Changing of the Guards (…I mean the refs!)

This post may look quite trivial to some readers. But for me, the subject of the post holds among others, a strong sentimental value.

Last June 3, upon my wife’s request I picked her up from work and we went to SM Fairview. I thought we were just going to buy the regular groceries when she told me she loaned some money from their credit association to buy a new refrigerator. She had been egging me regarding the matter for quite some time now. However, I simply had no disposable budget for the purpose during this tuition fee and school supplies etc. buying period. I understood her valid concerns so we went through the available refrigerator units and bought one.

Back home, I found myself looking intently on our old and weary Coolermate ref, an appliance that had served my family for over 18 fruitful years. Along with a Yupangco karaoke, the ref was one of the first items that Odette and I bought even before we even got married in ’91.

Our old but “loyal” Coolermate refrigerator

A marked down display unit that had been used, the Lord knows for how long, its original motor conked out after giving my young family around three years of service. It was replaced with a new compressor motor and since then has considerably been running ok. But the years have taken its toll. A broken freezer door and shelf rack, leaking door gasket and numerous lamp bulb replacements later, it had to be retired.

Indeed, though not in the most efficient and cost-effective way, the old geezer continued to prolong the freshness of our food and made our drinks cold, a testament to its long term reliability and service. Though inanimate, its loyalty and genuine service to my family will ever be more than what many of our present legislators actually provide their respective constituencies.

A well deserved retirement for our jaded ref

As scheduled, the new refrigerator was delivered to our home last June 6, a rather rainy late Saturday afternoon. A 2-door 8 cubic feet Condura with a manual defrosting system and high EER rating, our jaded veteran paled in comparison to its new and bigger counterpart. Honestly, with the quality of commercial products nowadays, I’ll be very pleased if this new one works well even only for the next ten straight years.

Changing of the guards

Our old ref may be retired for now, but if our new ref doesn’t live up to its reputation, it might just kick the new one’s butt and help us one more time.