No doubt this expression will resonate with this crowd, some more than others. One of my favorite all time movie quotes is from Fight Club: “The things you own end up owning YOU.” Perhaps no single possession better exemplifies this expression than a project car.
Now of course, in the developed world, we all rely on our possessions to survive, quite literally. Our clothes keep us warm and/or protected from the elements. Our homes provide shelter, and as for food? Arguable the single most important possession most of us have - when it comes to food - is the refrigerator. Yeah, the stove is close, I guess, though you don’t need a stove to eat. But unless you want to swing by your local grocer about every other day, you need a fridge.
I posted here back in early September that our just-under-its-2-year-warranty fridge was broken, due to some failed electronic component, evidently. And here we are, Thursday, October 18 and I’m at home awaiting the repair service’s THIRD visit.
A brief timeline:
- September 8 - fridge fails, displaying E6 instead of a temperature
- September 13 - tech shows up, sees E6. Calls tech line. 30 seconds later, has a diagnosis and orders parts.
- September 17 - repair company calls, says parts are delayed “indefinitely” due to the hurricane that struck North Carolina
- September 17 - I went out and bought the nearest fridge under $200 that looked decent from Craigslist, and put it in my dining room. We’d already had enough of living out of a mini fridge and a cooler.
- September 27 - repair company calls, says parts are on the way. Schedules a service call for October 3. We are out of the country. Reschedule for October 11.
- October 11 - tech replaces parts as instructed by Bosch tech line. No change. Calls tech line. They are in training for the rest of the day, can’t be reached
- October 18, today - The guy who told me he lives 20 minutes away, feels bad for how long this has dragged out, and that he would block off the whole morning just for us, has not called or showed up yet and it’s 10:19 right now.
On top of that, our internet isn’t working very well, so I’m having trouble getting anything done for work.
Sometimes, the things you own just end up owning you.
In other news, it snowed last night and it’s still quite cold and windy. The dog was like, dude I’m not sure about this just yet.
She’s now asleep in front of the woodstove. That’s where I’d like to be.
[update: Repair guy came, it’s still broken.] They replaced two of the three circuit boards in the fridge. Wouldn’t you know it, Bosch tech people now think the third board could be faulty, and could have taken out one of the two other new ones as a result. Now they’re ordering that third one, and a second replacement of the other. No doubt it will be another week before anyone can return. And I heard the person he was talking to on the phone say, “Now Bosch may have more parts delays because of the SECOND hurricane (Michael) that’s causing some issues in the Carolinas right now.” The repair guy is doing everything he can do, but Bosch... come on, man. Let’s just roll a new fridge in place of the old one and you can take your faulty one back, fix it and sell it as refurbished or something.
But you know what, my family is healthy, happy, safe and warm. This isn’t a REAL problem, as those go. Although I did just see the lights flicker in the house because it’s crazy windy today. Wouldn’t a power outage just be... special.