June 1, 2012
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It’s Gettin’ Hot in Here
It’s Friday afternoon, so why aren’t the kids and I at the pool with their friends, you ask? Thunder. Tornado Watch. Pool closed. But that actually has worked out okay, because it enabled me to be home for the air conditioning service guy and the air conditioning sales guy.
Did you catch that? The service guy and the sales guy in one day. That is not good news, folks.
Around 8:00pm last night, the Mr. declared the downstairs to be very hot. It was at that point that I realized why I felt excessively cranky – aside from the two hours of sweating at swim team practice and lack of dinner at that hour – I was hot.
I remembered that the technician who did our spring tune-up had found the a/c unit in the garage frozen over when he got here. So, I suggested that the Mr. look for ice on the unit. Yup. Icy.
Since I am clearly gifted when it comes to a/c problem identification, I decided to prescribe a solution. “Let it thaw overnight and it should work in the morning.”
Yeah, it didn’t work in the morning.
The service guy came out at 1:00pm and declared that we needed a new motor ($400+) and that the unit has a freon leak. (True, since it just got reloaded less than two months ago and needed more.) I called the Mr., we hemmed and hawed over whether to spend that kind of cash on a 15 year old unit that is clearly dying a slow death. Hence the arrival of the service guy in his pleated man jeans. (Was that catty? Sorry, I’m hot.)
We are now awaiting the final estimate on what a new unit would cost us. And sweating, a little bit.
The kids are happy, at least, because they each have a drama-free friend over to play, and they are upstairs where it is cool as can be. I am happy to have some down time this afternoon to prepare for our guests, since my day got a little derailed by the air conditioning saga. (I did, however, manage to get that large, barren flower bed in the front yard planted, with lots of help from my mom, who is my personal plant guru.)
I know I have written before about how much our dog is distressed by a) service people; b) thunderstorms; and c) children knocking on the front door. It has not been a good day for the ol’ schnauzer, since it was a d) all of the above sort of day. (Huh – wonder why I have testing on the brain?)
The repair guy did not do anything to help the doggy dislike of his kind, either. When he arrived, as the harmless little dog was doing his typical Kujo imitation, the guy leaned over and sort of whipped his little shoe cover at the dog’s nose. RUDE! The beast did not enjoy that little episode, so then I felt like I needed to keep him behind closed doors for the duration of the service call. He voiced his dislike of this situation by barking incessantly. Nice.
Gentle readers, as soon as other people’s children leave my house in just over an hour, it will finally be time for that cocktail. I think it will have to be a frozen one. Cheers!
Comments (12)
We don’t have an air conditioner. Don’t hate me.
Seriously, today I popped into the mall (again) looking for some new pajamas and all they had were shorts & tanks pjs for summertime. I COULD NOT REMEMBER a time when my non-air-conditioned house was EVER warm enough at night to wear shorts & a tank top to bed. I’m looking forward to menopause just so I can be warm. Or maybe I should just move to the South. Hehe.
That is a major bummer! I hope it turns out not too painful!
So sorry to hear that the AC is dead and the new one is not yet installed. We went throught that last summer. Miserable. I feel for you. I’d opt for a Brandy Alexander for you and shakes for the kids. Have a “cold” dinner and a frozen dessert! Plop some ice cubes in the dog’s watter bowl and really make him cool off…
Last summer my husband’s answer to the no AC week was cold tossed salad with nearly frozen cherry tomatoes, ham & cheese rollups (tortillas spread with cream cheese and diced onion and sliced ham and rolled, refrigerate for a couple hours and then slice and serve) and frozen yogurt to finish it off… The boys wanted frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries over ice cream and I was able to make them happy too.
Glad the drama has subsided.
Uh, yeah. Still perplexed by these words you use…”air conditioner”…”hot.”
I get the frozen drink part, though.
@transvestite_rabbit - It’s a regional dialect, I think.
@transvestite_rabbit – yesterday it reached almost 90 with nearly 100% humidity. One good storm, though, and we are at 75 with no humidity. Aaaaah.
@DrTiff – ::fist bump::
@murisopsis – lots of good cooling ideas there! We went for takeout pizza and frozen margaritas last night. It’s much cooler outside today, thankfully!
We own a couple window units which we haul out of the garage for a few weeks during the summer. It doesn’t usually get very hot where we live, but for a couple weeks during, say, August it can get relatively unbearable. “Relative” being the operative word. I would consider air conditioning a human right in some parts of the country.
I hope you all are cooled down soon.
@madhousewife - I cannot believe I am writing this, but I am sitting in my sunroom with the windows open and I’m actually a little chilly in my summer garb. If I had to pick a VA weekend to have my a/c break – this would be it! So….win? Sort of.
I am going to have to get a dedicated air conditioner for our master bedroom for beaucoup $$. It is at least 10 degrees warmer in our bedroom than in the rest of the house, a problem we’ve tried to solve for four years now. Not a big deal currently, because Mr. OBL is out of town. But the minute he returns…
@ordinarybutloud – We have that problem in our MBR, too. And the new unit won’t help, because it’s on a different floor. The last HVAC guy I asked about it pitched an idea about uncoiling ducts and adding dampers. $300. Seems worth a shot, but it’s not so high on the list right now.