Trials and Tribulations

It's hard to believe that I haven't mentioned it yet, but I thought I'd fill you in on our refrigerator. Or lack thereof. You see, when we moved in, we had a very small, icky-but-functional black refrigerator. It worked, but not the way we wanted to use it. Through the kindness of other Rhodies, we found out about the Sears Outlet Center in Fall River, MA, and discovered a wonderful Fisher Paykel on sale there - stainless steel, freezer drawer on the bottom, well organized on the inside...and at a great price, as there was a small dent in the back of the unit on the top. No one will ever see that, right?! Woo hoo! So we bought it, and it waited in our garage until we replaced the floor in the kitchen, and then we installed it. And we loved it. Until we realized, about a week later, that it really didn't seem to be cold enough. I mean, things were cold, but not icy, even when we turned the fridge thermostat way down. And the ice cream wasn't really hard, just kind of mushy. Not good. When I called Sears, they were most sympathetic, and after assuring me that we had a manufacturers' warranty and wouldn't have to pay for a thing, they connected me with the repair service.

When the repair man came out a few days later, he decided that the fan wasn't blowing the cold air into the fridge/freezer, so he ordered a new fan, and told me to just go ahead and unplug the fridge, as he certainly wouldn't store food in it. THANK GOODNESS we have a spare refrigerator and freezer in the basement, as at least we had a place to put all the food. So, about a week later, the repair man came again to replace the fan. Great. We plugged it in, and waited for it to get cold. And waited. And waited. And then I called the repair service again. And they came out a few days later, and the new guy decided that the compressor is not working. Oh, and there was a leak - the freon had all leaked out, and there was even some oil on the floor. Too bad we didn't seal the grout yet - good thing it's under the fridge! So, a new compressor has been ordered, and we've unplugged the fridge again.

In the meantime, at every meal, we traipse up and down the stairs to the basement to get our food and drinks out of the refrigerator down there. I guess it's good exercise! I'll be sure to let you know when the repair service actually repairs the fridge.

OH - and then there's the cat. As many of you know, Fu has had some bathroom issues since about March. First, we thought it was due to his kidneys (which are not normal). Then we thought it was due to the random strangers coming into our house to view it (remember, it was on the market). We thought that moving would fix it. It didn't. He doesn't pee on hard surfaces, but we cannot leave any rugs on the floor. Ever. We decided it was behavioral. We had him on Prozac for a month, and thought we'd fixed the problem! We didn't. So we are now weaning him off of the Prozac and getting ready to start him on a different drug. We think that maybe Fu doesn't like sharing a box with Frankie, who is happy to use any box no matter how many other cats are using it. Other than that, both Fu and Frankie are very sweet....and we have training this afternoon to try to teach Ozzy to walk on a leash, so more on that soon!