New Refrigerator

I am very pleased with the new LG refrigerator (LRTLS2403S) in the basement.  Much more energy-efficient, and larger than the ancient one.  Separate humidity controls for the 2 crisper drawers.  Pocket handles (which are new to me) so nothing sticking out.  More shelf adjustments and the shelves are "spill-proof".  Which is only a 1/4" lip around them, but that helps.

There are deeper door shelves, a shelf in the freezer, and my temperature settings are more adjustable.  Using 2 different thermometers (that agree with each other), I have the freezer set to 0 and the cooler set to 34 (F).  I actually have "excess storage space"!

The ancient refrigerator got so bad it was creating a 2" block of ice beneath the freezer and I had to tap it off (carefully) with a small crowbar every couple of months, LOL!

In fact, with the freezer have a shelf, I am going to reverse my freezer habits.  I've used the kitchen bottom freezer more small containers and the basement one for long-term storage of meat in larger (shoebox-sized) containers.  Which was awkward, because all those small containers in the kitchen freezer wanted to fall over when I pulled out the freezer drawer.

The new refrigerator just has a freezer door at eye level and none of the containers have to move at all.  And since I take out an individually bagged portion of meat out of a meat-specific container every day (I get too organized sometimes, LOL) and a small container of frozen leftovers only every few days, it makes more sense to have the larger containers in the more-awkward kitchen freezer.  They don't fall over each other when I pull the drawer out.  

I used to use the small-container leftovers more than the larger-container meat ones.  But cooking habits change over time.  So that should work out better.

And I'm glad I bought the new refrigerator when I did.  Today (looking up the model number to post), I discovered the price went up $200!  Sometimes, I get lucky.  I am normally lucky about major things (and no complaints about that at all), but not so much all the minor ones.  So "lucky" on a minor matter is a nice change. 

Problems

They say it never rains but it pours.  So true.  Nothing horrible, but it is like "being nibbled to death by ducks"...

Camera -  I lost my simple point&shoot digital camera a week ago.  I've looked everywhere (except, obviously, where ever it actually is).   When you start looking in the refrigerator and oven, you know you have run out of places to look!

It is possible I dropped it in the recycle bin or something, but I doubt that.  So, when I find it someday I'll laugh.  Binq likes to carry pens and shove things off the table, but I don't think she could manage a camera.  If I ever find it, I will post about it.

Meanwhile I ordered a replacement (same model).  Simple point&shoot types are getting hard to find.  The brand names have all upgraded to fancier ones with controls and features I don't need (and are much more expensive)...

Cable Set-top box -  A few weeks ago, the On Demand feature of the cable box stopped working.  The cable company sent a replacement.  I set it up today and went through all that annoying set-up procedure.  But it works again.  The displays are rather different though.  

I was happy with the old displays and I can't see any actual improvements.  Why do things change like that?  I'm big on "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".  I assume they have made it easier to rent movies and add channels (profit drives change I guess).  But since I virtually never actually buy or rent movies I don't care.

The problem is that they wanted the old box back by today.  But there were only 3 addresses listed and the nearest one is 15 miles away.  I hate driving!  But I found "more addresses" and one was in my town.  So I drove there.  

No luck there.  They are only for wireless services.  I mentioned the website.  They said, "yeah but that's an error".  So I reluctantly decided to drive to the 15 mile away location.  Which led to the next problem...

Car - I have a 4 year old Subaru Forrester (great car normally).  But I don't drive much these days (about 4,000 miles in 4 years).  A couple months ago, it wouldn't start.  Weak battery.  I don't drive long enough to rechrge the battery, I suspect).  Fortunately, I have a trickle-charger from when my 15 year old Toyota Highlander started having the same problem, so I recharged the battery overnight and the Forrester started right up.

Which was fine for 3 weeks.  Now it needs to stay on the trickle-charger all the time (it is addicted?).  And also fortunately,  I have a portable power pack (bought for an old troublesome riding mower I no longer have).  I keep that  in the car and fully charged now for when the car battery is dead while I'm out shopping.  I've helped a few people start their car with that in parking lots.  

So I visited the cable company store that wasn't the right one (see above).  I debated whether to drive there today or just go home.  I decided to drive to the cable store.  But the car wouldn't start (again).  I had just recharged it!  I'm glad i had that portable power pack in the car.

