The Heat Wave and the Busted Freezer
More about the photo above in a moment, but for right now you the reader should enter into this post expecting lightheartedness. The reason for this is simple - if I don't write this puppy in a jovial fashion, I shall run screaming into the night, and we wouldn't want that to happen now would we? I didn't think so.
Sooo... As the heat wave was finally beginning to ease almost to habitable levels, the wife and I unconsciously (and quite independently) took it upon ourselves to check the ol' freez-o-rator. (In retrospect it was one of those self-defeating compulsions like looking at your gut in the mirror after a shower - maybe, just maybe the situation isn't that bad after all... Right!) And sure enough, the God of Inevitability didn't let us down... A few things weren't quite frozen through and through. At that point it was nighttime, and the most prudent course was to wait until morning and pretend that the worst wasn't looming. And so it went... In the morning, Mrs. CCA went out for some bags of ice, I cleaned the coolers, and we both laid down the towels. It was time to gut the beast. Out came the chicken, out came the liver (sob!), and out came the almost frozen shrimp. Out peas! Out green beans! Out seasonings and chicken! Ho ho ho! Yeah, the coolers filled quickly. We added ice and moved on to the root of the problem - the vents that provide the cold air flow for the freezer were iced over. Only a couple of possible culprits - either the mechanicals (condenser/compressor/fan) were shot, or the machine simply couldn't breathe. Answer? Latter. The air intake was wearing a mohair suit. Oh goody. We defrosted and cleaned, but one problem remained... What of the drip pan that by then was no doubt over-flowing. To make an excruciatingly long story short, there was no way to access the drip pan according to Sears Tech Support. The best we could do was set up a fan and wait.
Sooo... That's the story of the heat wave and the busted freezer... Hardly any birds in the story at all except for the crows that will get the shrimp and whatever else looks safe.
Do you see why I'm struggling to be jovial?
See you by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding
Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding
