random thoughts - Day 1,992 (Saturday) - hair and fridge

 

 A long-ago booked hair salon appointment came around today and I was off to Worcester. It was a nicer ride down (up?) Route 140 and a bit quicker than the drive from Lowell. The stylist is in a new space behind trendy, food-filled Shrewsbury Street. 

I misread the time and arrived 45 minutes early, which gave me a chance for a sightseeing tour around my old stomping grounds on a quiet-ish Saturday morning. I went over by Lake Quinsigamond for a drive-by of my first solo living apartment during the split with X1. I barely recognized the place with its new fenced in yard. I drove past streets where I remembered looking at apartments or where music clubs and fun times used to be had (Plantation Club!). 

In the salon it was peaceful and quiet and I got my 14-ish-week trim and my hair is now professionally blow-dried silky smoothness which will be immediately washed away the next time I put my head under the shower. 

Cracked.

A friend had mentioned appliances in a conversation this morning and I spent most of the salon visit thinking about my refrigerator which makes some weird noises and has a cracked produce drawer, a shelf with packing tape holding it together, no deli drawer, and some discolored scratches in the freezer and main compartment. Replacing the produce drawers in the existing fridge would have cost $100 and still wouldn't have fixed the noises, the shelf. or the icky scratches. 

I did a quick "appliance stores near me" Internet search from the salon parking lot and a few minutes later was at an appliance store I remembered from my time living in Worcester.  I marched in and bought a new refrigerator. It took about ten minutes. I told the sales person what I wanted (basic white, freezer on top), we visited the outlet room, I opened the doors of the four white units on the floor and said, "I'll take that one," pointing to the one with the glass shelves and squared off produce drawers. Boom. Done. The longest part was doing the paperwork and paying. It will be delivered on Thursday. 

The fridge purchase might seem a little spontaneous without my usual spreadsheet analysis and endless hand wringing, but I've been doing the mental gymnastics and thinking about it for weeks. I had looked online which was a good start for general pricing and availability of replacement drawers,  but not as  good as opening the doors to check features. 

The new one has similar features and with delivery and removal of the old one, cost about the same as the fridge bought last November for the house in Lowell. I never thought I'd buy two refrigerators in the space of about nine months, but I also didn't think I'd be laid off from a job and looking for another one. This is a year for big changes and I've been rolling with the ones I didn't initiate and owning and fixing the things I can control. I just hope 2026 has fewer big changes.