So I decided this had to end.  I drove to the dealership (jump-started it with the portable power pack) and explained the problem, noting that I did not drive much.  So I couldn't tell if the battery had gone bad or it was a bad alternator/charger/generator/whatever (I'm not a "car person").  And since I was there, to do routine maintenance like oil/filter, tune-up, etc.

They will call me Wednesday sometime in the afternoon after they have checked out some "charging parts". 

Computer Printer - I don't print much, so those inkjet printer cartridges dry up before they are half used and got expensive.  So several years ago, I decided to buy a color laser toner printer.  Worked great for 3 years.  The toner is slightly more expensive, but the toner is good nearly forever.  I did the math...

Well, last December, when I went to make my own holiday cards for family, friends, and fellow cat-bloggers, the color stopped working.  Canon support had me try all sorts of things, but couldn't solve the problem.  They finally said to just try new toner.  I did, and that didn't solve the problem.  Well, I do most of my printing in black&white anyway.

Last week, it kept telling me it was out of paper.  I added an inch of it.  Still reported the same problem.  So something new is going wrong.  Well, the printer is very specific about what kind of paper is in the tray.  I don't need "the best paper".  There are detailed settings about that.  And getting through the menu about that is maddening.  Sometimes, I don't even know what the paper definitions mean.

Part of the problem is that I seem to have bought a printer intended for office use.  It took a week after I bought it to figure out the default settings were "network".  When I solved that, I could print.

These new problems are (so far) unsolvable.  I think I need to delete then reinstall the printer.  Which, as I recall, was a real pain.  And it means rediscovering all the setting adjustments I made to convince the printer that it isn't part of an office network!

I'm not looking forward to that.  But I have to do it soon, because I can't print anything! 

  -----------

I'll post about any good news when I get any...

Pet Loss

 What do you do when a pet dies?  I bury them 2' deep and build a box to mark the spot.  I get brass letters to screw on and a cat statue to attach to the top.  The area behind a 5' pond is the cat memorial place.

When I started that, I did not really think of the future.  I didn't think much beyond Skeeter and LC.  But then there was Iza by surprize.  And then Laz and Ayla.  I can build boxes to put the names on, but I can't find the same kind of brown 12" statues anymore.  I guess they went out of style.

I may have to buy a dozen ceramic ones all of a similar kind and put the brown resin ones on a bookshelf.  Why?  Because I want them to all feel equal.  I know that may sound silly, but it bothers me to picture the memorial boxes seeming to show some preference among them.  They were all cherished.

I wish I could find more of these...

Refrigerator Delivered!

I have a new fridge in the basement!   It is in place, working, and I think I will go to bed now.  Yeah, its 1 PM now, but I couldn't sleep last night worrying abut whether there might be problems.  All is resolved...

I Can't Win With Refrigerators

 Getting a replacement refrigerator is driving my crazy!  I need to get rid of the ancient one in the basement.  My initial thought was kind of to automatically get rid of the ancient one, have the current  bottom freezer kitchen one moved in its place and have a new bottom freezer one installed in the kitchen.  

If you think you've read about this too often, there were newer problems.  So you might as well read on...

Turned out, I din't consider the height of the new one.  I thought all refrigerators were the same height!  And I discovered my preferred new one was 1/2" too tall for the spot.  So I had to cancel that order and reconsider.  

The existing kitchen one is working fine, and I go into the cool parts/crispers much more often than the bottom freezer.  So it is actually OK.

In the basement, I am into the freezer much more than the crisper drawers.  So I decided getting a new top freezer fridge for the basement actually made more sense.  And I ordered one with same dimensions as the kitchen one.  And I chose the top-ranked Consumer Reports rated model.

I'm not being snobbish.  It's not like it's gold-plated or anything, just their best choice among the mass-sold refrigerators.  

But I did my measurements about width thinking a new refrigerator would come through front door, to the kitchen.  And the current one would easily go down to the basement (since it was the same stairs.  Oh was I ever WRONG.  

First, the new basement refrigerator was going to be delivered through the garage and into the basement.  I spent 2 hours moving basement clutter out of the way.  That's temporary and will encourage me to put stuff away afterwards in a more organized fashion.

But the garage-to-basement path wasn't involved in my original measurements.  The door from garage to basement is too narrow!  OK, so in the front door and down the stairs to the basement.  And then I measured the down-from-the-bottom-of-the-stairs to the basement.  Too narrow.

