Refrigerator blues

Oi! What a week I've had! If I had had any doubts about my determination to never buy anything appliance-related from Sears again, this week would have settled them.

My 7 year old refrigerator broke down. The first time it broke down was within a year of purchase ... which you seriously don't expect with a $1200.00+ refrigerator. Yes, it was under warranty. When I called Sears, they informed me that the soonest they could get to me was 6 days later. This was on the third of July. Useful warranty, right? I called a local repair guy, who had me running that evening. This time also I called the repair guy, but no good. He tried getting a computer board the next day to replace one that was fried, but it just fried the new one when he put it in. The compressor or condenser or whatever it's called was "froze up" as they say in these parts. And unfortunately, that doesn't mean it can be thawed. That means $600.00+ repair.

Anyway, I discovered this problem when I walked into my kitchen after work Wednesday afternoon, and found a small pond ... which I hadn't put there. The freezer was totally thawed so it had been out for awhile. And just to make it fun, I had actually been grocery shopping on my way home. So I not only lost everything in my refrigerator/freezer, but also everything I just bought that needed to go in there. I drove to my nearest appliance store, Lowe's, and bought a new refrigerator, which they kindly delivered the next day. The picture is my shiny new frig, already plastered over with all my magnets and photos of family and friends. I never really thought I'd want a silver frig, but I figure it'll match anything when (if!) I start remodeling. It's a Samsung, since the Kenmore I had was a Whirlpool, and I wasn't going to buy another one of those. Bad track record.

The best thing is having cold things to drink again. Without a frig, I was stuck with tap water, or hot cokes or hot gatorade, or *shudders* hot beer.

I've been doing yard work today. My grass isn't really growing alot yet, thanks to temperature swings from 30 - 80 degrees, but there are patches that are longish. The lawn was just looking pretty ragged. So I mowed and did the edging. It was a good day for it because it's about 60 degrees outside. Too cool to be out without being active, but if you're working, it's just about right.

I cut three buds off my red rose. They are a little cold-temperature damaged, so I decided to see if they'll bloom in the house. It looks like one for sure will open, but I'll have to wait and see about the other two. That rosebush is absolutely covered with buds right now. It produces some really spectacularly beautiful roses at times. The little yellow bush is settling in. It's putting on some growth, and has three little buds on it. Here are some recent pictures. Both rosebushes are putting on a lot of growth. The smaller picture of buds is a close-up of the red bush. Lots and lots of buds.

I like working in my yard and watching things grow. There's a tiny peach tree comin up under my peach tree. I actually mowed around it rather than running it down. I'm considering digging it up, potting it and seeing if I can grow it. That would at least give it more of a chance at survival than just mowing it down. *laughing* Probably not much more of a chance, given my track record with growing potted plants. I'm going to try it.