Friday late morning after returning from making my deliveries I arrived home, opened the garage door and pulled into my space. An awful smell pierced my nostrils and I thought that some animal had gotten into our space and had died. The odor permeated our large garage as if a poisonous gas canister had exploded. As I exited my van I noticed that our other garage door was partially opened about a foot and a half and the realization set in that my wife had left her side of the garage open to hopefully dispel the smell.
My cell phone buzzed and showed that I had a voice mail. It was from Norma telling me that our freezer of 30 years had died and all of the contents were defrosted. She had already disposed of the top shelf by the time I arrived and we had to get rid of the remainder pretty fast.
I opened the freezer door to look inside and it was the biggest, ugliest, smelliest mess I had ever seen in my life. All the frozen meat, two turkeys, a few chickens, two dozen recently frozen bagels from St. Louis, all of my wife's baked goodies, salmon and all the recently made blintzes, about 5 dozen, all gone to the stink grave.
The thawed freezer bags were all slippery and slimy and were hard to handle but luckily I had some sample gloves in my van that would keep my skin from touching the yuck. I filled about 8 fifty gallon trash liners, put them in my van to take to the dumpster. The bottom tub of the freezer contained the blood from the frozen meats and was about three inches deep. I carefully carried it into the kitchen to empty down the disposal and created that awful smell inside the apartment. After dumping I washed out the tub and sprayed a cinnamon fragrance all around the kitchen and living room.
The smell was so rotten it had soaked into my nose and it wouldn't go away, even after multiple washings.
Some of the liquid waste from the freezer had dropped onto the garage floor as I was disposing of the contents, I poured some clear water and tried to mop it the best I could. I dumped all the bags into the dumpster and used my spray can to hopefully eliminate some of the smell. I then had to clean my van with some wipes and spray inside rather heavily. I was soaking wet with perspiration from the endeavor but looked at it positively as a way of working out. The negatives were the smell and certainly the loss of all the food, especially my wife's baked goods.
When she returned home from her part time job of mahjong we set out to buy a new freezer. The unit was 30 years old so we had certainly gotten our moneys worth during it's life, but like many things, it got sick and died, unfortunately taking many innocent goodies with it.
Who would think that finding a replacement freezer would be such a big deal. Well, it was. After checking many of the large stores that sold appliances and basically not finding many units in stock we decided to try FACTORY DIRECT APPLIANCE in Lenexa. Wow, did they have the inventory and the one we were looking for on display. We were helped by Joey Villarreal who negotiated a fair price including free delivery and pickup. Should you be looking for any appliances, give him a shout.
After choosing the freezer we wanted and arranging delivery, he asked my wife if she was sure of her decision. "Yes, I'm sure", that was until the next morning when she changed her mind for the next larger unit. Hopefully, Monday morning she could catch them before they load up. I should have known better and stayed out of the decision making, altogether. She had told me that should I decide on an anniversary or birthday gift, I should make sure it doesn't come with a electrical plug on the end, oh well, maybe next year.
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