the joys of housekeeping
When I returned to my room at noon today I noticed a funky odor. What I had thought before was simply the general pong of me living by myself, was in fact something much more sinister. I did a nasal check of my laundry basket, the bathroom, but found the problem in a lumpy, whitish liquid that was leaking from under my fridge. I sponged it up and forget about it, as I was rushing to get back to school.
This evening I returned to my room to find the smell even more potent. I shifted the fridge and saw one of the feet dragged a milky trail across the floor. I remembered that about a month ago I had left a bottle of milk on its side in the fridge. I had discovered it the next day and mopped it up, congratulating myself on an unpleasant job carried out swiftly. I didn't stop to wonder why an entire bottle of spilt milk needed only a few swabs with the sponge- now an oversight with potentially problematic consequences.
I looked under the fridge and found that the whole thing was set up on a frame. I lifted the fridge off the frame, only to be confronted by a seriously stinky odor. The milk had apparently poured down through the rubber seal around the door and settled under one of the legs. Little cheesy bits of dried milk spotted the underside. So I hefted the frame out to my porch to shake off the crusty bits. But as I moved it onto the porch I heard something slosh around. This was getting almost too disgusting to bear, but I pried off a rubber cap from the bottom of the frame. Out dripped something oily and evil-smelling that went over the railing and splashed down onto the parking lot below. The milk had poured down into the frame like one of those backyard basketball hoop stands that you fill up with the hose. This disaster had been festering under the fridge for almost a month, and only now that the weather was heating up did I discover it.
I found myself thinking about the grandmotherly advise "don't cry over spilt milk." Well, what if you spilled it a month ago? And now the smell is so bad it's making your eyes water? Does that count as crying?
This evening I returned to my room to find the smell even more potent. I shifted the fridge and saw one of the feet dragged a milky trail across the floor. I remembered that about a month ago I had left a bottle of milk on its side in the fridge. I had discovered it the next day and mopped it up, congratulating myself on an unpleasant job carried out swiftly. I didn't stop to wonder why an entire bottle of spilt milk needed only a few swabs with the sponge- now an oversight with potentially problematic consequences.
I looked under the fridge and found that the whole thing was set up on a frame. I lifted the fridge off the frame, only to be confronted by a seriously stinky odor. The milk had apparently poured down through the rubber seal around the door and settled under one of the legs. Little cheesy bits of dried milk spotted the underside. So I hefted the frame out to my porch to shake off the crusty bits. But as I moved it onto the porch I heard something slosh around. This was getting almost too disgusting to bear, but I pried off a rubber cap from the bottom of the frame. Out dripped something oily and evil-smelling that went over the railing and splashed down onto the parking lot below. The milk had poured down into the frame like one of those backyard basketball hoop stands that you fill up with the hose. This disaster had been festering under the fridge for almost a month, and only now that the weather was heating up did I discover it.
I found myself thinking about the grandmotherly advise "don't cry over spilt milk." Well, what if you spilled it a month ago? And now the smell is so bad it's making your eyes water? Does that count as crying?
posted by DMF at 2:22 AM
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