Awkward

©2023 michael raven

I am one of those people who suffers from social awkwardness pretty much all of the time. If there is an occasion to put my foot in my mouth, chances are that I will find a way to shove it deep inside. If an opportunity comes to remove it, I have preternatural ability to use the opportunity to cram it deeper rather than extract it.

As a result I tend to keep to myself to spare everyone my lack of social graces.

If, for whatever reason, you feel slighted by my comments here or elsewhere, just assume that I meant well, even if what I wrote came off as tone deaf.

It’s been “a day” and I really should be in bed due to physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. No one accused me of being very bright, however, and so I am posting.

Last night, my refrigerator was making an odd clicking and sighing noise. When I went to check the interior for a potential source of the odd noises, the digital display was finding a new life in being a strobe light. And then… it went dark. Not good.

This morning I checked the interior with an IR thermometer. Temps ranged from 38-43 Fahrenheit. An hour later? Two or three degrees warmer. Guess it was time to buy a new fridge…

Well, I have the added issue that I have a very specific dimension to work with — exactly 30 inches for a width. No more, no less. Guess what… you mostly have your choice between shitty inexpensive units or expensive extravagant units in that size. Lucky for me, my credit rating is sky high and I could get one on deferred interest (0% unless you don’t pay it before a year, then all of the interest comes back at you). I always prefer to buy appliances with other people’s money, and then pay it down before they get a penny in interest. While I was at it, my oven/stovetop was looking at hospice options, so I added one of those too to my spending spree. Whee!

By the time I got home, temps inside the fridge had climbed to those of an early spring day, so it was time to shove everything into coolers and pile on the ice. Yay!

In my “infinite wisdom” (hardy-snarf) I had decided on the model of fridge with an ice/water dispenser. I had an old line I had meant to modernize a while back and I went to figure out what the sit-op was on that bugger and came back crying. The old path meanders through the cabinets of the kitchen and down through the floor and then back up through the floor to the sink across from the fridge. The problem? The old stuff is rubber tubing and locked behind someone else’s infinite wisdom when they finished the ceiling in the basement without any means of egress to anything they decided to tuck inside. And we’re talking 80s-era rubber tubing, so it is as apt to snap into multiple pieces if you try to pull it through to bring a new line in as not. There is no good way to get a new line in in my finished ceiling basement. Sigh.

I conferred with my father, who has done his own trouble-shooting of this type and we came up with a plan, so I will have ice and water, but the cussing and swearing that went on would make a sailor blush.

Then… I committed a few social faux pas. Tired from my constant running around, I’m thinking — but keep in mind how I started this post. I am socially awkward on the best of days.

Have I mentioned I should probably just go to bed?