Dang! When it rains, it pours!

Why is it, now that times are tough, EVERYTHING seems to be taking a shit all of a sudden? Lynn made a blueberry (sheet) cake thingy with some of the berries we picked last week, so I went out to the garage freezer to fetch a tub of vanilla ice cream. Ummm, ruh-roh George ... it was SOFT as P-hole's pecker at a whore house! I checked the temp setting and nothing has changed, but the thermometer read 20+ degrees. I turned the temp down to Max Cool and got it down to 10-degrees, but after a cool (60's) night last night, the freezer temp is back up to 17 this morning. It's in the 70's outside right now, but will be in the mid-80's later today. That thing is a 21 cu/ft freezer and is stuffed to the gills with (mostly) meat. Man-o-man, it's panic time! I jumped on-line to do a bit of shopping and have found MANY stores are sold out of the larger (non-commercial) freezers! I never thought of it before, but like toilet paper, I assume people are buying freezers and hoarding meat (since there are already shortages) and various frozen groceries. CRAP! This looks like another one of those pay through the nose items because it's an emergency and I have to take what I can get. Kind'a like trying to buy a portable generator when a hurricane is approaching. I don't think today is going to be much fun ... especially as we're trying hard to watch the ol' budget. :crybaby

When was the last time you pulled it away from the wall, cleaned it really good or had the refrigerant checked???.....of course, if it's really old, you might wanna just trash it. ;)

^^^^^that same thing has worked for me before with garage freezers and refrigerators before. Cheap fix sometimes!

Prolly has the coils covered in cat hair.

BKB

No cats in the garage. ;)

Normally, I'm a "fix-it" kinda guy, but this thing is crammed FULL of frozen food, mostly meat, so if it's taking a crap, I don't really have time to experiment. It's due for replacement anyway, the garage temps are many times in the 100's during the Summers here, so it works hard! I bought it when I bought this house (August 1989) so it's been a workhorse and should most likely be retired. Plus, I got a great deal on it. Monkey Ward (remember them?) had a "tent sale" in their parking lot for "scratch & dent" stuff and this had a humongous (but very shallow) dent in one side .... and it just so happened the dent was on the side that would be flush with the wall, plus it was to be a garage freezer, so who gives a rats-ass anydamnway? I think I got my money's worth out of this one! It's a GE (if that means anything these days) and it's worked it's ass off in that hot-assed garage all these years so it deserves a proper burial. I'm sure a new one will also be a bit more energy efficient than this 30+ year old unit, so there's that angle.

ugh

Well, we just got home. Gave up. Throwing in the towel. I tried shopping on-line but ran into nothing but "out of stock" notices. Lynn and I decided to head out to see if we could dig something up. First stop, Best Buy. They laughed at us and said they've been sold out since the first week of the pandemic!

Next stop, Lowes. COOL! They had a couple of freezers on the floor! BUT ... here's the sign that was taped to the door.

Attachment 11592


Ok, so I grab a passing sales associate and ask if there's any way I could buy the floor model. He just pointed to another sign a few units down the isle and walked off!


Attachment 11593


So, off we went to Home Depot. They looked at us like we were from Mars. Then Sam's, same deal. We hit a few large appliance stores ... zilch, zip, nada.

We gave up and came home. I called Costco ... don't have 'em, haven't had 'em and have no idea when they'll have 'em. We scanned Craig's List ... NOPE! Then a lightbulb went off! I was at an estate sale this past weekend and remember seeing a large, upright, garage freezer in their ad. I called my buddy to see if it sold and if not, does he still have access to the house? He said the FIRST guy through the door, on the FIRST day of the sale, purchased it.

Lynn and I are scrambling on the internet now and calling every mom and pop outfit in the area. So far, freezers are more rare (rarer?) than toilet paper! At least I can FIND toilet paper if I look hard enough. AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!! :(

Murphy's Law #1 = Owning a freezer that works flawlessly for 31 years, then decides to take a shit during a pandemic when freezers are non-existent on the open market.

Murphy's Law #2 = Packing a freezer FULL of meat and other perishable foodstuffs just in time for it to take a shit! :banghead

I found a few around Tampa on the FB marketplace but they seem pricey. I forget exactly which town you live in but thought Tampa was close.

Yep^...Try FB marketplace!

We found two on F/B and emailed them this morning. So far, no reply. My guess is, they probably sold the minute they were posted. Lynn handled that, so I’ll see if they’re the same listings. What sucks is, after going to all the effort to get the old one out and a replacement in, I sure would prefer having a new one. But, right now, beggars can’t be choosers. Our best friends own all the Subway stores in town (12-15 of them) and they’ve kindly loaned us freezer space at one of their stores two blocks from our house. But, of course that’s temporary until we can get a handle on the situation.

Cotdammit, my chest freezer is probably give out tomorrow just because I read this thread!


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Originally Posted by Thumper

Our best friends own all the Subway stores in town (12-15 of them) and they’ve kindly loaned us freezer space at one of their stores two blocks from our house. But, of course that’s temporary until we can get a handle on the situation.

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Not being nosy, but do you have ANY friends who are not connected to food.....asking for a friend. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Big Muddy

Not being nosy, but do you have ANY friends who are not connected to food.....asking for a friend. ;)

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hahahahahaha!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Big Muddy

Not being nosy, but do you have ANY friends who are not connected to food.....asking for a friend. ;)

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I'm thinking ..... still thinking .... ummm, I'll have to get back to you on that. ;)

The plus side is, we're actually considered family and we eat for free in any of his stores if we feel like having a sub. A very nice perk for being close friends with the "boss". I mentioned a couple months ago about a friend passing away suddenly and how we helped his sister clean his place out. I even sold his car for her and she split the sale $$$ with me which was unexpected. Anyway, she's the wife of the Subway owner. It was also her mother who was is hospice last year where I'd go in at 4:00 am every morning to sit with her, even though she was basically comatose. We eat at their house probably every other weekend (well until the stay-at-home-order). She bakes and specializes in deserts. He's Chinese and a great cook. When there, he and Lynn usually handle the cooking chores and I simply sit patiently at the table holding my knife and fork! We also go out to dinner with them quite often (always their treat since they are multi-bazillionaires and we're paupers), so we get to eat at some classy, high-dollar joints. We've gone on family cruises with them, Lynn traveled to China with them one year (I had to work) and I play Santa at their annual family Christmas party. Heck, he's a Florida State grad and they bought a house in Tallahassee just so they have a place to stay during any FSU home games. They have a suite at the stadium and we've spent quite a few weekends at the Tallahassee house on game weekends. They're HUGE FSU fans and even donated a cool quarter mil to the university recently. GOOD besties! :thumbsup

https://foundation.fsu.edu/our-impac...iness-building

All that is just to say we are VERY close friends and considering they are big-time foodies, we get along very well! He once paid $1000.00 for ONE Alaskan King Crab at a pricey Chinese restaurant (which was just one course of probably 10-15). ;)

Interesting. my niece mentioned on FB they were looking for one.. Lowe's told them 6 weeks out.. "maybe". .. and I just looked in ours (we have two).. For the past couple/three years we have been buying beef off the farm.. Just wasn't thrilled with the quality to past two times - so I cancelled out - like 6 weeks ago.. dumb-ass.. kinda bare in there. ;) looks like there's quite a bit of deer and turkey.. and fish won't be a problem.. somewhere I heard from a very wise man.. Dang! When it rains, it pours! ;)

Our local big box stores have got plenty of freezers, but only available for in-store purchases.....no on-line orders accepted.