Monday, Monday

When it comes to winter, there is nothing better than a well-stocked larder and a full cupboard and freezer full of meat and summer vegetables.  Canned goods ready for quick needs, frozen fruits and vegetables from the overflowing vines of summer, and those processed meats from friends/neighbors who are also called farmers and ranchers.  We even have pumpkins still waiting in the wings from autumn; pumpkin soup and pie do not stop suddenly at the end of November, no, sirree!  There are small bags of frozen herbs for our winter soups.  There are larger bags of greens and tomatoes.

Part of this mentality comes from someone who loves to cook.  Another fraction, from someone who used to cook daily for "Party of Five".  And part of it?  That satisfactory, squirreling feeling of having enough to get us through the dark months of winter.

And so, I have a goodly amount of food to take us through the next few months.

This morning our electricity went off for only two minutes or so - just long enough to shut down computers and tare all our LED clocks in the house.  Afterward, I noticed a distinct groan in our old living room.  I did not rightly discern it for over an hour = I thought it was "This Old House" doing its north wind groan.  But finally, I ventured down into the 1887 basement, furtively hoping it was not our heating system.

It was not the heater.  I unplugged a dehumidifier. Not that, either.  I walked further into the dark of the basement...

Ah!  The basement freezer!  It was cycling every 45 seconds or so.  Not at all a good sign.  I unplugged it and went upstairs.  An hour later I returned and plugged it in again.  Still cycling, but no power.  Uh-oh.  I have a winter's worth plus nine more months of food in that elderly, elderly freezer.  We bought it used from an old man, fifteen years ago.  There is a hand-written sign (by me) that tersely states, "If you cannot close the door to this freezer, then do not open it in the first place."  I don't really think any explanation or story needs to go along with that quote.  Just think: Big ol' side of beef.

So here we are Monday...with two lambs, three turkeys, and a pig.  All in my freezer.  My dead freezer.  (They're all processed, so don't be thinking, as my friend Karen did, that these animals were once frolicking in my yard, or as my daughter Claire did, that I had a lamb die out in the barn and I put it in the freezer until I could bury it.  Such was not the case{s}.  I will have to interject here, that daughter Claire was going on what transpired last year when her dear kitty Puzzled opted to leave this world by virtue of crawling under our Christmas Tree and passing, but then the ground was too frozen to dig and bury her, and so I wrapped Puzzle in a special blanket we used to have for the kids, and we kept her out in the bike barn, where she was kept frozen for two weeks. Finally, I buried her amongst some perennial Dianthus.)

Ok: back to the freezer issue.

I have very little interest in my household appliances.  Whatsoever.  I only have two interests:  Washing machine must be Goliath Giant capacity.  And the dishwasher must be Bosch, for quiet Pete's sake.  That is all I ask.

So I sort of asked/delegated to that Spouse o' Mine to go forth and acquire a new freezer post-haste, in view of the two lambs, three turkeys, and pig. I sort of delegated this task in the middle of his Monday workday which is fraught with meetings the likes of which he does not enjoy.  Nor does he like to spend oodles of money.  There is some angst involved the latter.     

I thought this delegation of task would be the end of my worry, but no, evening brought with it the explanation from that Spouse o' Mine that he did not, in fact, purchase a new freezer, even though he had gone to three stores and had also looked online.  His bottom line, he freely admitted, was that he had a problem spending money.

Hell's bells and little fishes.  I have $$$$ of meat and other lying in wait for cooler climes ASAP.  So, while he was out this evening at yet another meeting, I called a local store and talked to Jeremy.  Jeremy and I came to an agreement, and I have a new Maytag freezer being delivered posthaste, at $100 less than the asking floor price, and the poor old limpy-the-lion freezer will be hauled away for free.  This is not a "dis" on that Spouse o' Mine, but just a Push-Comes-To-Shove moment.  And Jeremy heard an earful about my two lambs, three turkeys, and the pig.  As well as the Comet Lovejoy outside in the night sky tonight, and also  my opinion as to why people like he should receive commission.  (Hey: science and compliments never hurt.)

And there is my Monday, from morning to evening.

People have heart attacks on Mondays.