Thursday, March 22, 2018

The Mayonnaise that Came in from the Cold


Moving always has its challenges. Along with divorce, marriage and pregnancy, this aspect of everyday life is fraught with stress and conflict. Ah, conflict! A word we all recognize in our search for writing tools. Without conflict, there is no story and certainly no point to the telling.

Humans grow and achieve, discover and innovate through conflict—the confronting and defeating of discouraging circumstances gives us opportunities to grow and achieve, find solutions and solve problems. Without conflict, testing or opposition, we tend to wallow in the marshmallow world of comfort zones.

When I moved earlier this year from the sunny shores to the high plains, I felt unnerved and insecure—out of my element. At the same time, excited and expectant of great things. Despite that trepidation and expectation, I was not prepared for the common realities of moving into an empty house with very little furnishings in my own possession.

One significant missing element was a refrigerator. The first few hours, the next day, were no problem. But with milk, yogurt, cream and mayonnaise in the picture, a cooler was the first choice because the fridge was scheduled for delivery in two weeks. While a cooler is fine on a picnic and great for the tailgate party, keeping the volatile mixture of raw eggs and oil at a safe temperature required much more than a bag of ice and a thin layer of Styrofoam.
 
Lightbulb moment. This may be the high plains but there’s snow in the front yard. 
 
Lightbulb flickers. Going outside every time a sandwich was on order when the temperature had dropped to 4° below began to wear thin. But one of the beauties of living in a small city in the high plains in the mountainous Midwest are the people. We learned that our appliance was delayed another few weeks. I presented my case. The manager of the local appliance store has provided a brand new fridge as a loaner until the one purchased makes its way to the empty space in my kitchen.

7 comments:

  1. Necessity begets creativity. Sorry for the inconvenience you're experiencing, but glad you're finding good people in your new home. Hope you make good friends and good memories there.

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    1. Thank you, Sandy. We are loving it here in the high plains.

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  2. Congratulations on your move. How exciting! Your post reminded me when my husband and I were first married and lived in Germany outside the base, we only had a tiny refrigerator and many times we used the outside as our cooler. Thanks for the reminder and enjoy your new home.

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  3. This isn't the first time we've used our friend, Mother Nature, to provide the necessary. One year, while we lived in Wales, our fridge gave up on Christmas Eve. We put the two ducks outside wrapped in bin bags! These things are not sent to try us, they're sent to make us think! Thank you for commenting, Fran!

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  4. Congratulations on the move! And what a lovely gesture to offer you a loaner refrigerator.

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  5. Our fridge broke down this past Christmas Eve so I understand somewhat what you've had to cope with. We have an extra fridge in the basement but the aggravation of bringing up what we needed and storing stuff in an already over stuffed cooler got old quickly. But it sounds as if you've landed in a warm spot. I hope you enjoy your new adventure!

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