Appliances are there to keep us humble

OK, I will say this right off the bat. Dan and I aren't that mechanically inclined. That is just the way it is. We are fine with that. If something, say the refrigerator, isn't working correctly it is great to call the expert (and hope he doesn't have refrigerator repair man pants). That is what an expert is there for, to do things expertly that we can't do.

Well, our frig hasn't been working quite right for about a week. It just wasn't all that cold. It is a tad disconcerting when you get up in the morning and have your bowl of cereal and the milk just isn't cold enough. Not a good way to start your day. Now, when we first noticed it the temperature outside was a blistering 92F so I just thought nothing of it. However, when it cooled down to a reasonable 82F the frig still wasn't cold enough. SO, I did what any self respecting frig owner would do. I turned the frig temp down. No dice. It still wasn't cold enough. Grrrrr. We finally moved the milk to the frig in the garage. That would be the 23 year old refrigerator that has NEVER had a service call, as opposed to the current frig that has had 3 calls in the last 7 years.

I called our usual appliance repair service and scheduled an appointment. I tried not to pop a blood vessel when they said the service charge would be $69.50. I tried to remember that the gas prices are higher yada, yada, yada. But what could I do (and don't say fix it myself).

The repair man arrived on time and didn't have pants that showed me more of his anatomy than I needed to see. I showed him the frig, complained with a smile about how this frig was on it's third service call and my OLD frig hadn't ever quit and left him to it, hoping that he wasn't going to sigh and tell me that, unfortunately, this wasn't a problem that they saw very often and that he didn't have the part and that it would have to be ordered and that it would be a week (that particular scenario has happened before around here). He worked for about 15 minutes and then needs to ask me a question or two

"How long ago did you first notice that the refrigerator wasn't cold enough?"
"About a week".
"How long have you had this frost build up on the ice maker chute?"
"Hmm, about a week I would guess."

Then he tells me that the fact that the freezer is way to cold (I didn't know that freezers could BE too cold!) and that the frig isn't cold enough is probably related. That made sense to me. So, then he opens the frig door and points out that there is a plastic bag with green onions in it that is pushed up against the small vent on the lowest shelf of the frig.
"How long has this bag been in your frig?"
"About a week I would think."

And then the light dawns.

A bag of green onions was blocking the airflow from freezer to frig, making the freezer too cold and the frig not cold enough. Hmmmmmmm. How stupid can I feel for $69.50. Pretty stupid I can tell you. But, I was still glad that it wasn't some obscure part that needed to be ordered from Mauritania or something.

So "Dave" took my check with a smile and left to make some other poor household happy by fixing their appliance. He also left with a great story to tell the other repair men at the office. "Hey guys, you won't believe what these people had done......". I love to know that I have brought laughter to someones life. Now I can live my life happy, hopefully with a cold refrigerator.