Sadness, happiness, joy and anguish; I have experienced all of these emotions this last month. 

I was involved in a conversation with my friend Harry the other day.  He asked me how I was doing and I responded with: "We have had two deaths in our family this last month."

"Harry's face fell and he said: "I am so very sorry to hear that."

"Me too," I replied.  My Deep Freeze and My TV both died.

Harry laughed.  It was a laugh of relief, and from that point on, I had a really hard time trying to explain to him how much stress these events put on the lives of both my wife and myself.

Our deep freeze was an old friend.  My wife and I purchased it about two months after we were married in 1967.  It was a large upright Westinghouse freezer. It was a used machine and we paid $75 for it.   We both showered our purchase with love and affection as we filled it with food.  That freezer lived with us as we moved from one Oregon community to another.  We moved from Warren to Columbia City, from Columbia City to Corvallis and then from Corvallis to St. Helens.  I remember the gallons of ice cream that it lovingly protected. I also remember Snorkel the pig, Sally the lamb, Buttons the cow, all creatures whose remains where at one time packed inside of our big Westinghouse.  I even loved the brand name. 

"Hey! Did you know that there was a rabbit in my freezer?"  I would say to an unsuspecting person.

"A rabbit?"  They would respond.

"Yeah, a rabbit.  I saw the rabbit and it looked at me and asked. "Is this a Westinghouse?"

…And I said "Yeah?""

The rabbit looked at me and said: "Well, I'm westing."

People would respond with a groan, but we did love our freezer. 

It was a sad day when I walked out into our garage and found a stream of water oozing out from beneath the machine.  The compressor had died.  The local store had a sale on Tillamook ice cream and I had purchased a six-month supply.  We had chicken and chops and number of other delicacies that died along with our wonderful old friend.  It was a sad day for us and our trash container was filled with things that smelled most foul.

We visited Stans Refrigeration.  Stan sold us our original freezer. 

"Stan our freezer just died."  I said

"You mean the one that I sold you when you lived in Warren?"  He asked.