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refrigerator by Subaru
Tuesday, August 23 2016
I was completely back to normal today. I might've eaten one antacid, and it actually did some good when I did. I've found that I've been craving fermented foods such as pickles and sauerkraut; they seem to soothe my indigestion, even when it threatens to be the acid kind. You wouldn't think eating acidic foods would be of much help for acid reflux, but the body is complex, marvelous thing. And, over the long term, antacids just make the body compensate by generating more stomach acid and, while acid is reduced, they cause other problems as well.
Over at the brick mansion, the refrigerator in 1L continues to drip water from the freezer into the refrigerated compartment. I've tried everything to fix the problem, but it's still happening. So today Gretchen tracked down a used refrigerator on Craigslist, and, due to schedule issues, the most convenient time for me to pick it up was tonight. There was some doubt whether this refrigerator would fit in the Subaru. It seemed like one of the available dimensions (the height of the cargo bay as measured at the hatch door) was just a little too small. But Subarus are great in lots of ways, and one of those ways is that things in the way can be easily removed. Using my bare hands, I removed a long skinny piece of plastic that defined part of the slightly-too-small dimension. Under it were three metal clips secured by fat 13 mm bolts which could be easily removed. With all that out of the way, the cargo space opened up to a little over 29.5 inches, which was just barely enough for the width of the refrigerator. (The depth was over 30 inches, so it would have to lie on its side.)
The refrigerator was down in Ulster Park south of Port Ewen. From Hurley, there's no best answer for how to get there. I decided to drive out I-587 (world's shortest interstate!) to Albany and then cut over on Flatbush Avenue to 9W, a route I've only rarely taken and that seemed unfamiliar (and unexpectedly rural).
The sky was rapidly darkening from the coming night as I arrived at the appointed house. While the man of the house went to fetch the refrigerator, I chatted briefly with the woman of the house and a very extroverted little girl, who ran off to fetch her robotic dog-shaped stuffed animal Violet, which featured sound effects and a patch on its chest that could glow any color of the rainbow. While showing me all that Violet could do, the little girl happened to notice a star in the sky, and it was an important-enough news item to immediately pre-empt the show & tell. "Look! A star!" she cried. I turned and looked and said, "Actually, that might be a planet." The little girl didn't know what to think of that. Evidently her parents had yet to introduce the concept of planets, and, judging by the subtle and not-so-subtle cultural hints I was picking up, I had my doubts they ever would get around to it.
It looked like the refrigerator was just barely going to fit. And the seller dude and I still had to back it out at after the first try so I could remove the last of the bolts holding the little metal clips. As I did so, I was little concerned I might be removing something structurally important. We couldn't get the refrigerator all the way in, so I strapped the hatch down as far as I could and tightened ropes and straps across the back-facing bottom of the 'fridge in two dimensions. Total price for a ten-year-old Amana: $175. The seller told me that if I was ever in the market for other household appliances, etc., to just call him. I said that, yes, as a landlord with a four-unit property, he would be a good guy to know about.
Back at the house, I dealt with a new problem that had suddenly popped up: the Prius wasn't starting. Evidently its battery had died. But of course, when one is talking about a hybrid and one says "the battery has died," what one means is that the little 12 volt battery (which all cars contain) stopped holding a usable charge. Now to me, given the fact that hybrid cars also contain massive battery banks that hold high-voltage charges, it doesn't make much sense that there would be any need for a small, conventional car battery. Why not just use the power from the big battery bank? The last time I spent much time wondering about this was when the battery in the Honda Civic Hybrid died, but that car always seemed like a cobbled-together mess compared to the more fully-realized Prius. In any case, all I needed to do tonight was charge up the Prius' little 12 volt battery so I could make it to a dental appointment early tomorrow morning. I jumped it with the Subaru and then drove it up Dug Hill Road a mile and then back. Then the question becomes: is the car recharging the 12 volt battery even when the gasoline motor is off? I mean, it could just charge it from the massive high-voltage battery pack. But if it's doing that, why even have a 12 volt battery?
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?160823 feedback
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