OK, surely the sliding glass door from the basement to the back yard is wide enough.  No.  It seemed a 33x34" refrigerator could not be delivered!  I was about to call and cancel the order and then reorder a narrower one.

But some door dimensions can be changed!  The sliding glass basement door has a screen.  And that screen even when fully-opened) was the. So I found a way to slightly detach it and gain the necessary inch.  But the glass door itself was still too narrow.  OK, there was accumulated dirt preventing full opening.  I scraped the dirt and vacuumed it out of the slide tracks.

Still not enough, and the door kept hitting something hard.  I saw that a security guard was taking up a 1/2".  I removed it.  Still not enough room.

But stay with me here...

There is a lock on the sliding glass basement door.  The kind where you turn one small dial and then slide a lever down to lock it.  It sticks out 1/2".  With that lock removed and the sliding door able to open as fully as possible (dirt and security bar removed,  I get a 33 1/2" opening.  The narrowest dimension of the new refrigerator is 33"!  A 1/2" of clearance is as good as a foot...

The new refrigerator can be delivered and installed!  YAY...  😊

But it means the delivery guys think they have a smooth path through the garage and basement, and now they have to carry it around to the back of the house.

Aside from all that, I had to have the existing ancient refrigerator moved out of the way (because I didn't pay for removal).  I did that myself last night.  I took almost everything out of it and packed the frozen stuff in a large plastic storage container.  Because I didn't know how long it would take to move it.

Actually it only took 30 minutes.  The place I could put it had stuff piled up there and those things had to be put somewhere out of the way.  If the basement was cluttered before, it is worse now.  But that is temporary.  But I have the ancient refrigerator out of the way, but working, so all the food went back in until the new one is installed.  

I'll post about the delivery/installation in a day or two. 

Refrigerator Troubles

You may recall I was planning to have a new refrigerator delivered tomorrow.   The deal was that I would have the new one in the kitchen, the old one moved to the basement, and the ancient basement one removed.  

The new one comes with an ice-maker (not-optional).  That seemed OK.  I use more ice than I used to (I've become fond of cocktails).  But that required a water-line tapped from the basement to the kitchen spot.

There is a cold water pipe in the basement directly below the kitchen refrigerator.  So, the plumber would have to cut the pipe, add a "TEE", drill one hole through the floor, add 4' of pipe and a shut-off valve at the top.  No big deal.  I guessed $300.

Well, apparently I am bad at estimating.  The plumber did some work on his office calculator app and announced $1,175!  I couldn't believe it.  I asked what special problem he saw.  "None".  Is the job going to take hours?  "About 2-3".  Are the parts expensive?  "Not really".  

So what was it?  "The company charges by the job, not hours.  That's what the office app says to charge".  My job was simple, but the company averages the total cost of similar jobs.  He suggested calling another company, one that charges per hour plus parts instead.  I thanked him for the estimate, paid the $60 visit fee and he left.  We were friendly about it; the charges aren't up to him.

I called a company with just hourly rates.  $150 per hour, which includes travel time.  So maybe that would have been $750.

I don't want an ice-maker THAT much!  I can make ice on my own for the rest of my life for less than that.   About 5 minutes per week... WOW!  Fortunately, the ice-maker doesn't HAVE to be hooked up.

But that's not the end of it.  I always thought all refrigerators were the same height.  Well, there is always a standard shaped space for them with a cabinet above.  So I had checked the width (which DOES vary) and had an inch to spare.  But I looked at the dimensions again and noticed the height.  I measured the space again.  The new refrigerator is a 1/2" too tall!

I could fix that.  The cabinet above has a 1" (unnecessary) bottom front frame.  I could remove the cabinet, cut off the 1", reinstall it, and the new refrigerator would fit.  I have the equipment to do a clean job of it.  But it would be a few hours of work.  And I'm old enough that when I start twisting and turning while removing screws  at the back and sides, I get some serious muscle cramps.  I could hire a carpenter to do it, but I bet that would end up costing the same as the plumber.

So I rethought the situation.  The whole purpose was to get rid of the small ancient basement refrigerator (37 years old).  It is so old, it must cost $300/year to run (modern ones are about $50).  It is SO bad, I have to chip off 2" of ice in the fridge section every few months!  But it has one thing I like in a BASEMENT refrigerator; a top-freezer.  I use it for long-term storage of meats and bags of frozen veggies.  

