I have never had a refrigerator that was not subject to periodic power
failures. The severity and frequency of the outages varied from several
small interruptions per day to extended power failures lasting sixteen
hours or more; the former could be ignored, while the latter usually
meant throwing everything out and starting afresh.
As I grew up and started working with computers, a succession of power
backup devices entered my life, and I eventually became accustomed to
“uninterrupted” power, but it was strictly rationed. I was never able to
connect anything but the computers and networking equipment to the UPS,
and certainly nothing like a refrigerator.
So I have never experienced refrigeration as it is meant to be.
Until now. Thanks to our solar power setup, we have been able to keep
our refrigerator running without interruptions for several weeks on end.
Suddenly it feels as though we have a magical new refrigerator in which
food doesn't spoil. Coriander and green chillies stay fresh and usable
for days. Cream skimmed off the top of boiled milk is something we can
collect for the rare fettucine alfredo. Our precious cheese collection
is something we can enjoy at leisure. These days we don't have much in
the way of leftovers, and we can use fresh vegetables from our kitchen
garden often enough that we store only a few in the refrigerator, but
everything remains usable for an absurdly long time.
Today is
a festival
that has something to do with
a water monster.
I'm not very clear about the details, but there's a crocodile (or half a
crocodile) involved in some way, and that's good enough for me. So in
honour of the water monster, we cleaned the fridge today. Nothing was
spoiled, and the dreaded “fridge smell” was very faint. The fridge is
now spotless, and the monster is appeased.
Sometimes the most mundane of insights can seem profound if it comes
from experience: modern refrigeration is pretty nice.