So Much for Being Proactive

I've never owned a refrigerator.  Or a furnace, or air conditioner.  I have owned a washer and dryer, but those for less than two years.  My responsibility when it comes to appliances (and cars, for that matter) usually amounts to crossing my fingers, screwing my eyes shut, and hoping that nothing goes wrong with them until my turn with them is over.  Not very adult, but so far it's worked.

So when the refrigerator started collecting water in the bottom a few days ago, I didn't worry about it.  Refrigerators do that sometimes, and then they usually stop.  No problem.  Brandon mentioned it, and I theorized that the freezer was going through a self-defrosting cycle, so he stopped worrying too.

But this morning, when Rere showed up, she worried.  Because that's what she's paid to do. If it weren't for Rere, half of the things in this apartment (other than the AC) wouldn't be working.  And so when she suggested giving her friend in maintenance a call, I shrugged my shoulders and said why not, not wanting to be bothered about it for the next three weeks.

Twenty minutes later facilities was here, and ten minutes later they had taken my refrigerator apart.  They couldn't find anything wrong, put everything back together, and told Rere to give them a call that afternoon if the water showed back up.  It did, so by three o'clock a new refrigerator was brought by, and by three forty-five Rere had cleaned it and replaced my food.

I came home from swim lessons with the girls to a new refrigerator - narrower, shallower, shorter, and with one less row of shelves than my old one.  We had just finished cleaning out the leftovers and our refrigerator had been in that blessedly empty state, cleansed of its old odds and ends and waiting to receive new leftover deliciousness.  The new one, despite this lack of food, was full, almost overflowing.  I cursed facilities for their old, crappy appliances that they always pawn off on me, and schemed how I could at least get some more shelves.

This evening at dinner, I noticed water on the table.  I picked up a plastic half-gallon water container, one of several we keep filled in the refrigerator for ready cold water.  I wiped off the water that was pooling around its base.  And then I noticed the crack, so small I had overlooked several times.  But not small enough to keep the water from leaking out... for at least a week now.