Thursday, August 7, 2014

What a day!


Yesterday (Wednesday) was one of those days.

It started out just fine.  Miss D. went off to work, and I settled in to organizing the house after last week's move.  I'm going through books, getting rid of at least half of them, separating the 'keepers' from the discards.  All was going well until a sudden cacophony erupted outside.  The neighbors had brought in a tree service to take down a large tree on their property, and they'd set up their tree chipper just opposite our bedroom window.  I sadly gave up all hope of my usual afternoon rest (I sleep twice a day for shorter periods, thanks to back pain, rather than a single long period at night).

Within an hour I realized that I was getting uncomfortably hot.  The air conditioning had stopped working.  Sighing, I decided (once again) that 'it never rains but it pours', and called our landlord.  He came over, and for the next several hours tried various fixes that . . . didn't.  Eventually, late in the afternoon, he brought in the professionals, who decided that the entire motor was shot and would have to be replaced.  That's supposed to happen today (Thursday).  Meanwhile, of course, things got very hot and sticky inside - our local heat index was over 100° Fahrenheit yesterday, and is expected to be as high again today.  Since there was nothing that could be done about it, short of running out and buying window A/C units for a couple of rooms (which I can't afford), I got on with the sorting out, interspersed with a bit of shopping and visiting Oleg for lunch.

The final straw came just before Miss D. got home.  Having sorted two entire 6-foot bookcases, one for disposal, one to keep, our cat decided to jump up on a shelf, as she's done quite happily from time to time since we moved in.  Unfortunately, the bookcases now rest on a fairly thick-pile carpet instead of flat hardwood;  and her weight proved just enough to tip one past the balance point.  It fell forward, dislodging its screwed-together panels, and dumped all the books on the carpet.  The cat made like the proverbial streak of lightning and avoided being squashed;  but I was left staring at several neat rows of books upside-down on the floor.  I may have used a few words that I don't include in my novels . . .

Things could only improve after a day like that, and to some extent they did.  The landlord came back with a free-standing A/C unit that's cooled our bedroom enough to be able to sleep, albeit a bit noisily.  Miss D. came back from work, sent me off to shower (I could almost see the steam rising as the lukewarm water hit my heated body), and then took me to a local Irish pub and restaurant for a cold beer and a good meal (in an air-conditioned environment, praise be!).  That all helped me to feel a lot better by late evening, when we both turned in to get some rest.

We'll see what daylight brings.  Posting may will be a bit light until it cools down in here!

Peter

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

My condolences - why is it that A/C always seems to die when the heat-humidity level is at 'perspiration incontinence' levels.

Saw a DIY personal A/C system a couple of weeks ago - a small foam cooler, filled with ice frozen water bottles, with 2 holes cut into it. One was a dryer vent elbow, the other sized for a fan that was mounted on top of it. The fan blew the air over the bottles, onto the user.

Does zip for humidity control, but it could help in an emergency. Hope the Culligan Man is on top of his game and today is a better day.

Old NFO said...

Ouch... Look on the positive, the ONLY way to go is up!!! :-)

Coconut said...

I'd say anyone would feel rather heated after an experience like that.

Rev. Paul said...

I can only sympathize; we've all been there, which doesn't help you at all. This won't help either: we're to reach a high of 65 today.

Sounds like the dinner out was the high point of the day.

The Raving Prophet said...

Some days it just ain't worth chewing through the restraints.

Here's hoping the A/C is fixed nice and quick, which according to the laws of the universe, will be right as a cool front moves through.

tweell said...

With thick carpet, I use small wedges to tilt the bookcase back against the wall. It depends on the carpet, but a half-inch (thick edge) wedge works well for most bookcases. For extreme cases (small children treating bookcase as ladder) I've been known to put wall anchors in and attach that bookcase directly to the wall.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a case of delayed onset Monday. You have my sympathies!

LittleRed1

Anonymous said...

Off subject, but Business Insider was profiling a book by a prison doctor and I promoted your book as a prison chaplain...

http://www.businessinsider.com/doctor-william-wright-treated-maximum-security-inmates-2014-8

R said...

Here in earthquake country securing heavy furniture to the wall isn't optional.

I'm surprised you don't make use of foam ear plugs. Surely you must have them for shooting. I always have them for camping, when I fly, and also use them when it is hot enough to sleep with open windows.