Yes, it is official: idiots.
Recently, we've been having a lot of milk go sour. Granted, we don't drink a lot of milk - mostly just steamed for cappuccino or oatmeal - so it feels like it hangs around for a long time, but the milk was always turning before its expiration date. We changed where we located it in the refer. Still went sour. Altered the control to make the refer colder. Still went sour. I started having dark suspicions about carelessness at the neighborhood market. We bought our milk elsewhere. Went sour.
Then we started having oddities with the freezer side, and discovered a fairly huge block of ice on the floor of the freezer. The Greek said, "The door must have been left ajar one day."
"You don't get that much accumulation from one incident. That's been gathering there for some time."
"Well, there must be some problem with this refer's temperature gauge - between the milk issues and this. We'll need to get an appliance guy in here."
Last week, there was an article in the Times about basic appliance care - necessary spring cleaning maintenance to keep everything functioning. Under refrigerator it said you need to vacuum the coils at least once a year. Single most important thing, it said. I read this aloud over breakfast as if it were about the discovery of a horse with fish tail.
"I've never vacuumed any coils," I said. "I never saw anyone vacuum coils during my entire childhood. I had no idea."
The Greek shrugged. News to him, too.
"How do you get to the coils on this one?" I asked.
"They are on the back."
"The article says something about getting under the refrigerator. How do we get under this one? Does that front plate come off?
He shrugged.
I mentioned it again this weekend. (Isn't this what three-day weekends are for?)
Again with the shrugging.
A little while ago, the Greek arrived home from the food store. After putting things away, he came into my office holding something in both his hands. "Look," he said, as he approached my desk.
He seemed to have found a kitten. A kitten that was several months old, I'd say.
But as he came closer, I saw that it was a thick mound of dark sticky dust that overflowed from his two palms. He was working it as if it were a puppet.
"Look what I pulled out from the coils under the refer! ... As I was leaving the market, I ran into a guy driving a refrigeration truck. I asked him if he made house calls. ... He said, 'You really have to keep those coils clean.'"
So this GUY with his name embroidered on a striped shirt standing on a sidewalk inspired him to action in a way that the New York Times and I failed to do.
Still... we are both idiots.