Yes, I promised that I would not overwhelm you with newsletters, but between two releases this month and some truly great news I just had to share.
The truly great news first – We got our refrigerator!!! Finally!!! It was delivered on Sunday afternoon by two enormous gentlemen – not kidding. One had to be at least 6’8” or more. And they didn’t use dollies or platforms – they CARRIED the old one out and the new one in using straps and pure muscle power. I was overawed. The new fridge was installed (including a new icemaker water line) in under an hour – and that included changing the door for egress/ingress and the subsequent moving of some furniture! Once plugged in, it was running and a test dish of water in the freezer froze in about two hours. Wonderful! Especially after such sturm und drang in obtaining it.
We ordered the fridge on September 28. Our old one died about four days before we left for Egypt last September, so we decided just to leave it be and eat out until we got home. Ignoring fatigue and jet lag, the day after we got back we went shopping. Basically, we wanted a duplicate of what we had – a G.E. French door, ice and water on the outside, bottom freezer in white. You think that’d be simple, wouldn’t you? We expected to have one delivered within two or three days of purchase.
Wrong. Oh, we could have had a stainless steel (which I loathe) or a black one (ditto) in twenty-four hours – but not a white one. As we do not live in a laboratory or a morgue I did not want stainless or black. I wanted white. Nowadays it seems white is special order. (G.E., what on earth are you thinking???) One salesman even had the temerity to tell me that no one wanted white any more. I don’t know where he studied marketing, but I was taught it’s never good business to tell a customer standing there ready to hand over several thousand dollars that they are a nobody!
However – after hearing the same story from five or six stores (minus the ‘nobody’ insult, thank goodness) we decided to order from Lowes and were assured that we could have a white one delivered on October 23. Hmmm, but okay. We got an ice chest and hunkered down to camp out until then. (Nothing like camping out in your own home.) The 23rd came and went, and we were told there was a backlog and we could count on November 22nd. Not being a camping out type, I bought a cheap 4.5 cubic foot dorm fridge and put it in the sunroom. At least we could keep eggs and milk and cheese in it and not have to buy ice every other day.
November 22nd came and went and no fridge, but Lowes said because of the difficulty in getting some parts it would be here on the 21st of December and PROMISED me we would have it by Christmas. I asked directly if he meant Christmas 2022 and he didn’t answer. I should have known then. December 21st came and went and we were told February 20th.
And then on January 20th 2023 we got the call that our refrigerator hit the store and it would be delivered on the 22nd. They actually had the temerity to tell me I should be grateful as we were getting it a month early! I don’t call a four-month wait early!
I think both Lowes and G.E. owe their customers better and I caution anyone considering buying any appliance that is not stainless steel or black to think twice about them. Not least of all how dare any corporation have the hubris to dictate to anyone what they must have in their home if they want halfway decent service. A four month wait for something so basic as a white refrigerator in a common design! Unacceptable. After all, it’s not as if we wanted something in an exotic color like tangerine or cobalt!
Other than that, life here has been busy – and good. The Husband has finally finished his physical therapy for his shoulder. It was injured during his first deployment to Iraq and healed almost completely, but in Egypt he went down in the Bent Pyramid (one of the if not the most difficult descent open to tourists) and reinjured it. He took so long getting out I was debating sending someone in to see if he was all right… His shoulder injury took a lot of the shine off our trip and has pained him for months, but with good doctoring and lots of physical therapy all is well. (If you haven’t read my trip diary about our wonderful trip, it’s on my website!)
I’ve been almost overwhelmed trying to get out some new unpublished novels and some to which the rights have reverted to me. Amazing how those things pile up! Not really, though; I much prefer the writing to the publishing/publicity and have been very lazy the last few years. Have decided to release two books a month, and will send a newsletter announcing which ones when. Right now a sweet Regency romance THE MAGIC GARDEN (release February 1) and a women’s fiction ghost story GHOSTS OF BELLE FLEUR (pre-order now, release February 15) are up for pre-order. All these forthcoming gems will be freshly edited and formatted and most will have new covers. And all this while keeping up with my current writing schedule… Sigh. Maybe I would have been better off becoming a plumber or an accountant?
No, no way. I enjoy writing too much – as you can tell from the length of this newsletter!
Now I’m going to go cook something!
Happy reading!