It's Only About $300 . . .

I am going to share a big secret with you.  Mike has been out of town for two weeks now.  That's right - 2 weeks.  He left last Sunday, on his way to Las Vegas for a work conference, and we picked him up at the airport tonight.  I've been silent about it, I know - but it was for several reasons.  One being safety, and the second being my sanity - I figured if I didn't give myself the chance to acknowledge and complain about being a single parent for two weeks, I wouldn't notice how terrible it was.

OK, it wasn't that terrible.  But it was a bit stressful.  Don't get me wrong - I have the kids by myself all day long.  However, I'm used to having my relief pitcher come in at 6:30 pm each night.  And I didn't have that.  Plus, I didn't have my best friend, my husband, and the father of my children around.  It was a tough two weeks, but Sammy, Sophia and I survived.  And so did Mike.

We couldn't make it the whole time without a crisis, though.  Our big crisis came in the form of the garage refridgerator.  We have a fridge in our garage.  It's a cheap fridge - we bought it at the Scratch 'n' Dent store for $150 when we moved into our house almost 5 years ago.  We use it for beverages (aka beer), and to hold all the extra meat we buy.  Every January, it gets filled up with deer sausage and all of its various accessories (backstrap, jerky, etc), and we also store ribeye steaks, shoulder roasts, and pork steaks that I find on sale throughout the year as well. 

The crisis began innocently enough.  I had a babysitter on Tuesday night (to celebrate my friend Trish's lingerie shower), and on Wednesday morning I headed to the garage to pull out something to defrost for dinner.  I was a bit suprised to find that the freezer and its contents had started to defrost.  I thought for a second, then figured that perhaps someone had gotten a coke out of the fridge the night before and shut it too hard, which will invariably pop open the freezer (hey - I said it was cheap!).  I pulled out our dinner for the night, shut the freezer, and went about my merry way.  I didn't think to check it again on Wednesday night, or Thursday morning.

As a matter of fact, I didn't check on it again until Thursday night.  Mistake number 1.  We had just finished swimming at my brother Aaron and Trish's house, and I was trying to find something quick to make for dinner.  Imagine my horror to find that now, the entire freezer, all of its contents, and the refridgerator were now defrosted.  Really?  Yep, really. 

I was confused.  Absolutely confused, and unsure how to go on.  I might have started crying.  I called Mike, called my brother, called my parents, and tried to call others.  My brother, Aaron, came over, and he helped me clean out the freezer of its contents.  We were a bit scared to do anything with the food.  After all, while it was still cold, it was definitely defrosted, and who knew how long it had been that way . . . at least since Wednesday morning.  Aaron took the deer sausage home, and he and Trish ended up grilling it and then refreezing it since it had been smoked and cured before.  Everything else was trashed.  About $300 worth or so.  Including the salvaged deer sausage.

I still couldn't figure out what was wrong with the fridge.  The lights still worked, but it was no longer cooling.  My only guess was that the cooling element had gone out.  It was a cheap fridge, right?

Wrong.  We picked Mike up from the airport on Friday night at 8:30 pm.  We got home at 9:37, and he headed out to the garage to check out the carnage.  He opened the fridge door, stood there for a second, and then asked, "Who messed with the dials?"  What?  "The dials are completely turned off, who turned off the dials?"  You know, the temperature dials - the ones that regulate the temperature in the fridge and the freezer? 

Yes, I'm that dumb.  I didn't check the temperature dials.  I just figured the cooling element went out.  Turns out there was a culprit.  "Sammy, who turned the dials?"  He looks at us sheepishly, then says, "I did!"  Really, Sammy?  Wow - $300 later, I'm glad he's technical, but really?  Sammy and I had a little talk about not messing with the fridge anymore.  Mike turned the dials back to the correct temperature. 

And in the meantime, I have a little confession to make.  I was honestly a bit tired of deer sausage.  Everytime I don't feel like cooking, Mike suggests I make deer sausage.  So I've grown to resent it a bit.  Just a bit.  Not enought to purposely sabatoge it, but enough to be a bit glad that my 4 year old fiddled with the temperature dials.  Besides, now I get to fill the fridge and freezer with what I want to fill it with.  You know, popsicles and ice cream!