the refrigerator....

so if you are keeping up with my posts you'll recall one from this weekend about how some items in my freezer were feeling 'less then frozen'... well. i put in a call to bob the landlord on monday. i outlined the problem, and the following are our conversations as best i ca remember them..

rb - bob, we have a prob with our fridge....etc

bob - hmm.. that refrigerator was left in the apt form two or so tenants ago.. i wonder if there is a warranty... well. i'm not going to bother to track that down.. it sounds like the thermostat is going bad.. do you know any refrigerator repair people?

rb - uhm, no......

bob - hmmm. well, i don't have a phonebook for somerville...

rb - hee hee, neither do we, we throw them away, i am sure there are some people listed on the internet..

bob - do you have a computer? my kid does, but i don't know how to use it.

rb - yes...

bob - would you mind looking up a repairman? i'll call them..

rb - sure..

a day or so goes by and i don't have time and i forget to look up a repairman.. bob calls on tuesday.

bob (via message) - i am going to call someone around here and see if he will work in somerville. i will let you know what happens. i am going away on vacation this weekend for 4 days, so i want to take care of this before then.

now its wednesday (today). i'm at work and its 1045am.

bob - hi, are you at home?

rb - no... i'm at work.

bob - well, i found someone to look at the fridge. he can meet me at the house at 1130. is that okay.

rb - sure!

about 1135 he calls back from inside the apt with the repairman..

bob - hi.. is it always this cold in your apt?

rb - yes...

bob - the repairman wants to talk to you...

repairman - hi, i just did a reading on your kitchen and its 47 degrees in here, is this the temperature that it was when you were having this problem...

rb - yes, probably.

repairman - well. i've checked out your fridge and it seems fine, but they can sense what the temperature is in the room they are in and they will adjust their cooling accordingly. so if it is too cold in the room, it will chill less. we run into this problem all the time with people that keep refrigerators in their garages and other unheated places.

rb - hmmm. so what temp should we keep the kitchen so that the fridge will work right?

repairman - i'd say about 60...

rb - okay, we'll try that...

bob - yeah, its cold in here...don't you leave the heat on even low while you are away or at night?

rb - i know. we don' t turn the heat on when we are not there, we just can't afford it. our heating bills have been outrageous this winter, around 300 a month.

so i hang up with bob. he calls at about 5pm, i ignore it. he calls again after 6 and leaves a message...

bob - uhm, i wanted to tell you that your pipes are going to freeze if you don't warm up your apt. and then everything will flood. in the kitchen in the ceiling there are copper pipes that run all through the apt and they will burst if they freeze. and under the sink. you need to leave the doors open under there so some heat can get in or you are going to be flooded out. call me back so we can talk about this.

uhm, no... we are not calling back. if he wants to pay our electricity or gas bill maybe we'll consider it. that house is so poorly insulated (if at all) that we might as well open the doors up to the outside when we turn on the heat. shiiiiiiit. i know he'll cal back. so i'll keep you posted. grrrrrr.