Our refrigerator may be living its final days/weeks/months/whatever. It dates back to the late 80's and is old. She suddenly stopped running during a defrost cycle. Luckily, I noticed the problem at 4 AM before the situation turned to spoilt food. There was a puddle in front of the frig big enough to float toy boats. My husband did some jiggling, and the old girl started up again.

I don't like top or bottom freezers no matter how fancy some of the newest refrigerators may be. Since the usual appliance companies no longer make any side-by-side as big as ours (unless you get into something more esoteric & much bigger designed for a professional kitchen), I have only one model choice that comes close to what we currently have. But we would still be losing some storage space. Therefore, I'm reluctant to replace our refrigerator if we don't have to.

Which leads me to the photograph above. As you may or may not have noticed, I've been a frequent and extensive world traveler. During the early years, we bought things here and there around the world to decorate our home. But there is only so much stuff a house (even a big one) can handle. Thus, many years ago, I switched to mainly buying just a magnet from the various "new places" I visited: both with and without my husband. Yes, I did even find a frig magnet from a remote research station in Antarctica!!! Well, our current refrigerator is totally covered by my collection of magnets found here and there around the world, as well as from my travels in the USA. I now have enough magnets (most in storage because I ran out of space) to cover 3 or 4 big refrigerators.

Because our current frig is in questionable health, I suddenly realized that the magnets on her will have to be removed if we change refrigerators. So, I grabbed my Cell Phone and snapped some shots of a few of them for posterity and for old memories sake. I vividly remember a story attached to my acquiring each and every one of the magnets I found during my travels. I must have over a thousand magnets if you include the ones that have been boxed away. It's strange how many memories each magnet brings back.

Today's photo was just a quick walk down Memory Lane because our refrigerator decided to act up & left me with uncertainty about the future of both the frig and the magnets covering her. The magnets in this photo (just a few of the ones covering us frig) are not necessarily representative of my favorite nor the most exciting places ever visited. This small section seems to be mainly US/Canada magnets with a few international ones here & there. Still, all have a good memory for me, as do the boxed ones (more international), too.

I first started to collect travel magnets sometime after the New Millennium. Having acquired so many during that period of time, I can just image how many I'd have today if I had started my collection when my husband and first got married. But there was a time back in the 20th Century when it was difficult to find souvenir frig magnets in places outside of North America. Ditto with the tacky travel T-shirts I like to buy. Now, both are commonplace nearly everywhere one goes.