Man, I'm quitting journalism and going into appliance repair.

Today, the Sears In-Home Repair guy came to fix our now-doubling-as-a-heater refrigerator/freezer. The problem? The electrical relay to the compressor unit had overheated and shorted out. It was burned pretty badly. Good thing it didn't start a fire.

Anyway, after tinkering around for less than a half hour back there and getting it going, I'm charged $212 total. Here's the breakdown: $45 for the relay, $168 for the labor. Jesus Frigidaire Christ! I don't think my dad makes that much in labor, and auto repair labor is a ripoff as well.

But, at least the fridge is fixed now. We need to wait until tomorrow to let it cool down inside, and we had to basically throw out the contents of both freezer and fridge, but at least it wasn't fully stocked or something like that. So we're out that food, but it wasn't the end of the world. And it didn't cost enough to warrant getting a new fridge for a place that we'll be selling in a couple of years.

Otherwise, that's about it. I fell way behind at work because of this ridiculousness (I had to stay home all day because they gave me a "window"--read, picture window--of 8am-5pm), since I wasn't prepared for this to happen (I called them last night and they said they had an opening today) and all my actual work was actually at work. So, late nights ahead, not surprisingly.

For now though, good night...