The basement fridge part is really more of a root-cellar.  I store bulk veggies (potatoes, onions, carrots, etc), fruits, my garden seeds, and some odd stuff that wants "cool but not necessarily cold" (like bird suet packs).

So I cancelled the new refrigerator order.  The Home Depot store was very nice about that.  Their website says cancellations require 72 hours notice and I was giving only 36, but they allowed a full refund.  I was expected some charge for that.

The current kitchen refrigerator works just fine.  I just automatically thought I should move the current one to the basement.  And I like the bottom freezer in the kitchen.  I am in and out of the fridge part a lot more than the bottom freezer part.  But I am in and out of the top freezer of the basement fridge more often.  So why not just buy a modern energy-efficient top freezer fridge for the basement?

Cheaper and a lot less movement of appliances.  And the store wants $50 to haul the ancient one away.  Guess what?  My electric company will PAY me $50 to have them haul it away!  So THERE is $100 in savings.  

So I went to the Consumer Reports website, found the top-rated top freezer model.  More energy-efficient, larger freezer section, and less-complicated delivery (straight through garage into the basement).  And no concerns about it fitting into a space.  

All in all, I think buying a new top freezer model for the basement is actually a better decision.  I really should have thought it through more carefully.  But I think it will all work out better.

I would post pictures, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows what a standard refrigerator looks like.  LOL!

Getting Stuff Done.

Well, I slept too many hours for several days, so at 4 am, I was just laying in bed not tired.  So I got up and decided to DO SOMETHING!

Early morning TV is awful, even the usual political channels.  So I did something I haven't done in a while.  I turned on the stereo.  Which was actually funny because I had to figure out how to do it.  No, I'm not stupid, it's just that there are so many options that it took a while to find just "music".  LOL!

Made breakfast.  Fed the cats.  Cleaned the litter boxes.  Emailed my trash collection company about the busted-up bin.  Did 2 loads of laundry.  Emptied the dishwasher.  Well, what do you do at 6 am? 

I had a package to return to Amazon.  Loki had an issue peeing on the bed a few times and I ordered a mattress protector.  Didn't realize it was a form-fitted kind (I have a waterbed).  I could buy a flat one, but I've been using a tarp to cover the bed.  Seems to be working.  But today was the last day I could return it, so I went to Staples as soon as they were open.  

That requires a QR code inside the box and outside for Staples to create a label.  The outside QR printout was too large and fuzzy.  So they cut the box open.  The inside one scanned perfectly.  And the person there said they cut the boxes open anyway to stuff the returns into plastic bags.  Who knew?  And I already have an email crediting my account.  

But at least that was done.

So I went to Petsmart to fill up the cat's pantry.  9 cases of regular Stinky Goodness and 2 cases of Marley's kidney care Hills stuff.  $400!  If I didn't have more money than Donald Trump actually does (joke, maybe), that would be a problem.  I mean, 45 pounds of cats costs more to feed than I spend on my own food at 165 pounds.  And I eat well...

And I bought a new 'betta splendens' while I was there. 

I normally keep a blue and a red one (in seperate tanks).  I was sad when the blue one died last week after a few years (they don't live long even naturally).  They display wonderfully when they see each other, but it exhausts them so I keep a piece of cardboard between the tanks most times.

And then I bought a new refrigerator (LG LRDCS2603D).  I had been planning to for months.  High Consumer Reports rating among bottom-freezers. But website pics don't show everything so I wanted to actually look at one.   I walked in to Home Depot (local DIY store) to just make sure I understood the shelves and freezer divisions.  

I walked out with a receipt and a delivery date, LOL.  No, they didn't trick me or anything.  I knew what I wanted.  I just needed to put my hands on the shelves and crispers and temperature controls.  It will be delivered Wed 27th.

But it has an ice-maker.  Which needs a water line to it.  I can make enough ice manually to suit my needs for my 6 pm cocktail, but it sure seems easier. to just always have more ice without effort.  Many of my recipes say "bathe in ice-water".  I've never had enough ice to do that, so maybe that will be good.

I had to laugh about one part of the sale.  The top door is reversible but the standard is on the wrong side for my kitchen.  The charged a penny for reversing it.  Seriously, it is right on the receipt.  The ink must cost them a penny.  LOL!

