Refrigerator update

My appliance guy came by this afternoon, disguised as a fire chief (he IS the chief in a nearby town - almost everyone out here has two jobs). The problem turned out to be a fan blade that had detached itself from its mount. Simple fix, no moving of the refrigerator required. I am SO relieved. He is concerned that the blade will come off again, so he will bring a new one by in the next day or two. Meanwhile we can reload the refrigerator. Since the fan is in the freezer behind the rear panel, I'm leaving that empty for him until he installs the new blade.

Who knew such a thing could happen? We are so lucky to have a great repair guy nearby. He sells new appliances as well, but I'd much rather repair than replace as long as the economics of doing so make sense.

What's up with this?

I've never had such a difficult year for appliances. Usually we'll have a problem with one appliance over the course of a season, but this year it's been ridiculous. First it was the washing machine which was working but was clearly not happy and turned out to be a fairly easy fix of a broken spring. Then the dishwasher bit the dust. A few weeks ago we had to have a repair call for the refrigerator in the kitchen to fix one of the doors. Then the washing machine DIED right in the middle of the first wash cycle this past Sunday, a day when every room in the house had checked out. Thankfully I'm on good terms with my next-door neighbors who have a 26 room guest house and three washing machines. I was able to get enough stuff washed to get me through the next couple of days and my appliance repair guy sent his crew to me on Monday. The problem turned out to be the transmission and they either fixed or replaced it - I wasn't home to see.

You'd think that would be enough appliance trouble for one season, but this morning when I was making breakfast I discovered that my 2nd refrigerator - the one we store most of the B&B supplies in - was not all that cold. A thermometer showed temps in the 50's. I put a call into my repair guy around 8:15 but they weren't able to get to us today. We got the thing emptied out and all the important stuff is chilling away in the refrigerator in the cottage, but the unit in question is going to be a bear to move because it's really wedged into a spot in my office/laundry room. So on the one hand I'm really hoping the repair crew can get here tomorrow, but on the other hand it's going to be ugly when they do. Wish me luck.

Notable Guests

A lot of our guests are interesting, but we've had two especially interesting guests in the past ten days or so. Sadly, both had to leave before breakfast so my other guests never got to meet them and I barely got to chat with them myself.

The first was Ruby Dee Davis, who was in town for a fundraiser at the local theater. She's a sweet, lovely lady who arrived at about 5 p.m. on the evening of the event and was picked up at 7:45 a.m. to return to the airport in Boston. She was already packed and in the living room when I came down to prep breakfast at 7 a.m., although she was dozing on the couch. I was impressed that she'd gotten her suitcase down the stairs on her own, since she's quite petite and in her 80's. That suitcase was at least half her size! At any rate, she was snoozing on the couch so I let her be for a while. When I woke her, about 20 minutes before her limo was due, she asked me if there was anything she could do to help me. So cute!

The second notable guest I checked in yesterday. His name didn't ring a bell, but after I checked him in I noticed that his address was 5th Avenue in NYC. That's a pretty high-rent neighborhood, so I Googled him. He turned out to be an architectural luminary, someone who's work I knew but who's name I did not. One of his partners is even more famous. I was extremely sorry I didn't get a chance to speak with him at greater length. Sadly, my husband, who studied architecture, was out of town this weekend and didn't get to meet him at all. He left at about 8 a.m. to head back to New York.

Well, so it goes. Perhaps one or both of them will return and stick around for a few days.

Very Cool

I flew a plane today!

One of my husband's friends from the fire department owns two planes, a single engine and a twin engine, and was planning to take another guy from the department flying today, so he invited Adam along. Adam was committed to handling breakfast at the inn today (our Sunday ritual), so he offered me the spot. Despite having to get up a little earlier than I might have, this kind of opportunity doesn't come along often so I grabbed it.

I met Peter at his home at about 8:45 this morning. Moe and his two kids - six and around five years old - were already there. We drove to the little airport in Chatham where we boarded Peter's twin-engine Piper Seneca, similar to the one in the photo above, and took off. Peter gave us all headsets with microphones so we could talk to each other and we could also hear the information from small airports from Provincetown to Newport, RI.

Moe sat in the back with the kids and I got the co-pilot's seat. We flew past Monmoy Island hoping to see seals but there weren't many. Judging from the number of fishing boats out, there must have been lots of fish around today so we assumed they were all off feeding. Then we headed up the bay side of the Cape, getting a peek at the target ship off of Eastham, circling Moe's house, then the inn, then up to Provincetown. After we rounded the tip of the Cape at Provincetown, Peter asked me if I'd like to take the controls. Hell, yeah! I flew from Provincetown all the way back down to Chatham, made a second pass around Monmoy (still no seals) and aimed us towards the airport. The plane has a light touch at the controls, which sort of surprised me. It was remarkably easy to gain or loose a hundred or more feet in altitude, particularly while making turns, so holding steady took a little practice. Don't worry, I let Peter do the airport approach and landing!

Peter has been flying for 27 years and has been a flight instructor for 14, so I felt quite safe in taking the controls. He talked through the takeoff procedure, showing me all the various switches, levers, gauges, etc. That stuff fascinates me, someday I'd love to learn to fly.

The weather today was perfect: clear, sunny and low humidity. We could see all the way to Boston. The tide was low and that allowed us to see the old target ship off Eastham and what's left of Billingsgate Island here in Wellfleet, as well as all the flats where local shellfish are farmed. It was a terrific morning. I was back at the inn by 11:30 feeling pretty good.