Kaputt

On Wednesday evening, one of our two air conditioning units decided to die on us. Well, isn’t that just wonderful?! Especially when one lives in the Nevada desert. In the middle of August. When the temperature is still hovering way over 100º Fahrenheit and barely cools down at night.

Ah, the joys of living in the desert.

Luckily, we were able to have a technician over the next morning to take a look at it and fix it. At least temporarily. He switched out a fuse, which will blow out again pretty soon since the units are drawing too much power and overheat due to their age. These babies are 17 years old. All still original from the day we first moved in...well, 17 years ago.

We really can’t complain though. They’ve been working great all this time without any incidents. They’re both air conditioner/heat pump units which are true work horses. We were really lucky. Of course, it also helps to keep an eye on these things and trying to maintain them so they run efficiently. And being environmentally conscience as we are, we never cool our home lower than 84ºF anyway. This also helped not putting too much strain on them over the years. Besides, we never understood why people want to turn their homes into deep- freezers. It’s quite unhealthy to expose your body to extreme temperature fluctuations, like constantly walking in and out of an arctic home into the hot furnace of desert hell.

Well, that and trying to avoid a heart attack every time one receives the monthly power bill.

Anyway...

It’s only a matter of time before one of the units, or even both, will eventually crap out on us completely. George and I decided to bite the bullet and buy two brand new ones. Call it an investment. It’ll add to the home’s value when we’re ready to sell the place down the road. But have you seen the prices of these things lately? How many zeros were there again??? Good Lawd!

Ah, the joys of home ownership.

We’ll get the two new air conditioner/heat pump units installed next Friday. The A/C company must also bring a crane to lift both units onto the roof of our house. Hmm, a couple of tons of steel, valves and the like...resting on wooden beams over our heads. That’ll be interesting. After all that hassle and the money we’re about to spend, they had better send some cute guys over to install those things. We’re just saying. There must be room for some eye candy.

Yeah, we know. Who are we kidding, right?

George and I are both taking the day off from work for this joyous occassion. But at least it’ll turn the upcoming Labor Day weekend into an even longer one. Not bad. Not bad at all.

** On a completely unrelated note, it’s my father’s birthday. He would have turned 81 years today. Our relationship never was a perfect one. But he would have done anything for me. Always. And he did. Thanks for everything. Hope you have a good one...wherever you are. **

Happy Friday to everyone and a great weekend. Make the most out of it.