The Home Depot guy said to make sure the waterline extension ended with a shut-off valve directly behind the refrigerator.  I don't know why but he stressed that.

But the ice-maker function meant I had to decide on a plumber.  Many calls and questions about labor cost structure.   I looked at Yelp and a few other sites.   I decided on one that had good local ratings and experience and cost structure.

One I declined charged $150 per hour from leaving the previous job. Who gets $150 per hour for just driving, LOL?  Another I declined specifically said the shut-off valve would be in the basement (see above), so I told him I didn't think he was the right person for me.  

I'm hoping I have a good plumber to do the work.  It is pretty straight-forward, so I don't expect any technical difficulties.  But I won't know the cost until he examines the existing pipes and run-lines.  But he will arrive prepared to do the work immediately.  

That will be expensive ice for a while, but I probably grow to love it...

I am probably best off just accepting the plumbing cost...  Waiting for contractors to arrive in a 4 hour window drives me crazy.  They all probably cost the same, so avoiding the aggravation of waiting around is probably worth just having one person come to do the work.  For some things, it is worth getting estimates from multiple contractors.  For smaller matters, not so much.

The ancient basement fridge (37 years old) is probably costing me a lot in inefficiency.  And the local electric company will actually pay me $50 to have them haul it away.  And good riddance to it.  I have had to chip away ice every few months from below the top-freezer for years.  

Why do I want 2 refrigerators you may ask?  The basement one is mostly a root cellar and for more freezing capacity.  I keep the cool part at 40F and the freezer part on full cold (0 F)for long-storage.  Buying large amounts of meat  a few times a year to freeze is both convenient and cheaper.  And I keep my garden seeds and "beer for bread" in the cool part too.

Now it's time to gt to the basement and plant some tomatoes and peppers and melons and flowers...

Well, after I call The Mews in and give them lunch.

A "representative" lunch...

Back Yard

 The back yard has flowers and blooms too.

Asters  are growing from a deck pot.

The sawhorses ready for more lettuce and small crops in trays.  I tightened a lot of bolts yesterday,

Some stargazer lillies (so named because the flowers point up) are coming up nicely.  I really love perrennial flowers!

I have some Autumn Joy Sedums to be moved to the flowerbed,  I had 3 for years, but they all suddenly died.  I'm happy I rooted some clippings just before that.

I have several dozen Nandina clippings are growing.  They will be a border along the drinage easement side of the front yard,  They are tough.  And evergreen with bright red berries in Winter.  

In a few years, they will look like this...  A whole hedge of them!

Back yard daffs...

A sourwood tree just starting to grow well...

Which will look like this someday...

There is a far back daffodil patch,,,

And some in the sides of the back.

A few hyacinths the voles haven't found yet,

Even a red tulip still uneaten...

The daffodils love it here.  The original 5 have multiplied, as have many planyings.  But this one is best at that..

And the y thrive even under the trees,

Sometimes, I just walk around admiring them.  

The back yard has a saucer magnolia too.  Actually, larger than the front one, but neighbors don't see it.

Some years, frost kills the blooms. But this was a good year.  Sometimes, I just stand on the deck and stare at them.

Front Yard

 The saucer Magnolia tree is in full bloom.  I love that tree!  

The front box of Daffodils is in full bloom too.  As are the Nandini shrubs.

There is a later bloom of daffodils just emerging.  I get to show the front yard off twice that way.  And those have some fragrance, which is nice.

Early Flowers

It's nice when some flowers nbloom or emerge at the same time...

The early daffodils are blooming.

Therre are still some crocuses.

And the daylillys are emerging.

And because I love daffodils and crocuses so much, I ordered 500 for planting next Fall.  And a few dozen hyacinths and tulips too.  I will be busy In October.  LOL...

The deer and voles don't eat daffodils (some bitter taste), so I plant tulips and hycinths among them.  They last many years that way.  

Looking Up

 While I was outside with The Mews, I laid back and looked up.  I thought the tree branches and the clouds were kind of nice.

Nothing important about these pictures, but a few of them looked "interesting"...

Sometimes, I think we don't look up enough.  We are actually evolved to see the horizontal landscape.  That's there the flowers, shrubs and gardens are (and food and predators in times past).  But there are also tall trees, clouds, and blue skies.  

So this is a small respect to "up".