Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Icemaker's Vacation; Ice Bin Steals The Show

Monday was just a beautiful day all around - despite the twin noise events of the 3:00 a.m. Ice Bucket Brigade and the 6:15 a.m. icemaker start up. The day's weather was fantastic, tropical. A big Pacific storm was rolling onshore that evening and the afternoon's cloud cover convinced me at lunchtime to put a plastic bucket over the security camera out back.

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The best part of Monday's lunch was NO ICEMAKER.

The best part of Monday evening was NO ICEMAKER.

The best part of Monday night/Tuesday morning was NO ICEMAKER.

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The best part of Tuesday's lunch was NO ICEMAKER.

The best part of Tuesday evening was NO ICEMAKER.

The best part of Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was NO ICEMAKER.

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{May it be so ever. God be praised.}


There is one wrinkle, however. The icemaker and the roof-mounted condenser were merely giving the ICE BIN its moment in the spotlight.




Remember the property of ice called regelation? The ice from the weekend, still in the very large bin, tended to regelate or clump together in big chunks. Tuesday morning's Ice Bucket Brigade was bad enough - loud enough - with Corky fighting to chip the ice into pieces and get it into the plastic buckets.


But the monumental Ice Follies took place Wednesday morning! Like Vulcan wielding his smithy hammer on his anvil, this Ice Queen had her big metal scoop singing its CLANGING song as she hammered and chipped away at the diminishing chunk of increasingly (two-days) regelated ice in the bin. The power, the ferocity, rang out in every strike of cast aluminum on frozen water! But it was not monotone; the sound effects changed with the chosen striking surface of the scoop, and the meter of the song advanced and declined with each striking angle and each bucket filled. The performance easily stole away any opportunity for inattention - let alone drifting off to sleep. The artist played the instrument magnificently!


Together, this frigid goddess and her sheet steel ice god, rule the frozen wasteland to the south.



{Standing - wide awake - ovation}

2 comments:

The Manteca Response said...

Ewwwwwwwwwww! What is all that crap growing on that machine? Are they actually using that in their food and drinks? YUCK!!! Nasty!

noisemaker said...

I'm not sure what that stuff is... probably spilled paint. The ice is not supposed to be used for human consumption, but... If Environmental Health Department inspections and enforcement are anything like Manteca's code enforcement, then anything goes!

More of a health hazard are the plastic pails the women turn upside down to use as step stools, then turn over and scoop ice into them for transport to the truck. The pails also serve as ice water drinking bowls for their dogs.

If you buy anything from the TLC Catering truck that was chilling in ice, wash your hands and the outside of the container before consuming.