Let me explain. Three of my fishing reels broke in a short
time, two in one day. Today something else broke. My wife woke me in the middle
of the night and said, “The fridge is dying.”
I said, “Who is dying?”
“The fridge.”
“Oh!” Actually that was not a real surprise. The fridge had
been making strange noises for a long time, mostly when it shut down. It
sounded like something was going to explode any moment. Sometimes it was so
loud it woke us up during the night. The warning signs were there. I tried to
ignore them.
“There is nothing I can do about that now. I’ll check it out
in the morning,” I said and turned around to get back to sleep.
“I can’t sleep.”
“What’s the problem?”
“That noise is driving me crazy.”
“What noise?”
“Can’t you hear that noise? That bubbling sound?”
“Oh, that noise.” I
said. “I find it soothing.” I actually did. That must be the sound a baby hears
when it is still in its mother’s womb. Gurgle.
Gurgle.
“Go check it out.”
By now I was wide awake and I knew I wasn’t going to get any
sleep, not for a while, anyway, so I got up. We both got up, actually.
When I walked into the kitchen and listened to the fridge
stuttering away I was reminded of an idling car with a bad muffler. “That
doesn’t sound too good,” I admitted. We stood there listening for a while, but
it wouldn’t shut off. We finally turned it off manually. When it stopped it
made a loud noise like a motor that backfired. After waiting for a few minutes we
turned it back on to a lower level. It was silent but not for long.
We were barely getting comfortable in bed when the gurgling
started again.
“We’ll have to get used to it,” I said. “At least for
tonight.”
“Well, okay. Tomorrow we’ll go and buy a new fridge like we
should have when the noises started months ago. I knew this was going to
happen.”
I closed my eyes. There was no use discussing it now. I
needed to get my sleep because I had planned to get up early and go fishing for
an hour or so.
I got up early but not to go fishing. I checked the Internet
for a deal on fridges. The problem is when you are forced to buy something
there are no sales. My philosophy has always been never to buy anything when I
need it. Always buy when it’s on sale.
We were limited to the choice of fridges. We wanted a black
one. Black is not in style anymore; now everything is stainless steel. We did
find sales; we found sales, but no black ones. They were available—a month from
now.
We needed a fridge now, preferable today or tomorrow.
We finally managed to find what we were after in Selkirk,
but we’d have to wait till the end of the month. We were left with no choice.
The fridge still works, gurgling away happily, but now we
don’t trust it anymore. We moved the frozen stuff into our big freezer and keep
very little food in the fridge.
Our fridge isn’t even that old. The salesman at the store
told us that fridges nowadays don’t last longer than ten years. That’s how they
build them.
That is almost criminal. I remember when we used to buy old
fridges as a second fridge for the basement, the garage, or for the cottage.
Those fridges lasted forever.
What happened?
I tell you what happened. The consumer is being screwed by
the manufacturers on all levels. Nothing lasts anymore. Things are built to
break down as soon as you bring them home. And nobody fixes anything anymore,
because repairmen charge you a fortune just to come and look at an appliance to
tell you that it isn’t worth fixing. They suggest it is more economical to buy
a new one.
No wonder the dumps are overflowing with garbage and old
junk!
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