Why does it frighten me so when an appliance stops working?
Because I do not know how to fix it.
I am a self-reliant person, and now I will have to rely on someone else to fix my appliance.
This week the icemaker in my refrigerator stopped working. That’s a minor problem in the winter, when I use little ice. My daughter and grandkids like to put ice in their cold drinks, though, even when the temperature is 15 degrees outside.
I could always get ice-cube trays. An icemaker is a luxury, after all, isn't it? Does it use more energy? Should I feel guilty?
But I have no room for ice-cube trays since the boxy icemaker takes up the space I would have put them.
My refrigerator is seven years old and has never worked right. It sometimes gets too warm and I have to lower the setting. Then it gets too cold and I have to raise it. But fixing that problem failed in the past, so I learned to live with it.
I can’t live with a broken icemaker as easily.
I call a repairman and he comes out to fix the icemaker.
When he pulls the refrigerator out in order to work on it from the back, he reveals a filthy floor. I am embarrassed, but he pooh poohs that, trying to make me feel comfortable by telling me he encounters it in every household.
I can’t really pull the refrigerator out and back by myself any more. I could, but it would take a lot of effort, and is not worth it to the refrigerator or to me.
The next time my daughter visits, I have her pull it out and I clean the filthy floor.
When the serviceman comes back with a new icemaker to install, the floor is clean. He makes no comment and neither do I.
I am lucky. I was able to call a serviceman and get my appliance fixed. In households where the husband is the appliance repairman, you have to wait a lot longer. I know because I was once married to an electrician. He got to the electrical problems of our friends and neighbors long before he ever got around to repairing ours, if ever.
