Mmmm...okay...so it’s not enough that the garbage disposal, dishwasher, washing machine, the van brakes, the stove door, and Ariel’s computer all went kablooey. And we had to buy a generator after the storms to power the sump pump. Nope, not enough.
On Saturday afternoon, I noticed that the living room was getting hot. Now this isn’t surprising given the fact that the outside temperatures are flirting with 98 and 99 degrees. But it felt too warm for inside. Granted the flue cover on the fireplace isn’t working so I had to shove a piece of heavy duty Styrofoam into the flue to keep the air conditioned coolness inside. The fit wasn’t great, but it couldn’t account for the warmth. So I stood on an air conditioning vent—it was pumping out hot air. I immediately assumed that one of my minions was playing a cruel joke and had turned on the heater...until I checked the thermostat, which was set to cool.
This was bad, very bad. Cal checked the breakers. They had popped. So I was hoping that we’d discovered the problem. We fixed the breakers. And restarted the air conditioner. Then Cal checked the outside unit. He yelled for me to turn off the air conditioner—the outside unit wasn’t working. It smelled like it was burning.
So the temperature inside the house started to rise. Sweat beaded up on our necks and noses. I made the mistake of opening the windows Saturday evening, thinking that the cooler air might drift into the house. Big mistake. The cooler air didn’t drift, but the humidity did. The gauge showed the indoor humidity to be 76%. Yeah, so we live in a swamp. (Thankfully, we have a window air conditioner that Cal put in our bedroom window. The kids sleep on air mattresses on our floor. Everyone except Luke—he’s determined to tough it out and sleep in his room. We think that he’s crazy.)
This morning, I’m waiting for the house to hit 88 degrees. It’s normally at that point that everyone gets irritable. Around 95, everyone gets too hot to be crabby.
We’re waiting for the clock to read 8:00 so we can start calling repair guys. I hope that they aren’t already swamped. In the meantime, my Aunt Judy says that we need to take our “appliance imps” to family planning because they’re reproducing way too quickly.
That's always how it goes...everything breaks at the same time and your case "everything" seems to be doing that. I grew up in an old farm house and we only had window units which were run only when necessary. Although that was in IL, South of Chicago so we didn't have weeks of 95+ degree weather...but I can relate somewhat to the sticky & hot feeling in the house...the worst is getting ready for church - trying to wash & dry your hair w/o sweating and then having to put on nice clothes all while feeling sticky. Hope they can fix it asap for you!
ReplyDeleteLast year, we came back from being gone over the Fourth of July weekend to find that a hot water pipe had burst and our basement was flooded with steaming hot water. We had no AC at the time, either, not even a window unit. We spent the entire rest of the summer trying to get the humidity back to normal summer levels. I feel your pain!
ReplyDeleteOuch.. Everything is giving out in the most inconvenient of times. Hottest time of the year? The imps decide to shut down the air conditioning.
ReplyDeleteMine went down last wednesday and the only good thing is that the compressor is covered under warranty but it had to be ordered and should come in today. We have been staying with Linda's mom who lives right behind us and I had a not so great weekend there spelled out on my blog. Hope we both get things fixed & working soon.
ReplyDeleteWow. That is like the time the air conditioning went out on us in the summer (100 degree weather, anyone?) when we had guests over and my room had over 4 people in it. Misery. And a lot of pool usage.
ReplyDeleteI still waiting for the AC guys. But this morning a tire went flat and the radiator went out on the truck.
ReplyDeleteWe're going to have to do something drastic with our imps.
My room is actually cooler than most of the rest of the house. That's why I sleep there. And because it's less crowded.
ReplyDeleteMan, did you guys do something to seriously tick off the universe? That is beyond a little run of bad luck there. OK, I've got it. Maybe you're getting all the bad karma out of the way at once, and then you'll NEVER have another thing break, ever, ever again. (my mouth to God's ears) Reeeeealy sorry about the air conditioner.
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