Good morning one and all. As you can tell by the title of the blog post, I am having air conditioning trouble. Bless the poor old unit’s heart, it is at least 40 years old. Like much of the US, the heat has been above and beyond recently and I think it’s been too much for my unit. I went to bed last night with the temperature at 81 and it was down to 78 when I got up this morning. That’s even too toasty for me.
Fennik isn’t made for the heat. I plugged in a fan last night, hoping he’d lay in front of it and instead, he acted like the fan was there to murder him. Newton lounged in its airflow, but not Fen. I gave him a bath this morning to help cool him down for the day. He’s more comfortable now and tonight the weather is supposed to cool down so hopefully things will be a bit better.
It’s amazing how we get used to our creature comforts. I grew up in the country in an older home with no air conditioning and I survived just fine. Oh, I remember sweltering summer nights laying on top of the covers with a fan pointed on me, but at the time, that seemed perfectly normal. Fast forward through time and now I’m stressing about the air conditioning taking its last gasp.
In my defense, I have mental trauma (yes, I’m being dramatic) from an ongoing air conditioning issue I encountered in the first home I purchased years ago when I lived in Virginia. When I purchased the home, it had recently gotten a new air-conditioning unit installed. You’d think it would be smooth sailing, right? Wrong. For most of the summer, it didn’t work. The company that installed it was in and out of the house a half dozen times, swearing that it was fixed and it would work for a day, maybe two, and stop.
Finally, I was so fed up I called and asked for the owner of the business (this is very unlike me). The owner showed up and I don’t even know what to call the experience beyond bizarre. Keep in mind this was maybe twenty years ago, but still in an age where his comments were not acceptable.
The owner was a middle aged to older, white male. He came to the house, looked at the unit, then found me outside where it was cooler. When he approached me, he asked, “Where’s the man of the house?” (Yeah, not even remotely making that up).
I blinked and responded, “You’re looking at her.”
He appeared taken aback and asked, “So, you own the house?”
I replied, “Yes.” Of course, I had a mortgage, but figured he was asking if I was the one paying those mortgage bills.
He appeared puzzled then asked, “So, you run the household and work too?”
At this point I was so utterly stunned that I just sort of stared and said, “I suppose so.” In my head I was thinking that I didn’t think myself, one dog, and two cats made up much of a household to run, but I also didn’t think that was the point so remained quiet.
At this point, he looked me in the eyes and said, “I’m not sure how much you understand about science.” This was his lead in to trying to explain to me how air conditioning units worked.
My response was, “I’m a doctor, so I’ve taken a few science classes.” I hardly every tell anyone what my profession is but by this point I was done. While he was correct concerning my lack of knowledge regarding air conditioning units, I was terribly offended that he assumed I wouldn’t be able to follow along with a conversation because of my lack of education, gender, or whatever else he wrongly thought.
Anyway . . . the unit didn’t get fixed so much as finally replaced and I sold the house a couple of months later and moved back to the midwest. Now it’s a funnyish story. Honestly, at the time it was a funny story as well, mostly because I was so flabbergasted humans like him still existed in this country. So now I’m having trouble with my poor, beleaguered, 40+ year-old unit. Bless her heart, she’s put in a lot of years and I suspicion we might be at the end of her long life. Sigh . . .
Moving on from air conditioning . . . if you were wondering about the photo, this is a current picture of my back yard. My dad (along with a little help from my brother-in-law, niece, nephew, and me) built this lovely pergola earlier this spring. I got the idea that I’m going to grow grapes. I ordered two different kinds – seedless concord grapes and a red globe seedless grape. The concord vine is doing its vine business and growing up the pergola. The other vine . . . not so much. It looks more like a tiny grape vine bush. It’s got lovely, healthy looking leaves, but seems to have no interest in reaching for the sky. I suppose we’ll see how it goes.
Not much new to add on the writing front given the recent posting. I’ve sent, “Deadly Legacy” for proofreading and am hopefully still on schedule for a late July release date. “Paved With Good Intentions” (the last Maverick Mysteries book) is puttering along. My brain’s been distracted with work, car repairs, plumbing repairs (another interesting tale), and now the air conditioning. It will all work out. As they say, one thing at a time. It’s just hard for me to focus when I have so much muddling around in my head screaming for attention.
Thanks for letting me vent about my air conditioning (vent! Ha!). Fen, Newton, and I will be toasty kiddos until it’s up and running again.
Stay well and hopefully cooler than me!
MJ May
Oh, I also updated the main photo and changed some of the wording. This picture is compliments of my vacation to the coast of Mississippi last fall.
veterinarian and fiction writer 