One of my many Achilles heels is that I just don’t get how things come apart or go back together. If I manage to get something apart without breaking it, I can’t get it back together. It doesn’t matter if there are directions or a YouTube video. With rare exceptions, I just can’t do it. I’d call Wade, and he’d do it. I lost that luxury when he died.
Today, my struggle was with the shelves on the door of the refrigerator. I was cleaning. I swear I have taken them out many times, but must have killed the brain cell where that information was stored. You can bet it reared its ugly head when I tried to get the bottom shelf back on the door. That’s where I keep the champagne, wine, and lemon vodka. The newest bottle to make it there was a bottle of bubbly from my daughter for my birthday. We didn’t finish it, so I dangled a spoon in the neck, having once read that was the way to preserve the bubbles until next serving.
I was so proud of myself having successfully taken the shelf out. I washed it and put it back (so I thought). I actually had to sit on the floor to do it because my 25 attempts while standing failed. I sat, got it on and re-loaded the four bottles I’d taken out. The shelf above that was the last to go in, mainly because I wanted to make sure to position it so the bottles below it would have enough space.
Once again, the shelf would not cooperate. Somehow, on my umpteenth try, the booze shelf below crashed to the floor. Clearly, I’d not triumphed on getting it back on correctly as I thought.
I swore, cried a few self-pitty/stupidity tears as I watched the bubbly from the open bottle make its way around the intact bottles on the floor before I rescued what was left in it. The good news, hanging that spoon in bottle did actually keep the bubbles in! It was only 11 a.m. so I resisted downing what was left in the bottle.
I should have taken a picture of the disaster to go with this post, but I ran for the paper towels and the Lysol, because I needed to out run the little ants (that thought made me laugh out loud) that have mysteriously appeared recently, for the first time ever in the almost three years I have been here.
I consider myself intelligent, inventive, creative, and somewhat stubbornly self-sufficient, but I will never get some of the things guys just seem to know.
Now I have to order a new shelf for the fridge. Ha! That should be fun. And then I have to put it back on the door!
p.s. I posted the above story on Facebook more than one week age, before I created this blog post. Since then, a few things happend- I discovered that some of my problem was that I mixed up the two shelves. Yesterday, I tried again and low and behold the two went in just fine in reverse order. However, when I look at how they attach, I still don't get it or know how that works. I likely never will. The clear plastic guard on the shelf is still broken, but the shelf is okay. Photo below shows how I temporarily remedied that. (Yet another single woman's use of duct tape!)
My landloard came a took care of the ant issue. They are gone.
I ordered a replacement for the clear plastic part of the broken shelf. It arrived from Amazon today. I haven't attempted that yet. Will it fit? If it does, can I install it? The mysteries keep on coming.
BTW, I purchased two nightstands that have to be assembled. Possibly another blog post on that. I hope not.
