“Mom..What is the lesson we are supposed to be learning here? I don’t get it! Why is everything not working?!”

So asked my very wise Caroline when it was discovered that our new fridge was delivered with dents and scratches and would have to go back. Let me do a quick inventory of our June for you. The hottest June on record in New Orleans, that is.

• Upstairs AC went out. Needed a coil replacement. Coil was predicted to take 12 days to arrive. We moved downstairs and slept on couches.

• Downstairs AC went out. Last straw for the unit - it was a lemon. We order a full unit replacement but can’t get on the installation books until ten days later.

• Kitchen fridge goes out. Lesson learned - don’t buy an LG fridge. Confirmed this with our appliance repair guy (he knows the fridge well). Order a new unit from Home Depot - won’t be delivered for a week.

• It’s been 12 days, no word on the AC coil.

• Fridge delivery people say the fridge is dented, they will schedule an order for a new one. Somehow this doesn’t happen: we are put on the delivery schedule for a week later - unit sent is the dented one.

• Both AC units are fixed, but the upstairs unit now works too well. Floods the old drainage system. Alexander’s bedroom ceiling is a soppy mess. Will need to be completely replaced.

• Finally get the new fridge. Learn we will likely need a plumber to replace the copper line water hose. Also, delivery folks can’t fit both dented and old/broken fridges on the truck for takeaway. Will have to come back “later” for the other.

My darling girl, what is the lesson we are supposed to be learning here? I’m not entirely sure!

As I was planning the launch party for Taking the Long Way Home, I realized a day out I would just have to host with 2 broken refrigerators hanging out in the kitchen and thanked God for the 1980s unit that came with the house. It never breaks but is hideous to look at so we hide it in the laundry room. I also thanked God for neighbors and aunts who lent us their houses so we could sleep cool at night. I thanked God for swimming pools and margaritas and the respite they provided from the heat.

It will likely be ten to twelve weeks before our ol’ house is back to full normal. Ten to twelve weeks where I have definitely NOT been patient. Things just don’t work they way they used to. Shipping takes weeks, not days. Deliveries get outsourced and botched. Aluminum - no one can find aluminum, evidently.

Folks, things just aren’t back to normal yet. I hope that you and yours are showing a lot more patience than I did. The good people manning the phones and trying to provide customer service in these circumstances don’t deserve my wrath - it’s not their fault, per se. So please do what I did not: put on some GNR and turn it up.

All we need is just a little patience…