As I sit typing this column, a cold egg sandwich lies beside me in a sandwich bag. There's something about a cold egg that just isn't appetizing. I suppose egg salad or boiled eggs might be listed as exceptions, but there is something slimy and unwelcoming about a cold egg. If a breakfast food is ever hot, it should always be eaten while it remains hot. Cold gravy and biscuits? No thank you. Cold oatmeal? You can have mine, too.

I don't even like cold coffee, either, even though I have some in a cup on my other side. However, some things should always be cold, like the interior of a refrigerator, for instance. However, that isn't always so. The old refrigerator that I had used to temporarily replace the newer one that quit working has now died on its own.

It was partially working this morning, at least in the freezer. The temperature was staying in the 40s on that side, leaving the refrigerator in the 50s or 60s. Instead of going back down the repair route I took last time, I decided to throw the thing away. There comes a time when convenience trumps expense. In the case of refrigeration, it has risen to a level of importance even higher than convenience. I'm not sure I would be able to live the same quality of life without one.

After all, where would I keep my mayonnaise and butter? We don't even have a spring on our property, let along a spring house in which to store that kind of stuff. I can remember seeing people use springs that ran through the house to cool their milk and such, but I haven't seen that since I was a boy.

As usual, I'm not seeing one problem, but several. Every time I get a few dollars ahead, something like this seems to come along. I just re-started my savings plan last month after bankrupting it last year with unexpected expenses. Now it's back to the drawing board. Oh well, I'm sure it will turn around before long. Besides, I still have the economic stimulus payment that I've not received yet to help pay for the new refrigerator that I didn't want to buy. After all, the government did say that we need to buy things to help boost the economy. Speaking of buying things, I might not have known there was a problem if I hadn't bought some ice cream the other night. I stopped by the grocery store and picked up some rainbow sherbet for the kids and some vanilla bean ice cream for me, a can of walnuts and some chocolate whipped cream. I always try to ensure that the children have a nutritious snack, so I decided to add ice cream cones and chocolate syrup the the list.

When I took the ice cream from the freezer later that night, it was very soft and the sherbet was partially melted. That's when I put the little thermometer that looks like a flip-flop into

the refrigerator temperature and found out the temperature was around 55 degrees. Luckily, we have two more freezers that can be used in emergencies. However, one of them didn't appear to be working all that well. At least the other one is still doing its job and was able to receive the remainder of the freezer foods. Realizing that the refrigerator's freezer was still cold, I moved the fresh food into the freezer and started searching for a replacement. Luckily, I located a reasonably priced model in Sparta and even had it delivered. It was probably the best $25 I spent during the whole experience.

Just before this happened, I had decided to replace the kitchen stove and dishwasher with more current models. That came to pass because I came across a nearly new dishwasher in good condition for a reasonable price. The same day I installed it, the refrigerator died.

The stove that I removed, a 1960s model avocado green, was very unpopular with the chef. It got even more unpopular when two of the four eyes stopped working properly. Just like everything else, it'll work out. Until then, we may have to live on whatever can be made in a crock pot, microwave or grill. Sounds like we might be having microwave popcorn, pinto beans and grilled meat for a few days. But, since those are all family favorites, I'm sure that'll be fine. Besides, there's a side burner on the grill, too.

And I just started that dining room renovation project last week. Likely I'll be looking for ways to cut costs wherever I can.

You know, when I look around at other people, I don't see as much of this kind of excitement in their lives as I have in my own. Perhaps I should use that information to learn some sort of a lesson, although I'm not sure what that might be.

Anyway, the work in the dining room has again thrown the rest of the house into chaos, with the dining room table in the living room, boards in the hallway, one wall partially exposed and the rest of the room's furnishings randomly scattered about the house like refugees in a war zone.

I have temporarily stalled in the dining room renovations, mainly due to three factors: focus, time and rain. Specifically, the focus was lost on the project when I started having appliance adventures, I'm facing a life with too little time and just survived a week with too much rain. An unspoken problem could have something to do with malaise, but not the stuff you spread on a sandwich. It's already in the freezer.

There has been some progress, but it looks much worse now than it did when I started. I worked for a few hours hours last Wednesday evening removing the old windows before church, but didn't have time to put in the new ones. So now I have two blankets and a tarp covering the hole between inside the house and outside the house. When the light hits the blanket, it turns the room a warm blue color, reminiscent of stained glass. I'm afraid its beauty has been lost on the other residents of the house, who simply want the new windows installed yesterday. When I took out the old windows, the temperature was in the mid- to upper-60s and the sun was shining. I don't think I've seen the sun since then.

In fact, the very next night the temperature didn't get above 40 degrees, day or night. Thankfully I still have plenty of scrap wood that needs to be burned up. I hope that I will be able to finish the windows on a sunny afternoon this week, if one of those ever again occurs. In looking at the forecast, it would appear that there is a chance of either rain or storms daily between now and Saturday.

Maybe I should instead focus my efforts on building an arc. Well, there hasn't been that much rain, but it does seem like it when you're the fellow with a blanket covering a hole in the dining room wall.