I Never Saw It Coming

I went to bed last night much the same as other nights. You know: with pillows piled up a half-mile high, one bare foot thrust out from beneath too many blankets, and a book-on-tape muttering nonsense from my cell phone.

Little did I know that on this night there was an ice cube tray jutting forward in my freezer just enough to prevent the door from closing entirely. It was only the slightest bit ajar. You'd never notice. Even I had no idea anything was amiss until I opened the refrigerator on a hunt for eggs this morning, looked down at my wet toes, and spied a tiny puddle on the floor.

Everything in the icebox had thawed just enough to be unsafe to refreeze. Even my tots! I will miss them. I filled a medium garbage bag with soggy tots, not-so-frozen vegetables, and a big bag of freezer-burned shrimp I had planned to throw out a month or two ago. I was nearly done bagging them all up by the time the trash truck pulled away, too!

Today is pickup day, you see. And the weather is growing warm; threatening to spring soon. A welcome relief, but the higher temperatures also mean if I put all that food in the cans outside now, it will stink to high heaven by next week's pickup. In the meantime, I have a freezer full of spoilt food, double-wrapped in white plastic bin liners to babysit.

On the bright side, the weekend is here!