The Start

A funny thing happened over Columbus Day weekend. My husband had taken our 6 month old son to visit family out of state, graciously giving me my first weekend off since before the little one was born. I was elated, excited, and most of all, I was ready to relax. A close friend was driving in from Raleigh to spend the weekend with me, and I was cleaning the house that Saturday morning before she arrived. That's when I heard it.

Silence.

The house was completely quiet. Too quiet. The dogs were asleep on my husband's side of the bed, it was cool enough outside so I didn't need the air conditioner, but even still, something was missing. I walked through the house, trying to find what was wrong. When I made it to the kitchen, it hit me. The constant hum of the refrigerator was gone. It's something so small & constant that you don't even notice it, until it isn't there.

With trepedation I carefully opened the freezer, only to find, in horror, that a puddle of water & various juices from once-frozen meat had collected at the bottom of the door. The pink, murky water glided on to my foot. I had just gone food shopping at the Commissary the day before.

Ninety percent of the food was ruined, and it took my incompetent rental manager a day and a half to return my dozens of calls to her "emergency cell phone". My ever-patient & supportive friend was kind enough to help me take inventory of what was lost, so I could relay it to our insurance agent. (Thankfully USAA's renter's insurance covers such obnoxious situations.) I spat out the name of each item as I threw it in the trash, while my friend diligently wrote it down. Slowly, my irritation turned to embarassment.

Sure, there was produce. And yes, I had skim milk & lean protein in there. Unfortunately those items were only peppered in between bags full of processed "lime-flavored" frozen chicken and my husband's infinite supply of frozen dinners that he took to work.  There were half-used cans of Betty Crocker frosting, salad dressings with at least 30 ingredients, and "diet food" with enough aspartame to grow a melon-sized tumor in a lab rat.

It was ugly - and something had to be done about it.