Amy Lu's View

“Hey there, Hot Stuff….Oh wait, that’s me.”

me, as the Devil, in “The Brothers’ Grimm Spectaculathon“–catch a performance this Friday or Saturday!

Yes, I have literally been hot stuff this last week–our central A/C is broken. And yes, this happened right before it got in the upper 90’s and has included yesterday, when the temperature soared to 100 in Minneapolis. 

Luckily, we’re able to have our A/C and furnace system replaced this Thursday. So there’s no need to worry about us or feel too sorry for us–either now or retroactively. Chad was able to pick up and install a window A/C unit for our bedroom, and that has made this whole experience much more bearable–at least we can be relatively cool to sleep. And he installed awesome ceiling fans last summer, plus, our basement stays quite cool. 

Chad even got me an “Arctic Air Pure Chill” personal portable cooler which is surprisingly effective and includes mood lighting! (I’m also thinking it will come in handy when I hit menopause).

I know we’re so fortunate to be able to afford new Central Air, and window units, and fans, and Pure Chills. Many people around the world don’t have these amenities. We’ve never been in danger, just uncomfortable and grumpy. This has been a lesson in gratitude and perspective (I never thought an 85 degree day would feel as good as it did today after yesterday’s 100).

I should be tougher. Didn’t I grow up without Central Air or even window units until I was at least 25? Yes, indeed I did…but I’m more pampered these days and it’s hard to go back to a more spartan lifestyle. And, sadly and scarily, I do think global warming has made summers hotter in my not THAT extensive lifetime. 

So we’ve been fine, if slightly surly…until our refrigerator died (to be precise, it’s only “chilling” to 65 degrees–just enough to keep Diet Coke, etc, slightly more refreshing than room temperature). 

We’re still fine (unless we get food poisoning) just more surly.

Yes, appliances in our house that are in the cool business are mutinying. (Is there a specific deity for them that we’ve offended?) 

We have to take some responsibility–we knew our refrigerator was failing, and Chad’s been looking for a replacement, but we just didn’t expect it to give up when it did. 

Again, we’re lucky that we can afford a new refrigerator without too much stress, but what a hassle. (Definitely feel free to get out the tiny violins). 

Mostly, I’m swimming in a pool of anxiety about our food going bad. I thought it would be okay if we transferred everything to our basement refrigerator that we have mostly for beverages, but then today realized that refrigerator was only cooling down to a 46-51 degree range. (Refrigerators are supposed to be at 40 degrees or lower for food safety). 

Was our food already bad by the time we realized our main refrigerator wasn’t working? How bad did it get sitting in our basement refrigerator before I realized that also wasn’t cold enough? When will we know? Surprisingly to me, food poisoning takes 6 hours to 6 DAYS to kick in. Wow. I really hope it doesn’t kick in during one of our play performances (did I mention we’re in a play and you can catch a show this Friday or Saturday night) because even though we have a bit in the show about actors getting food poisoning, I really don’t want life to imitate art in this case. 

So I just got finished with throwing all our refrigerated food out (freezers are still working, crossing my fingers.) I DID think “Well, we’ve already eaten some of it so why bother?” but I think it’s likely just to become more problematic and that our risks for problems will go up. 

Throwing food out is a tedious and dispiriting process (which I did about a month ago when we lost power) that makes me sad–I really hate wasting food. I know that many folks probably think I’m overacting (Chad does) but it’s just not worth me obsessing more than I already am. (I feel I should add I often eat vegetables without washing them which is definitely a risk that I recklessly embrace).

Fortunately, I think our cheese can be saved, and the worst thing that happens to not-properly-refrigerated kombucha is it starts getting alcoholic. (Although if we died by improperly refrigerated cheese that would be REALLY stupid, and another unfortunate example of life imitating the art of our play). 

I’m not sure what we’re going to do with any fresh food until the new refrigerator comes next week, but we’re hoping once we defrost the basement fridge it will once again be up to the task of food chilling. Maybe we’ll just eat frozen food and chips, which we have been known to do. 

I’m just thankful that we have peanut butter, english muffins, oatmeal, and coffee for breakfast tomorrow. And that alcohol doesn’t have to be refrigerated.