Labor Note:
Ice
20 April 2018
¶ I consume a great deal of ice. On no point am I more American than in my dislike of room-temperature beverages.
For a long time, I had six ice trays lined up next to the oblong ice chest in the freezer. Then I discovered that Rubbermaid’s line of better ice-cube trays is a bit shallower, making smaller cubes but making room for more trays, so now I have eight. Actually, I have ten. On the other side of the freezer, there are two trays — the old, deeper kind. The ice in those trays is dedicated to stocking my water bottle, which takes a full tray of ice (sixteen cubes) every time I refill it, which is at least twice a day, once at bedtime.
The ice in the chest keeps my wine cool in the evening, as well as chilling glasses of iced tea or coffee at lunch. Now that the water bottle has its own supply, I don’t go through the ice in the ice chest nearly so fast, which is great, because it’s a nuisance to fill eight trays from the Brita water pitcher, which doesn’t hold enough water for the entire operation.
It’s these little things.