I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

The Ice Cream Seems Soft

Last night I was getting some ice cream out of our freezer, and when I scooped it, it seemed too soft too me. I usually have a really hard time scooping the ice cream that comes out of our freezer, and it just seemed all too easy this time. I started to wonder if our freezer was as cold as it usually is. I talked to my spouse about it, and he hadn’t noticed anything odd about the freezer, but I put our wall thermometer in there anyway to find out if it was cold enough or not. Our freezer (and refrigerator) are about 23 years old and although we haven’t had any problems at all in the past year with them, I know they won’t last forever and we’ll need to replace them sooner rather than later.

Every time I make a big financial move, like paying off a big chunk of debt at once, in the back of my mind I’m prepared for something to go wrong, and last night was no exception. I made the first big overpayment to my spouse’s student loan, and unconsciously I think I started waiting for the other shoe to drop. We still have our $1000 emergency fund of course, and I didn’t realize I was waiting for something to go wrong, but I think in the back of my mind, I was. We’ve gotten back on track after the big car repair, and we’re starting to make noticeable forward progress again, and my unconscious is just waiting for that to be derailed.

After waiting about ten minutes, I went and got the thermometer out of the freezer, and to my dismay, it read about 30 degrees. I sat down next to my spouse dejectedly in our office and the following conversation ensued:

• Me: “It’s not good. It’s not cold enough.”
• My spouse: “Why? What temperature is it?”
• Me: “It’s not 0 degrees, it is nowhere near 0 degrees.”
• My spouse: “It has to be that cold?”
• Me: “It has to freeze, it’s a freezer. It has to be 0 degrees to freeze.”
• My spouse: “The thermometer’s in Celsius?”
• Me: “OH! DUH! It’s Fahrenheit, it only has to be 32 degrees, of course, okay, it’s fine, forget I said anything.”
• My spouse: “Glad I could put your mind at ease.”

I blame the fact I am a chemistry tutor. No one uses Fahrenheit in chemistry. I think in Celsius all day long. I’m not usually that much of an airhead.

And for now, the freezer is just fine and we fight the debt reduction battle for another day.

Update:  Some very astute commentors pointed out that your freezer is supposed to be 0 degrees F after all, a fact I didn’t know.  However, reading their links, I did not at all follow the procedure for measuring the temperature in your freezer - I didn’t put the thermometer between food items, just in open air, and for nowhere near 5 hours (more like 10 minutes).  I have re-situated the thermometer and shall report back after I check it later tonight or tomorrow morning.

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