I woke Tuesday morning feeling as though I had a hundred pound weight strapped to each aching limb. My eyes were dry and gritty and I had the beginnings of a headache that would stay with me much of the day.
People, I was tired.
Monday mornings are reserved for housekeeping at my house. Girl Wonder and I cranked up the ol’ ipod (Cyndi Lauper this week) and got busy. With the upcoming holiday, we decided to put a little extra ooph into the job. We scrubbed. We buffed. We polished. When the house sparked, we declared it Good Enough.
(I just love the Goonies, don’t you?)
At lunch Mr. Frantic informed me that he was renting a U-Haul that afternoon. We had just bought an almost-new fridge on craigslist and he would be picking it up that evening. Since we were going to have the truck anyway we decided to pick up a load of firewood before getting the fridge.
A couple of hours later we could be found transferring an enormous pile of wood from the mud where it lay to the back of the truck. It was heavy, dirty work. Yet, the bang of each log being thrown into the truck sounded like money in the bank.
Or new shoes.
Cute strappy ones…
Did I mention that our house is heated by either expensive wall heaters or a wood stove? And that the firewood was free?
So we loaded up the truck and then drove 45 minutes for the fridge. The one that came with the house might be dying. It’s definitely ill. One door is slightly warped, leaving a gap at the bottom that doesn’t quite seal.
I was afraid for my milk.
And my meat.
And my eggs.
Were they safe in the old warped fridge?
But the idea of spending lots o’ cash in this economy (did I mention that Mr. Frantic is a mortgage broker?) didn’t thrill me.
(Unless it was spending money on something slim and strappy.)
But my poor eggs…
So I checked craigslist and what I found was a two year old fridge just like the one I loved and left behind in Maryland. And it was $1000 less than brand new because the water and ice do not work (and apparently can’t be fixed). For $1000 I can buy some *ice trays and a really nice water pitcher to keep in my spacious new fridge (and shoes, pretty new shoes). So we bought the fridge, loaded it up with our free wood, and brought it home.
The mess you saw in yesterday’s post was the regurgitated contents of my old fridge spread all over the counter waiting for Mr. Frantic to hook up the new one.
I took me…awhile to get it all safely ensconced in its lovely new home. But once it was, I felt great.
Virtuous, even.
A day spent in hard work serving my family, though tiring, was a day well spent.
Almost as good as a day spent shopping…
*Do you find it as funny as I do that Girl Wonder is thrilled and awed with the idea of making “homemade ice”?
take a picture of those shoes!
tami lewiss last blog post..thanksgiving tidbits