Belly Up, Times Two

Well, it had to happen sooner or later this winter but did it have to happen on one of the warmest days we've had so far?  I actually managed to slip on the ice in a parking lot on a day that got almost up to 60 degrees.  Yeah, I know.....how did I manage that?  I went to a store EARLY in the morning, that's how, when it was still cold out.  I was hurrying from the car to the store's entrance and saw a wet spot in the pavement but didn't think anything of it, since it wasn't standing water.  What I DIDN'T know was that it was black ice.  I walked right over it and next thing I knew, I was flat on my back with my feet up in the air.  Yup, I'd "come a cropper" so quickly that I didn't even have time to tense up.  I guess that's a good thing since it most likely precluded me from sustaining any injuries other than bruises to elbow, hip, and pride.  For once, those heavily padded "Van Rossum hips" came in handy.  I tell you, it's like wearing pillows strapped on both hips.  No wonder my mom, who has a similar physique, is 98-years old, and has taken numerous falls, has never broken a hip.

Got me to thinking, though, about how the term "come a cropper" came into use.  Seems that the top of a horse's rear is called a "croup" or "crupper", in slang.  Back in the day when many traveled by horseback, the expression, "come a cropper" sprang up to mean that you fell off your horse.  Nowadays, it just means you took a tumble.

We had something else that went belly-up from our household this week.  Would you believe that our big hi-def TV gave up the ghost last night?  We'd been enjoying some TV shows and then I headed up to get ready for bed.  When I called down to the family room to tell the Commander that the dog had been bathroomed, he said he was trying to get the TV to turn on.  I couldn't imagine why, since it seemed like he should be turning it off.

Apparently, he had gone to turn OFF the TV but before he could even press the button, he heard a "pop" and the TV turned off on it's own.  Oh, oh......that didn't sound good.  Now it wouldn't come on at all.  The only thing happening were four red lights blinking when he'd attempt to turn it on.  Wouldn't you know that it was 2 days over the 1-year warranty?  But never fear........for once, we had purchased an extended warranty (since our previous big-screen TV had died just past ITS warranty).

Today, we went out and purchased a slightly smaller TV, which we had planned to do anyway for our bedroom, and also set up a service call with the folks who take care of our maintenance plan.  If they can't fix it, we'll get a new TV as a replacement free of charge.  In the meantime, the Commander set up the new TV on a makeshift stand in front of our other one so that we can watch the Super Bowl on Sunday (can't miss those ads, now can we?)

I told the Commander that, with the luck we seem to have with these TVs, we should just plan to purchase new ones ever year, especially if the prices continue to come down the way they have been doing.  He just looked at me.  I could tell that I was skating on thin ice.

Mystery of the Sounds of Falling Ice

Two days ago, while watching TV downstairs, I heard a strange sound.  It sounded like falling ice cubes.  You know the sound.....it's the sound your automatic icemaker makes when a new batch of ice falls into the holder.  It sounded like it was coming from the unfinished part of our basement but we don't have a refrigerator down there.  Hmmm!

I had the Commander investigate.  He poked his head into the unfinished side and didn't see anything amiss.  He went upstairs and looked around.  Nothing!  So down he came and we continued to watch our show.  I still heard that sound a few times and then nothing.

Last evening, as we were preparing to head upstairs to bed, the Commander went to get some English muffins out of the freezer to take upstairs.

"Dee, were you drying something on top of the freezer?" he called.

I walked over.  "No. Why?" I asked.

"When I opened the freezer, a lot of water ran down onto the floor," he replied.

I opened the freezer top and water started to pour down the back of the freezer.  "Holy cow," I cried.  "I think the freezer has gone belly up."

We grabbed old work towels that I keep on hand and started putting them around the freezer to sop up the mess.  Wouldn't you know?  Just two weekends ago, I had been remarking to my daughter and son-in-law about this very freezer that we'd gotten at an auction back around 1992.  It had been old then but for $50 it was ours and it had served us well and was still doing fine in 2010.  I guess I jinxed it.

Apparently, the sounds of falling ice I thought I had heard was ice buildup falling down inside the freezer as the temperature slowly warmed up inside it.  Now I had big chunks of ice to carry to our basement bathroom.

Luckily, we didn't have a lot of food stored in the freezer downstairs so I only had to take 4 big plastic bags full of food to the trash cans.  My muscles got a work-out today.

After everything was out, I grabbed some more towels and tried to soak up the remaining water that was standing in the bottom of the freezer.   Ugh!  Now I just have to let it dry out, wash a bunch of towels, wash some food containers, and let the concrete floor dry out.

And through all this, there is one thought that keeps nagging at me.  The afternoon before we heard the "mystery sounds," the Commander had brought up a frozen pizza for me to bake.  When I opened the box, the pizza hadn't felt very frozen.  I had wondered at the time why that was but since it was a new brand of pizza, I thought perhaps this was the way it was supposed to be.  Silly me!  I had fleetingly thought of going downstairs to check the freezer but didn't follow through on that thought.  I certainly should have.  We would have caught it a day sooner if I had.  However, I have to say that this freezer certainly gave us many years of faithful service.  Rest in peace, my old friend.