I stayed home from work today in order to meet a technician who could diagnose the problem with our not-getting-cold refrigerator.
Diagnosis: freon leak within the cabinet of the fridge, which is an impossible thing to repair without ripping the unit apart. The tech said that we could refill the unit with freon, but would have to again in 4-6 months, at a cost of about $200 per refill. He recommended that we just get a new one.
I was about to order one online from Best Buy, but Dad said that he wanted to actually look at them this time instead of just browsing a catalog online. Which is how we bought this last one.
I ran errands (picked up meds, haircut) while Dad met up with my Uncle Pete to do some comparison shopping.
Later in the day, Dad called from Best Buy(!) and asked me to pick him up, and to check out the possible replacement. We looked at an open box floor model, but eventually settled on one of the ones that I was looking at this morning, online.
Delivery is set for Monday afternoon, which means no fridge over the weekend.