Dot`sThoughts

Freezer Defroster Day/ Thinking of Mother

Today I was thinking of my Mother. After spending yesterday re-arranging all the furniture in the front room ( or living room) my back and hands started telling me off. So, today I knew I needed to rest a bit. But I am one who never learned how to just sit and do nothing, so, freezer here I come was my next thought. It has been a few months since I last defrosted my freezer. To do that, I needed to be able to cram, yes cram everything from my 4 foot tall deep freezer into my narrower deep freezer in my side by side freezer/frig combo.. I finally ended up deciding what I would like for breakfast and dinner today, plus tomorrows meals because I couldn`t fit everything in. Leaving that much out into my refrigerator, I managed to -with some fancy packing- get the rest into the frig freezer. I will need to be very careful when i open that freezer or a lot of things might come pouring out onto the floor.

Now, this is where thoughts of my mother came up. Years ago no one had frost free refrigerators . So, every so often we had to turn them off and wait many many hours for them to defrost and it consisted of a lot of manual messy work. Years ago I saw this electric freezer defroster and I bought it for my Mother. Raising kids didn`t leave much spare change, so I didn`t spend money buying myself the defroster. My mother used this defroster for many years. Then came the year my father bought my mother a new refrigerator with a frost free freezer on the top over the refrigerator part. So, my mother never had a use for the defroster anymore and she gave it back to me to use. I lost my wonderful mom in 1995 and my wonderful dad in 1975. So, I have owned the defroster over 35 years now and it still works. Years ago we gave our huge upright freezer to a daughter because our family had gotten so small we no longer needed the large freezer. Then we bought a smaller 4 foot tall freezer which had plenty of room for us. But this freezer is not frost free, so I again started using the defroster to melt the ice and frost in this freezer. I never use the defroster without thinking it was one of the most useful gifts we ever gave my mother. I started working on the freezer a little after 5AM this morning and it was almost 8:30 before I was finished. Now, the freezer is washed and back on-- just waiting for it to run a while before re-stocking it with all that crammed food in the other freezer. One thing I always do is sort the meats and vegetables onto separate shelfs, being sure to check all dates so the older packages are left in front to be used first. Then on the third shelf I put all the quick meals and the garden vegetables that I froze. Under the third shelf is where I keep all the cold packs like the large and the smaller igloo cold packs so they are always cold and ready if I need them. Now that I don`t need them for all day family picnics, I still find them useful for keeping frozen meat and other frozen packages if I should get to the larger place about 35 -40 miles from my home. The smaller igloo chest and smaller igloo cold pack gets more use as it keeps the flavored water and the soda bottles cold all day at the family picnics and any short trips where we might be gone most of the day.

A few years ago I saw some racks with three high sides for use in the freezer and I bought two of them ( wish i had bought three). Find it much easier to see what is where when searching the freezer as I can pull the shelf out without having to bend way down to look. I have this problem that many seniors have-- don`t get down to the floor unless you have something to hang onto to get back up, especially when I can`t yell " Walt, I need help, I can`t get up". Today I usually keep a kitchen chair handy to lean on, of if near the sink, I reach up, grab the top of the closed in sink and use my arms to pull myself up, or I sometimes have to crawl across the floor till I get to something I can use to get up with. When outside working I keep my short handled pitch fork handy. It has a handle to hang on on the top of the handle, and when the prongs are shoved far into the hard ground, it works like a nice cane. I do my best not to get down that low, but if you trip and fall, you better have something handy or you will find yourself having to crawl along the ground all the way back to the porch steps and that is no fun.
Here is one time when I had wished Walt hadn`t waited in the car while i went into the drug store for a watch battery. Should have only taken me a few min utes. But I had to bend down to read the numbers on the batteries. I was down almost sitting on my heals and no matter how hard i kept trying, i just couldn`t get back up. I was sure feeling like a fool and even though i already foung the battery i wanted, I kept pretending i was still searching the batteries every time someone walked down that isle. I knew i couldn`t grab onto the shelfs as they might unhook lettinng everything on the shelf dump onto the floor. After what seemed like hours ( probably about 15 -20 minutes) the isle was empty and no one was in sight. Then i got on all fours ( hands and feet) and was able to push myself up enough to straighten my legs more and while pushing up with one hand I managed to get the other hand up near my knee and started pushing with that hand till I was able to also get my other hand up pushing against my other leg. Finally i was back standing again. By this time I was feeling exhausted.
When I finally reached the parking lot and started to get into the car, I remember Walt asking me what took me so long. He said he was about ready to come in after me. I told him, I wish he had and then told him what had happened. Those batteries used to be high up near the register. But they had been moved to the other side of the store hanging on the bottom rack near the floor. One thing that happened after that ordeal was that Walt never waited in the car again without asking me if I wanted him to go in with me. A couple times he even came in looking for me if I was in there very long. Usually I was just standing in a long line at the register when he came in.

If anyone ever asked me what was my most embarrassing moment this one would have qualified. But another event would have tied with it in first place. We were in a grocery store shortly before my twins were born. I told Walt I was feeling light headed and felt I should wait in the car while he did the shopping. He insisted I go in with him. As we hit the second isle, I again told him I should go back to the car. His answer was " You`ll be alright" . His famous words. My reply was " I can`t even see you, now will you believe me". That was all I remembered till I came to with some strange man carrying me through the double set of door out of the store. I got so scarred I almost passed out again till I saw Walt walking behind us. Seems Walt got so scarred he kept trying to pick me up, but he
couldn`t pick me up and another shopper hopped in to help him. This stranger no more sat me in our car when two of the girls who worked in the store came running out with a cold glass of water for me. I can still remember one of the girls apologizing, saying they had tried to remove the label from the glass but it wouldn`t come off. I was so out of it that I never thought to get the name of the man or the girls names. I always wished I had been able to better thank them. I remember thinking that man must have been real strong to carry me. I must have weighed about 135 at the time. Today, that doesn`t sound so heavy, but to someone who normally weighed 98 when I married and never got over 104 before normally, 135 sounded awful. Hope I never again embarrass myself like this.

Sitting here resting, I just remembered that I forgot to fill an ice cube tray so I would be sure when the freezer was cold enough to replace the food in it. I never have a need for ice cubes as my refrigerator is one of those with the light, cold water, full sized ice cubes or crushed ice all in the freezer door. But since I do not own a freezer temperature gauge, I find making ice cubes the next best way of testing for coldness. I just filled an ice cube tray. Now to wait and see how long it takes for the water to freeze. Of course there is always the mopping up in front of the freezer from the melting ice even though I use a cat plastic litter box sitting in the bottom of the freezer to catch most of the thawed ice that keeps falling. Bet you never would have thought of buying a plastic littler box for this use. it helps an awful lot. I also spread out a large 30 gallon plastic garbage bag on the floor in front of the freezer to catch some of the water. Right now, both the litter box and the plastic bag are drying on the side porch. The defroster has cooled off and put away till I need it again in the future.
Thank you Mom for remembering who gave you that handy defroster and for giving it to me when you no longer needed it. I am a lucky daughter to have had such great parents. They both taught me so much.