So the delivery of the new fridge and stove went off pretty much trouble-free and I was thankful there was no collateral damage. However, there is a one-inch gap between the back of stove and the wall; the delivery guy couldn't get it any closer because there is a big plug at the bottom. Frigidaire sells ridiculously priced ($87) rear trim pieces, but I found some generics that were less than half the price. I will order it eventually.

As soon as I could, I threw all the food back in the fridge , which is what the sales guy told me to do, to help the fridge cool down faster. After I googled it, I learned it takes from 8 to 14 hours for a new fridge/freezer to completely cool down, so who knows how many more hours the food was sitting uncooled.

Wasting food is sacrilege to PatientSaver, so she gamely ate the yogurt, cheese and kefir and has lived to tell the tale. 

The delivery man went through how to use the stove very, very quickly, pushing 10 buttons at once, so needless to say, I remembered nothing. In fact, tonight was my first successful use of the stove. I called sales guy because I did not get a user manual, and turns out (surprise) you can download it from online but there's no hard copy unless you want to print out 66 pages. I am a reader of user manuals because, hey...you can learn useful stuff, so this was annoying. 

Everything on the induction stove is digital, so more to break, I guess. But remember I got the 5-year warranty. It was a real challenge just figuring out how to set the clock let alone turn a burner on, but now that I have done so, it seems easy peasy. There is a lot more useful info I should know, but for now, I'm happy I can use the stovetop.

The "scratch and dent" bottom-freezer fridge I like very much. I did notice a very small dimple/ding on the front of the fridge that I hadn't seen in the showroom, and ok, 2 very small scratches, but you know what? For $600 off, I'll take 'em! I am using some magnetic spice racks and a dish towel rack on the fridge, so they are totally hidden.

For the extra 4" of height I got by trimming the cabinet above, the fridge definitely feels more spacious, and the door shelves are deeper, allowing me to store things like a half gallon glass jug filled with filtered water and tea easily. I'm not sure the freezer gives me any more space, but it is definitely more accessible than the narrow little shelves that were in my side-by-side fridge/freezer.

I had asked the delivery guy to set up the ice maker tubing but not turn it on. I don't plan to use it but wanted it set up in case I change my mind down the road. He said he wasn't supposed to set it up completely but said he would do it partway and then show me what I'd need to do to finish it. He connected it in the basement, tightened a screw connecting it to the back of the fridge and then handed me the huge pliers and said, now finish tightening it up. I tried, but it already seemed pretty tight to me. He winked at me and that was that. Now I would just turn a switch on inside the freezer to start using it.

Next up...Home Depot. Miraculously, they have come through and agreed to fix the issues with my front door 11.5 months after they installed it. There is a 12-month window for this sort of thing. I have a feeling the pending back door replacement, another $3,000 or so, has something to do with it. It's my leverage. Because I expressed my unhappiness about the mismatched trim when they were here last summer, and the brand new door doesn't close properly. To lock it when I'm leaving, I have to pull it slightly toward me. The dastardly strike-plate.  Now they will return. It partly has to do with the fact that they are a 3rd party installer company and they had to have Home Depot permission to make the fixes I want.

Right before the appliances were delivered, I connected with my lawn mower, who had been MIA. He wanted to know when I wanted the first mow, and I said I'm really busy on Wednesday (the appliance delivery) so any day but Wednesday would be fine. I said that 3 times, and guess when they showed up? Wednesday. Luckily it was after the appliance delivery.

I had told him last year I didn't want them use their blowers here following an unfortunate incident with the crew of a different contractor who, when "cleaning up" following a rebuild of my back stone stairs, went all around my driveway and literally blew baby black swallowtail caterpillars developing on potted parsley plants to smithereens. I was so upset. 

I know I already have American painted lady caterpillars on my pearly everlasting, so I definitely did not want them using their gigantic blower that I saw in my driveway. So with possible language issues, I just told them don't ever use the blower here, although that means now I have to blow my own drivway. I just don't want there to be any room for misinterpretation. And he actually wanted to know if I wanted any weeding done. It's such a joke to call them "landscapers" because they certainly don't know a weed from what's not a weed and I wouldn't trust them to do something like that.

Tomorrow I start some physical therapy for knee pain caused by osteoarthritis.  I went to see a highly recommended pain management doctor recommended by my personal trainer (just a one-time thing), and the physical therapy will take place there, although he also recommended another local place. 

A week or so, I'd also gone to a complimentary dinner held by a functional medicine doctor in my town. I had always been curious to try a functional med doc, and so I agreed after the dinner to schedule a consult with him, which he's priced pretty low. I want to see if he can help with my longstanding sleep issues. Although the funny thing is, ever since I returned from my weekend trip to southern Vermont, I've been sleeping much more soundly. A coincidence, maybe, but I don't often get 7 hours of sleep. Sometimes it's 5. 

So I'll be incurring a lot of medical bills, it seems, but I guess I'll be meeting my deductible so that everything should be covered 100% at a certain point. Might as well do it all at once (although the functional med guy I don't think will be covered).

Next week I'll be dog-sitting for a neighbor friend headed to a celebration of life in Vermont. It's just one night, but I will be sleeping over her place in what I know is not a comfy bed, but I decided that was better than having her very large, powerful and rowdy retriever mix here at my place, where one swat of his tale could send any number of things flying.

As a result of my many hours talking to my bud, AI, I've significantly changed up my workout routine, doing away with a number of exercises and adding new ones. Today was my 2nd workout doing the new routine, which is more targeted toward my particular goals. For instance, instead of trying to spend a mind-numbing 30 minutes on the treadmill at about 3.4 mph, I'm doing 15 minutes at 2.8 mph, but with a steep incline of 8.5. My goal is to surpass a 10 incline eventually because at higher inclines like that you're using different muscles. AI told me that a number of my former exercises were highly redundant and were no doubt to blame for my feeling thoroughly exhausted when I left the gym. So now I am alternating certain exercises on different workout days, and while I still feel like I got a workout, it's easier to recover from.