So, the new refrigerator is here.

It is clean, and shiny, with a textured skin. Some shade of off-white instead of dark almond. And smaller. I can see the top of this machine. They had to take the kitchen door off to get the old refrigerator out, but the new one came in with room to spare.

The new fridge is light. You can easily push it across the floor. On wheels, no less. The old one was a wheelless tank that gouged rips in the linoleum flooring every time we tried to move it.

So it didn't move often. Wife came home from work when they delivered the new machine. Ostensibly to help with the move, but I really think she wanted a chance to clean that piece of floor. She pounced on it as soon as the old fridge went out.

I won't describe how grody it was under there. Suffice to say there was a grime-encrusted 1993 penny, and it would not surprise me if it had been shiny and new when lost. And the motor had scorched a plate-sized circle of the floor. Yes, it was time for the old one to go. Even though it started running quietly and kept everything nice and cold once we bought the new one.

Wife tried to figure a way to keep it, setting it up downstairs or in the boys' room. After seeing the scorch mark, knew it was time to let it go. Otherwise we would always be worrying that it was going to set the house on fire and incinerate the heelers.

The new refrigerator is smooth in the back. No motor and radiator pipes sticking out to collect dust and keep out from the wall. That alone adds an inch to the miniscule kitchen (one of the movers called it a closet).

Now this I cannot believe. No egg rack. Where in the heck is one supposed to keep eggs if you don't have an egg rack in the door? Wife is going to use the plastic egg case from the camping gear.

Also no drip tray in the bottom. Old fridge funneled condensation (and spills) into an evaporation tray in the bottom. When the mother gerbil made her great escape (the one in which she tried to nest in, and thereby ruined, the wife's favorite peach sun dress), we could not catch her for nearly a week. After hours of laying in wait by the dogs' water bowls, I finally realized the gerbil was getting her water elsewhere.

Discovery of gerbil poops in the evaporation tray confirmed my suspicions. And she was soon returned to captivity. So any future escapees have lost their secure water supply.

Delivery guys were quite conscientious about getting the new fridge leveled. Turns out it has a self-closing door.

Now, from an energy-conserving stand point, that is an excellent idea. Especially when there are teenaged males in the household, who tend to become distracted when they have food or drink in their hands, and will walk away leaving the door open.

Which is heaven for heelers. As far as they are concerned, the buffet is now open! But for folks who want to stare at the refrigerator contents, trying to find something edible, which the wife has not been doing a good job of providing, that swinging door is a pain in the rear. Or more specifically, in the hip.

But the worst part about the new fridge?

It's naked.

There was not 8 square inches of the front of the old fridge that was still almond brown. Nearly all of it was covered with little framed photos of the boys, starting at about age 2, magnets from all sorts of places and events, the letter/number magnets where the wife taught the boys how dates work. By changing those plastic letters and numbers each and every morning (up until this week).

The little magazine clippings of the wife's, and her Irish blessings. Handcrafted magnetic clothespin note holders. All gone, now. Wife says she will eventually put some of it back up, but not all.

Over twenty years of tokens accumulated on a metal door. That was a picture I should have taken.