A Merc Retro Story

One of the very things I advise against during a Mercury retro – buying electronics or appliances – was where we bit the bullet this time. Our old Frigidaire decided it was ready for the recycling plant or wherever they end up. The refrigerator part of the fridge had stopped working, with cheeses turning soft and gummy, yogurt turning runny, butter practically rendered to liquid. And no, it had nothing to do with how often the door was opened, as Rob often theorized. The damn thing was just old and tired.

So off we went to Home Depot. During a Mercury retrograde. That concerned me. But we found our fridge – a Frigidaire that was practically a clone of our Whirlpool. It was to be delivered on Friday, April 6. Initially, the delivery time was between 8-noon. Then it was changed to 1-4 p.m. First Merc retro.

Shortly after 1 pm the delivery trucks shows up. The fridge won’t fit into the appropriate spot in the kitchen, so Rob has to remove the floorboard, chipping away at it with a screwdriver and pliers until the fridge fits into a very tight space. The installer asks me to turn on the water in the utility room, which is connected to the water and ice maker on the fridge. Fine. I turn it all on, hot and cold water, just as he’d asked.   We crank the fridge and freezer to 9, the coldest setting, and start returning items to the fridge that we’d removed before they had arrived.

Finally! A fridge that cools stuff, an ice maker that works, s freezer that doesn’t clog up! Yes!

We head off to the dog park for 40 minutes. When we return, we notice a lot of water in the garage, around the little fridge we have out there. I’m thinking I may have left the door open when I grabbed a bottle of water to take to the dog park. But when I open the door to the utility room, there’s water everywhere, two or three inches rolling through the kitchen, down the hallway, puddled in the utility room.

This photo was taken after a lot of the water had been sopped up. But you get the idea.

Out comes the broom, the squeegee, the towels. Megan is due home in a few minutes with two dogs and a cat and I’m imagining a mess of dogs sliding through a shallow river of water. What has happened is that when I turned on the water to the fridge, the hot water went nuts, blew off the spray nozzle at the end of it, and started filling the utility room sink, where the drain was plugged with a cap from another water bottle.

So we got most of it cleaned up before Megan arrived and even though it was a Merc retro event in spades I have to say, the floors in the house have never been cleaner!