Frozen in Time

Kat’s printer was running hot. As she pursued the idea of a replacement second freezer, she found comparison sites, product specifications, chat room conversations and online auction listings for both new and second-hand freezers.

She was determined to replace the broken-down freezer so that she could justify her bargain shopping. After all, that’s what she was best at.

But it had to be the perfect freezer at the perfect price. So her online search continued down multiple rabbit holes and the pile of printouts grew taller.

One of her searches led her to a whole new line of thought and her imagination was sparked by all the possibilities open to her and Bill now that they had the empty vessel of the broken-down freezer. It was perfect. She’d been worried about how to get it off the back verandah and past all the other piles and stacks. But now she didn’t have to bother with that.

She’d found an article called How to Upcycle Your Freezer. It had dozens of ideas about how to turn an old freezer or fridge into something useful, like a rustic barbecue accessory, a mini gardening shed, a bookcase or even a couch.

Bill could store his fishing gear in the old freezer and it could stay right where it was on the back verandah. No need to move it anywhere. Perfect. She printed out the article and returned to her search online. After all, she still needed a new freezer.

Meanwhile Bill, considering himself the voice of reason, tried to assert his “Man of the House” role. “Kat, we don’t need a new freezer. We have one and that’s enough.”

But Kat was unstoppable. “I told you. We need it for the annual frozen food sale.”

“Kat, we just threw out a whole lot of stuff that was out of date. It’s just you and me here now and we don’t need a year’s worth of frozen food.”

“We can invite the family over!”

“The last time we had people over at Christmas we poisoned them with out of date food!”

“Oh that’s just Bruce with his weak stomach.”

“We can’t afford to spend money on stuff we don’t need.”