Fixing the Freezer Fail

We have lived here on the shore for almost 30 years. And though we have been fortunate to find mechanics for our fleet of autos, and guys to fine tune our irrigation system, and effect minor repairs on our house (carpentry is not my suit) HVAC is still questionable, they charge an arm and a leg just to stop by for a visit, then fiddle with the indoor units and outdoor units and thermostats, and tell me the freedostat and machination effector was misaligned for more parts and labor. It seems every change in season (there I go again) I have my trusty HVAC guy out for tea and cookies.

What we have NOT been so lucky (?) to find is an appliance repairman. You know, dishwashers, microwaves, refrigerators, ovens, washing machines, driers, freezers. And speaking of freezers, if you read my earlier posts you know we were having some issues with our freezer, or melter as it were.

I tried to Google it, and Yellow paged it on my iPhone, nothing doing. So I resorted to my hard copy. It was easy to find Appliance Repair since it starts with an "A". Not so easy to find one WHO WORKED ON SATURDAYS. What is with these guys? Several calls, "leave a message" finally I get a live one. OMG! At least someone has a decent work ethic. Here is a transcript of the conversation:

"Hello, Acme Appliance repair." "Do you work on freezers?' "Chest or upright?" "Upright." "How old?" “In my sixties." “No, not you the freezer!” “About five years or so." "What's your name? Hold on...I'm in my truck. Okay." "Frank....Milller. "

By this stage of the conversation I realized that the man on the other end of the line, Mr. Acme, was already collecting Social Security. "Can you spell that?" "F...r...a...n...k..." "Hold on let me pull over. Is that your last name?" "No, it's my first name, my last name-" he cut me off. "That'll do." "Where do you live?" "In Denton." "What's the address?" I took a couple deep breaths...."8559..." "5899?" "No...85...59." "8599?'' "No...8...5...5..9." "Okay...85-59. What's the street?" I took a couple more deep breaths, "Dog wood..that's one word, D-o-g-w-" he cut me off again. "I got it. Is that it?" "No...second word 'Blossom' - this was like playing charades- "B-l-o-s-s-o-m Lane. Denton." "Okay. I will be there in 30 minutes."

By some miracle he managed to find the place where I live, and was there in 20 minutes. He was a very nice man, ten or more years into his Social Security and Medicare, but he knew his stuff. Fifteen minutes later he gave me the bad news: "You are low on freon. You got a leak in the coil. By the time you find it, you'll realize you can't fix it, and will have to replace the coil and dryer." "So what you're saying is I need a new freezer?" "Sorry, but that's my advice." I asked him what I owed him and he said, "Fifty dollars. I don't charge much for bad news." "Take checks?" "Sure."

We talked about how they didn't make things like they used to. When we moved here from West Virginia in 1988 we brought our old Montgomery Ward Chest Type Freezer. It started to show some signs of rust along the bottom edge and the little lady insisted we get rid of it lest we find the chest oozing our frozen goods all over the garage floor. I tried to tell her it was just some surface rust, but she was having none of that, so the Montgomery Ward Chest Type Freezer went away and in its place we placed an upright Kenmore. The same one that oozed all our strawberries and orange juice and chicken nuggets all over the garage floor.