Tinkling Ice
Matt Seinberg

There is nothing like the sound of tinkling ice breaking off a tree branch or bush during the winter, with its melodic sound and slight crash to the snowy ground.

The one sound of ice I never liked was breaking it out of freezer trays and having to put them into an ice bucket. You could run hot water over the trays and then give them a twist, hoping they would all fall out. Sometimes they did, and because of the water used in this process, once they were put back in the freezer they all stuck together and made one big glacier.

If you didn’t use hot water, there was only half a chance that all the cubes would come out, and maybe not all in one piece. At that point, you had to clean them out with hot water anyway to refill them.

I always used hot water to refill the ice cube trays, because I found out that it was easier to take them out, and they froze clearer than when cold water was used.

Hold on, I’m getting to the point.

A few weeks ago, my wife looks at our 18-year-old or older refrigerator and says she wants a new one. This one is too small at 14 cubic feet, and just doesn’t hold enough for a family of four. I quickly agree, and take the measurements of the current opening, and start looking on line for replacements that might fit.

The former homeowner we got the house from always did replacements on the cheap side. When her 18-cubic-foot fridge died, she downsized to the 14-cubic-foot size. Good for her, bad for us.

Well, in the ensuing years, fridges grew in height and depth while maintaining the same capacities. Our biggest problem was depth, as the opening to the kitchen is right there, and only 24-inches deep. Most new fridges are around 32-inches deep, and that wouldn’t work for us.

After getting some advice and looking on the internet, we found a Samsung French door/bottom freezer fridge that would work for us if we had the cabinets above it cut to size. So we got carpenter Randy over to measure, take down and cut those old cabinets to size. We are not in the position to remodel the kitchen at this time.

I then called to have the fridge delivered, and the old one picked up by our utility, LIPA, the Long Island Power Authority. This way, we would get a total rebate of $125. Woo Hoo!

The big plus of this new fridge is a built in ice maker! No more messing with trays! All we had to do was get a water line run to it. Our next door neighbor Pete is a plumber, and he’s always willing to do this kind of small job for us and not take any money, except for parts. Marcy always ends up baking something for him and his wife.

I picked up a water filter and replacement, and Pete came over that afternoon to install the water line. Now it was just a matter of time for that cascade of ice to fall into the freezer.

The owner’s manual of the filter and fridge recommends discarding the first 6 batches due to impurities in the line, and to flush the filter. Heck, I just wanted to see the ice made.

During the night, I heard the tinkling of falling ice cubes in the freezer, and couldn’t wait to see those little babies in the morning, even if I had to get rid of them.

My wife got up before me and saw a nice big batch of ice in the freezer. So we dumped it, and later that night, it was filled up again.

I just love the sound of tinkling ice.