Thursday, August 13, 2009

Case of the Missing Refrigerator Shelf

Today for work (with my Uncle) I took on the task of cleaning out the refrigerator. It was a fairly arduous process and one that took a couple of hours (having food to feed 10 people is a fairly big task in the first place, after all, and Jennie hadn't even gone shopping!)

I started with emptying the fridge and wiping down the outside. And then once the appliance was completely empty, I unloaded all of the different shelves and relocated them outside where I could hose them off and wash them in a tub of dish soap. The loading and unloading with these awkwardly shaped shelves, that were constantly falling apart due to their multiple-piece design (sliding trays, plexi-glass pieces, etc.) made it incredibly difficult to manuever many of them at a time. One minute I was certain the glass would fall and shatter because of everything I had in my hands - the next minute I was carrying only two baby shelves. You know, the kind where you put the butter?

I decided that washing dishes in the front lawn, while admittedly redneck, is particularly pleasant in the summer. The mist of the hose being blown into your face, the accidental back splash onto your pants... it was all very refreshing, and nice to be out in the sun during the day. I've been doing office work, which I typically enjoy - however, it has been a while since I have been "cooped" in an office for 7 hours a day, and the quick jump into it this week has been...an adjustment. :) Ok, I know... the real truth is, that I haven't worked since November. And I happen to LIKE being a bum. Working for 8 hours a day was never going to happen my first week back on the job.

Anyway. When the time came to replace the shelves in the newly scoured fridge (it was looking good...) I realized that I needed help with the puzzle. I've never been very good, or patient, with puzzles so I recruited my co-worker, aka my cousin, Quin, and he and I set to work. Luckily, he made a fairly quick job of it - with only a few set backs - and we had everything in in no time. The only problem was, there seemed to be a lot of extra space.

That's what clean fridges look like. Right? Well, the thing was, both Quin and I were fairly certain that there was a shelf missing. But there wasn't really anywhere it could be. I hadn't being strewing appliance shelves all over the house and yard. My "mess" had been fairly contained on the kitchen counters, the hood of the truck and in the bathwater. If we weren't seeing the dumb thing, then it didn't exist. The fridge was just clean.

Or so we pretended. Quin knew better than I did. After all, he lives here. But when Aunt Jennie came home, she probably thought that we were completely retarded, because who just doesn't put the last shelf in the fridge? Orin, of course, was the one who really mentioned something during dinner. And if Orin notices that it is missing, it truly did exist and was in fact missing.

The question was: Where was the allusive shelf?

Did someone steal it from the bath water while it was soaking outside? Did the dog try to eat it? I KNEW I hadn't dropped it and broke it and then tried to hide the evidence... my aunt and uncle might have suspected foul play but I was innocent. Those darn construction workers, surely they wouldn't STEAL the tray?

False. All false. The missing shelf was located, sitting neglected and unwashed on a wooden stool on the OTHER side of the truck. So, I stuck the dirty thing in, washed it quickly and returned it to the kitchen. Now that the food is all back in, I dare someone to try and fit that loner shelf in there. He probably liked it on the black stool anyway.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Search This Blog

Related Stories

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...