Gal said...

Papa is an all round handy man /computer wiz I am lucky ! Owch hope your booboo is getting better. Great story and yeah what goes around comes around thats for sure but heck we are all only human and mistakes are normal ! Hope you and your hubs are on speaking terms now I mean nice speaking terms lol Have a great day !

Jules said...

Lesson learned and I have done the exact same thing. :)

Might mention since winter is coming on... if you lose power this winter turn off the water to the ice maker. I did not during our last ice storm and came home to a small stream running through my kitchen. :)
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

Unknown said...

8) stuff like that happens. you just keep going.

LindaG said...

*hugs*
Have a good weekend, Gail.

Jeannelle said...

Very good, Gail. You have quite a way with storytelling! Enjoy the ice maker.

Dreaming said...

Gail, from this end your story is very funny - not so much for your end, though.
I'm so sorry about your baby fridge. My it RIP!
But hooray for automatic ice and what a sweet guy to surprise you - I bet he was discourage after doing all that work and then thinking it wasn't working.

Barbara said...

All I can say is "OH ME" and hugs always.

Gail said...

For the wonderful comments I can't reply to, thank you. If I can't find humor in my mess-ups, I would be in sad shape.

OmaLindasOldeBaggsandStuftShirts said...

Laughing at myself is the only medicine I can swallow without water.
Poor you, your arm and baby fridge.
Yay for the ice maker connecting man. And if ya'll didn't fuss, he'd probably think he'd walked into the wrong house, I know Mr. Oblivious would.
XOXO Linda

DesertHen said...

Hopefully the little mini fridge can be fixed, but if not, just think of all that ice you can take from home to keep stuff cold. =) We never had an ice maker until we moved into this house and I gotta tell ya...I love that darn thing!

Happy Weekend to you!

Pat said...

Karma with a capital "K" baby!

My refrigerator/freezer is like that and I have to defrost it every 2 months or so. It is NOT pretty and I am NOT a happy camper!

Unknown said...

Been there done that with my mini frig. at work. I also. blew up the first microwave I ever had by leaving a spoon in what I was cooking...........kt

Far Side of Fifty said...

You did what..murdered a fridge..LOL..a hair dryer might have worked better..or an Ice Scraper (that is what I use on mine)..Oh I forget you don't do snow or ice very much:)

Farm Girl said...

I didn't know about those ridges. I know know and I will not use a chisel to defrost my freezer now that you wrote about it.
I will tell you and no one knows this.
I took a water hose with a sprayer on it. turned the water on full blast to melt the ice. It did a great job. Only, when I stopped, I had flooded the garage, and water was seeping from the outside walls.
I moved the trash cans around and I was never found out...yet.

TxFarmhouse said...

Ugh...been there, done that. Now I just go to the store and buy it..

Nancy said...

Haha! Glad to know I'm not the only klutz when it comes to appliances... our Firestone fridge (from the 40s I think) finally gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago. Now it's used as storage for tools.

Susan Anderson said...

Aw, shoot!

On the up side, I think you can have it patched.

=)

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Dear God, it's called "marriage"...been in your shoes more times than I want to tell you.

allhorsestuff said...

Oh My...I guffaed so loudly when I read, that you both told each other what joys you were!
O yes..that was a lesson!
Sorry for all the toil, it's sure a funny read now though..and I do know that other good ending too..having read that firstly!

Love to you and your Gail!
Kac

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