Houdenbako Blog

Defrost My Refrigerator

I have one of those antique refrigerators... By a process of dead reckoning, and no real research on the physical artifact - I do see a plate with a serial number on it - I date my refrigerator to the 1960's. It reminds me of only one other refrigerator I have seen in person: A spare in my grandmother's basement that was probably new with the house in the early 40's. Every other working refrigerator I have encountered has had a somewhat more modern design.

Well, technically that was true the day I moved in to this apartment. I have definitely seen similar refrigerators since then... Like the one in my neighbor Paul's apartment.

At some point in our technological history, mankind decided that a container to freeze foods enclosed entirely within a larger container to chill foods was an idea worth abandoning. Some genius inventor drew out a system of separate containers with independent access doors, and this is the system as we know it today. Sometimes the freezer is above the refrigerator, sometimes to the side. Once, I even saw one with the freezer on the bottom. What will they think up next?

Ah... To Be Young Again

My roommate still didn't get it after I tried explaining the process a few times: You turn it off, leave the door open, and the block of ice melts in about twelve hours. But, you can't just walk away, because the water would run all over the kitchen floor, probably damaging it. He (just trying to get out of helping, probably...) made a lot of silly suggestions about how we might melt the ice really fast. Most of these suggestions sounded like a good way to damage the metal tubes carrying the coolant around the freezer. His best idea involved a hair dryer. Which neither of us own.

I find it really interesting that my roommate is very opinionated. About factual information. He apparently gets into arguments with a lot of people who are too stupid to know they are wrong. I usually just demure and hope he'll get tired of trying to rile me.

My position is a little different. I'm more Socratic. In my accumulating age (let's call it Wisdom, Jr. - kind of like the Whopper), I have come to understand that so many things are up for argument because there is no right answer. History is full of right answers that became wrong as soon as somebody tried to widen the discussion. And where human relations are concerned, it is often a matter of changing needs; shifting criteria. If you can compute the result, it probably needs a sell-by date printed on it.

I wouldn't try to say that there is no universal truth. What I do say is that we concern ourselves with situations that are not universal to begin with. So if you're right, you are probably only right within the confines of your own local context. Good on ya.

Did I Forget To Mention?

I better go back to the kitchen and deal with all that melting ice. I also explained to my roommate that if he wanted to be spared the trouble of participating, he needed to eat his food or throw it out. I gave him some warning... Although I figured that the trouble closing the freezer door might tip him off after a while.

I'm getting a bad impression of 20-somethings - Always claiming how right they are, but completely missing the cries for help from the refrigerators they rely so heavily upon. I'm reminded of "The Garbage Man" song from the Simpson's...

Can't Someone Else Do It?!

That someone else is me. I gotta go now. There's that half-gallon of cherry ice cream melting on the kitchen table, too. Mmmmm... Real Cherries.