The Freezer Door

    My granddaughter has been busy cleaning her room... ooops - she just hesitantly peeked around the corner into my room, barely making eye contact.  Standing back - asking if she can wet a paper towel to get the sticky stuff off her purple table.  I answer with a sharp yes.
     She quickly hops down the steps to the kitchen and just as quickly returns to her room and begins the daunting task of sticky removal.  She doesn't like when I am mad at her and she wants to put this nasty business of the freezer door behind us as fast as humanly possible.
     She left the freezer door open, this isn't the first episode of "freezer door left open in the basement" and it probably isn't the last.   But each time it happens, I get really irritated... seriously irritated.  Normally the open freezer door would be noticed in a short period of time, and there is no loss of the contents... Today was different.  
      Rai went down to get some ice cream out of the freezer on Friday night.  There was room in the freezer upstairs for the remaining ice cream so she didn't return to the basement.  Saturday we were busy and I didn't go down the basement.  Finally around 11:00 am on Sunday, I go down to the basement and the freezer door isn't just open it is open all the way.  
     My first reaction was one of being over the top "livid".  Yelling for Rai to come downstairs... I think there were a few choice swear words in this initial process.  I must have been a sight, standing in front of the freezer sputtering out partial sentences - I hit on topics such as how irresponsible it is to leave the freezer door open. How the poor freezer had been working so hard to try and keep the contents frozen and was fighting a losing battle.  I focused several partial sentences on the waste of good food, as I held each package for her inspection before tossing it into the trash can.   The partial sentence that came out of my mouth in regards to the estimate of loss, was off the charts - $500 is just not possible...  
​     If I am to be honest, some of those items had been in there for awhile.  I was never going to fix those frozen spicy hot potato fries... I'm not even sure I bought them.  Maybe one of the kids bought them.  The frozen - well definitely not frozen pizza, had been in there for maybe a long time.  The couple hamburger buns and the couple hotdog buns were never going to get eaten.  The unfrozen fudge bars were not that expensive - I probably bought them on sale.  That chicken was three years old and the cool whip I know was on sale.
     BUT and this is a big BUT - I was seriously angry about the turkey soup stock from Christmas and the frozen noodles.  I was looking forward to making turkey noodle soup this next week.  And the bags of frozen tomatoes from the garden - that made me sad.  I add those tomatoes to soups and I boil them down to make sauces - that was a loss.   
     The biggest most emotional loss were the meals from my daughter Sara.  She makes wonderful meals for her family and then fixes me a meal and puts it in her freezer.  When she comes to visit, she brings me meals on wheels.  I just have to pull them out of the freezer and warm them up and I have an excellent homecooked meal.    Those meals are stored near the front of the freezer so I can easily pull them out.  I think they were the first to succumb to the warming temps.   
     I didn't have half a cow in my freezer but I did have a box of pot stickers that I really like.  The loss is not that much and that freezer is weird... the door doesn't close on it's own.  I think the kids assume that the freezer door will close because the refrigerator upstairs closes on them all the time.  I shouldn't be that surprised that the freezer door was open and I should probably check the basement everyday - especially if the kids are getting something out of the freezer.   Or at least send them down to check it.
    On the plus side, the freezer is cleaned out and Rai has picked up, dusted and organized her room.  We still have to wash the food containers but, again on the plus side, Rai will learn a new skill and we will have some quality time together - especially now that I am calmer.  
​     On a side note - I want to thank that guy who closed my gas tank door at Max Design the other day.  I must have been driving around with that open for a few days.