POLLO CON AGUA or "What Sweden will look like when the polar icecaps are defrosted"

For those of you born in the seventies, you probably remember watching your parents when you were a child defrosting the refrigerator freezer. While this is surely a foreign concept to today's frost-free refrigerator owners, some of us still live with and carry out such ancient practices. Simply put, certain older refrigerators have freezers that will in time resemble an iceberg if not defrosted. For example:


While the photograph above is NOT our refrigerator freezer, we do happen to have such a potential Titanic sinker in our kitchen. The refrigerator came with our lovely apartment and was not a family purchase. However, it has proven to be reliable and most effective in keeping our food and drinks cold and fresh. I am not sure how old the unit is but based on the General Electric logo on the door it was probably made by good old American laborers in a long ago closed factory.

It seems advanced for it's time as one simply has to follow a few simple steps:

1. Turn the switch to "DEF".

2. Let the frost melt into the tray.

There is a third and very important step which I will get to in a moment.

My wife, being the responsible person that she is, defrosted our freezer the night before she left for her business trip. I dropped her off at the airport at 5 am Tuesday morning and began my life as a husband with a faraway wife. Still, life goes on.

Upon arriving home from work on Wednesday evening, it occured to me that perhaps our sadness at being apart was so overwhelming that we forgot step three of the defrosting process:

3. EMPTY THE WATER TRAY!

I opened the refrigerator and found drops and small puddles of water all over the containers, bottles, fruits and vegetables. All the ice had melted and the tray had overflowed into the refrigerator. I immediately threw out the overflowing water and conveniently saw this useful piece of advice on the inside-bottom of the tray:

It was important for me to throw out the aforementioned water so that I could read this clearly. I managed to get the situation under control as I was able to dry up the refrigerator fairly quickly.

Sadly, there was a victim in this tragedy.

I had purchased a couple of rottisierie chickens the day before with the intention of having them as my meals throughout the week. They come in a nice plastic container with sturdy lids. Unfortunately, these lids also have four small holes for ventilation so that the chicken doesn't continue to cook once it's off the skewer. These holes apparently serve a different purpose if one was to pour water all over them:

If you've ever wondered what a rottisierie chicken looks like when it's completely submerged underwater... wonder no more.

On a positive note, the chicken caught so much water that it saved me from cleaning up a HUGE puddle as opposed to the little ones I had to wipe dry. Also, the other chicken was spared from a horrible drowning death.

As you can see my love, I'm doing just fine. I still miss you but I'm doing a hell of a lot better than the chicken.