After years of a too small refrigerator with broken shelves, we finally splurged on the Cadillac of fridges, a giant with 2 side by side doors and a pull-out bottom freezer drawer. The best thing about the fridge is the ice maker. We named the fridge Bessy and her perfect little ice cubes we refer to as her eggs. We often heard the thud of new ice cubes hitting the tray. The blissful sound was Bessy laying her eggs. She was a top notch producer. We never ran out of ice for our drinks.
Almost to the day the warranty ran out, dear Bessy experienced trouble in the egg department. Bit by bit, plastic piece by plastic piece, the ice maker began to disintegrate. Every month, it seemed, I found a new discarded plastic piece of the ice maker lying in the ice tray with all the ice eggs. Bessy kept producing as best she could with her shoddy equipment. But soon, Bessy’s perfect little ice eggs were no longer laid as separate ovals; all Bessy could muster was a long, solid bar of unbroken ice. I purchased an ice hammer. The hammer stays in the freezer beside the ice tray. Bessy lays her ice bars and I smash ’em up.
This arrangement worked well for a least a year and then suddenly another important piece of Bessy’s egg laying equipment broke loose and lay in the ice tray awaiting discovery. Sadly, this piece proved to be a major part of the ice production. Bessy was stuck, no more ice eggs, no more ice bars.
I gathered my collection if ice maker parts and placed a call to the appliance repair people. It seems Bessy needs an entire new ice maker installed for $230. For $230 I decided I would attempt to be handy. I hatched a plan of action that included shutting the fridge off, removing the freezer items, drawer, and then reclining on my back and see if I could put Bessy back together again. In preparation for my big attempt at being handy, I placed all Bessy’s carefully saved parts on the kitchen counter. The operation would begin the next morning at dawn.
The morning came too fast for my liking. I was up all night with my daughter Pippi (who had a severe tooth ache). I walked to my dogs’ kennels for our morning greeting and then got them ready for our early morning forest walk.
Sometime in between our morning walk and putting the dogs back into their kennels (it was time to leave for Pippi’s emergency dental appointment), Pablo found the time to jump onto the kitchen counter and steal the most rubbery parts of Bessy’s ice making equipment. I found bits and chunks of the rubber, illuminated by the morning sun, all over the dogs’ day bed.
That was that; all at once, my attempt at being handy was snuffed out. Without the ice making parts, I can no longer repair Bessy.
$230 it is.
Bad Pablo.
Leave a Reply