Frozen Turkey

My husband and I were on a tight budget and did not plan on buying a turkey for Thanksgiving, so I was overjoyed when I qualified for a free frozen turkey at our grocery store. As soon as I got the coupon I excitedly went to the grocery store and got the largest frozen turkey I could. I imagined how it would be, coming home before Thanksgiving and surprising my husband with this wonderful turkey. We would eat a magnificent Thanksgiving meal, and we would feast on the leftovers for days afterwards. But how do you hide a 20-pound frozen turkey from your spouse? I had the perfect plan. There was a barn where I worked, and in the barn there was a refrigerator that had been emptied for the winter. I would store my turkey in the freezer there until it was time to take it home. The day finally arrived for me to take my turkey home. I happily anticipated what my husband's reaction would be as I walked in the door with this prize. After work I excitedly went to the barn to retrieve my turkey from the freezer. As I opened the freezer door my happy anticipation quickly turned to dismay. A blast of warm air and the putrid smell of rotting meat hit me square in the face and made me gag. All I could do was stand there with the door open and peer into the freezer in horror. My prize turkey was sitting in a sticky puddle, completely covered in green fuzzy mold. My perfect plan had one flaw. I discovered the hard way that refrigerators don't work properly if they are operated in a room in which the temperature is below 50 degrees. Here sat the refrigerator, in an unheated barn in November. I never realized that's why it was emptied each winter. My turkey had spent the last couple of weeks thawing and rotting in a non-functioning freezer compartment. I went home empty handed and cried over my lost turkey. Some people ruin their Thanksgiving feast by dropping the turkey or cooking it wrong. Not me. I had completely ruined our Thanksgiving meal and I hadn't even managed to get the turkey out of the freezer!