These Things Happen...At the Worst Times

As fun as living in a foreign country is, sometimes it can be difficult.  Little problems feel gargantuan.  Take for instance--hypothetically only, of course-- that you realized your refrigerator was dead.  What would you do?

You would probably call someone who could call a repair man for you or tell you where to take it to have it fixed.

In Japan everyone uses small fridges.  I've seen them at the thrift store and would go get a replacement--if this wasn't a hypothetical situation-- but there is one other little problem: we already have two fridges.  That's right, we have( I mean would have two dead fridges if this wasn't a...Oh forget it, our fridge is kaput) two dead fridges.  One was in our apartment when we moved in.  I have to draw the line at having three fridges.  Three fridges and you start to feel like the punchline to a joke.

So, our fridge went from purring like a kitten to standing like a small black monolithic magnet support.  We don't know who to call.  We don't know where to take it.  We can't talk to anyone on the phone and explain what happened.

When I first noticed that my yogurt seemed a little runny and checked to see if the fridge was working, I got pretty down.  How am I supposed to take care of this?  As a man, this is clearly in my arena.  But I'm helpless.

I carried all the perishable stuff to a neighbor's house and asked to borrow some freezer space.  Now, as I sit here typing away, stealing glances at that indolent, glib, black set of shelves I waver between being grumpy and cracking up.  I'll let you know what happens but it'll be a few weeks.  In the mean time it looks like we'll be eating a lot of peanut butter and..Doh the jelly is gone!  We'll be eating a lot of toast.  That is unless the toaster decides to turn itself into a tiny book rack.