Shabbat guests & Mitch's project - Day 1723 (Year 5, Day 254)

Zephryhills, FL

Just a few things I forgot to mention during the last few posts...

This past week, Mitch was working on a semi-large project.  You may recall, going back quite a while, that we were having some problems with the refrigerator, in that it was running hot and we needed to keep defrosting almost every week.  One problem had been that the fan burned out, which was resolved and it was working fine... until this week.  We noticed there was a huge amount of ice on the fins in the back of the frig part, which we've never had before.  Upon researching it, it was concluded that too much air was getting in due to the seal (gasket) around the door being either broken or not tight enough.  Unfortunately, they don't sell replacement gaskets - you have to buy the entire door, at a cost of about $900.  So.... Mitch took all 4 doors apart, cleaned the gaskets, used epoxy to close up some of the cracks and put it all back (and also used a heat gun to try to shrink the rubber a little).  So far (fingers crossed), it seems to be working very well.  Frig is running at a normal temp, no ice buildup, and the doors do seem to be closing much tighter.  Yay, Mitch!

As for Shabbat guests, we've hosted 2 (actually 3) people in the last 3 weeks.  One time, it was a lovely woman and her husband (Carla and Carl) who I know from the group I run on Facebook ("Jews on Wheels") and who happened to be in the area.  (She joined me last month when the shul hosted a spa night).  Last Friday, as we were taking our daily walk, we ran into our neighbor, Ellie, who is a retired musician (although she still jams and does local gigs).  She lost her husband just about a year ago and was feeling extremely down and lonely.  On a whim, we invited her to join us for Shabbat dinner, even though she's not Jewish.  She was so extremely grateful and it certainly did cheer her up (she also enjoyed learning a little about our customs).

Weather: has been in the mid to upper 80s all week, but will be in the 70s this coming week.  Still better than being up north!