FREEZE! Or don't...

There are smells you never forget. This week, I met a new one.

So, my brothers and I are starting to work on cleaning out my Aunt's estate (she had no children, so we are handling things; one of my brothers, who lives in the area, is the executor, and my other brother and I are coming in to help as we can). In her pantry was a freezer. Full of food. Which apparently hasn't worked in ... untold months. That freezer, it's a full-blown lab experiment of mold, insects, and who knows what else. And it's quite an odor factory.

The pantry it's in? It's basically a large storage room, but the door OUT of the pantry - the door to the carport - was blocked by shelves and storage drawers. The other door into the pantry from the kitchen is too narrow to fit the freezer through. So, that leaves moving the shelves and storage drawers in order to get the carport door open in order to remove the freezer.

And a lot of work.

Ever try to move a chest freezer? Ever try to move a chest freezer full of molding, rotting food? And "liquid" of unknown origin? Yeah, that thing's heavy. My "big" middle brother (the one who could possibly lift it by himself, except he also has back issues), he was conveniently absent at a doctor's appointment while my little brother (who is taller than I am, but we both are computer geeks who work desk jobs) were left to deal with the freezer (this is "step one" for clearing out the pantry). Yeah, that went about as well as you might imagine, including the freezer opening (despite our having tried our best to tie it shut with a rope) and pouring all that nasty liquid onto the carport (which did lighten the load a little, but not nearly as much as we would have though given the amount of foul liquid coming out of it). We eventually did get it onto a handtruck and moved out to the edge of the woods (pending later disposal to a dump site). Yeah, I know, it's probably going to be attacked by wild animals while it's out there, but hey, maybe it won't weigh quite as much later on.

(Yes, the whole episode should probably have been filmed or live streamed onto YouTube... but it wasn't - it was only the two of us there, and so, only the two of us know the sounds, the smells, the utter overall horror of the incident, walking through some sort of "goo" that included what are probably some sort of insect eggs floating around on top, gagging at the stench and finding the smoke-scented house - my aunt & uncle were basically the definition of "chain smoking" - a "welcome relief" from the odor in the carport, and the struggle to get the 10-million-pound loaded freezer onto a handtruck and then hauling it off-road through the yard to the woods - my brother handled that task, while I walked alongside to help steady things.)

Anyway, while driving back home, my little brother and I both realized we were much sorer than we would have been, say, twenty years ago. I muttered, in our "brothers text group" (by voice chatting, safely, while driving, not using my fingers or holding my phone), "We ain't as young as we used to be." I think I may try to turn that line into a song (yeah, there's probably one already, but not one I've written!).

In other, PHI-related news, turns out freezers aren’t the only things that quietly go bad when you’re not paying attention: I've officially been labelled "diabetic." Granted, it's probably all the candy I eat, but still. Awaiting insurance pre-auth for certain meds while I also add a BP lowering med to my daily regimen. Yeah, I ain't as young as I used to be. (At least I’m not as far gone as that freezer. Yet.)