The above photo is of my longtime friend "Trusty" the Frigidaire!
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Happy Monday All,
Blog 24 of 30 is a "Woe Is ME" kind of blog. I have blogged 28 straight days including the last 4 days of May...and most have been pretty positive blogs.
Heck...even this Blog is not meant as a downer blog...just a bit of a "woe is me" type of thoughts sharing blog!
This is a blog about goodbyes.
And yes...sometimes goodbyes are hard and they do not always have anything to do with saying goodby to someone...OR DO THEY?
Almost like a trip down Memory Lane.
As some of you know, I like to Travel the Dusty Backroads of my Mind...and this is one of those days!
Yesterday I mentioned that my garage Fridge appeared to be Giving Up!
I tried all I could to resurrect it aside from calling the repairman/woman. I guess 35+ years is a nice number for the Years we got out of this trusty old friend.
It is kaput and there is no turning back the hands of time for this old friend.
Yes...it has been in the garage for 25 years but it is more than just a garage fridge.
Its history includes: The first new appliance my wife and I ever purchased together 2 years after we got married.
The first fingerprints by both our Son and Daughter on an appliance were put on that fridge... Jake in early 1991 and Jaime in late 1995 or so.
The outside door and walls have held decades of photos of kids, parents, family, friends, weddings, deaths, obits, first step photos, first time drawings all the way to recent drawings and cards, happy and sad letters, picture collages, calendars, sports schedules from youth to pro teams, each year school photo, business card magnets,peanut butter, chocolate, and jelly marks, our mailbox key, and so, so much more.
It has been there like a faithful friend and I can unashamedly say that I loved that fridge.
It has held thousands of drinks and water in the past...the overflow turkey or ham...and the yearly big ass pan of mashed pototes after a holiday meal... and dozens upon dozens of Birthday cakes and pies and gallons of ice cream... and even more cold drinks both for adults and for kids...more than I should mention that I happily joined in on..popscicles by the hundreds both for my kids and all the neighbor kids and even for Robyn and me!
The incredible amount of ears of sweet corn number in the thousands and watermelons and cateloupe from Helgoth's Market number in the hundreds. In fact the last frozen items I took from the freezer this morning were 4 bags of sweet corn still mostly frozen.
Yes, it was a versatile, loyal, machine...always there 
in hot weather or cold.
It did not complain when I stored empty coolers on top of it for over 20+ years...and it was only a little T'd off when I dropped the last heavy TV we ever owned and raked the entire front of both doors. That TV sat on it for almost 15 years.
The photo to the right is that dang heavy TV on top of old Trusty back in 2013.
Graduation parties, wedding after parties, football games, school classmate functions, ball teams, Birthdays, cool evenings, thunderstorms, blizzards...all shared space with that fridge.
Hundreds upon hundreds of hands carressed those doors.
Each one of them a story in itself and a memory in the making.
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If you look close...You can see the empty bottle from the last
beer I ever shared with my youngest brother Matt...it still lays on the top shelf. The same shelf he sat it on Friday, November 29th of 2002...the last time I ever saw him alive. He said it was the best beer he ever drank.
We had talked about moving back to Kearney in the next year...and I would open a real estate office and he would get his license. I thought we had a deal.
He knew we didn't...but I did not know nor suspect how frail his mind was.
That empty bottle will be the last thing to come out of the fridge and it will find a new home in the next one. Suicide is forever for those left behind.
I leave that bottle in their both as a great memory and as a reminder that solving your own pain through suicide can cause unknown pain in others.
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Everyone that has been to my house knows where in that Fridge their favorite beverage was...Until today.
About 2 hours ago I pulled the plug...obviously not as serious as in a hospital...but I felt a little bit of my history leaving me when I did.
If you follow me close enough...you know I wear my emotions right out front for everyone to see. Whatever day this week that the fridge sees the sunlight for the first time in over 20 years...will be a sad moment for me.
I can replace the fridge...hell I can buy any fridge manufactured...price is irrelevant...but I can't buy the memories or the depth of the emotional attachment that I did not know was even there until this past weekend.
Until Next Time... When you pass that old friend you call the Backup fridge, or basement fridge, or garage fridge...remember that it holds more than just cold stuff.
It holds part of your life! Mike
Have a great rest of your Day and a splendid week ahead! m
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