Ack!!! No air...

Friday evening when I came home from work I noticed the family room seemed awfully warm. Then I noticed an oscillating fan, turned on full-blast, sitting on the ottoman. Not a good sign, I thought to myself.

After my customary "Hello... I'm home" Joe came from the kitchen and sighed heavily. "The air conditioner's broken." "Oh no!" I replied. "The outside unit runs but nothing's coming out of the vents, and its hot as hell in here" he reported. "I called 5 different places before I could get someone to come out here tomorrow. He'll be here between 1 and 4."

Well, I was impressed that Joe had the presence of mind to begin calling someone before 5:00 on a Friday afternoon, rather than waiting for me to get home at 6:15. Turns out the first 4 places he called said the earliest they could get here was Tues or Wed. We'd have died.

Fortunately, we had plans to be out of the house on Fri night, so it wasn't too bad. I went to a wedding shower for our friends Michael and Jamie downtown. It was fun, and I met some really nice people. Joe had come home with a bad headache, had tried to take a nap but it was too hot, so he decided to go to his mom's house where the air conditioning would be plentiful.

I got home from the party about 11:45 and we talked until midnight. We decided to sleep in the guest bedroom on the main floor, rather than in our bedroom upstairs, since it was just totally intolerable up there. The problem: the guest bedroom has my old full size bed in it, and we are used to sleeping in a queen. Neither Joe nor I would ever be mistaken for petite, so we knew it would be a challenge to sleep in the full size bed, with no air conditioning.

We set up both fans on chairs, pointed directly at the bed, and eventually got to sleep. But it was a restless night for both of us, as every movement we made awakened the other. Plus, being so warm, we didn't like our skin touching each other, which was nearly impossible in the small bed.

Then next morning we planned how we'd survive until the a/c guy arrived. We certainly weren't going to be cooking breakfast, that was for sure. We quickly dressed and got into the car and turned on the a/c. We just sat there for a few minutes and reveled in the luxury of coolness. Then we just drove around, trying to think of someplace to eat breakfast that has a/c and not a long wait. We ended up at the Capitol City Brewing Company.

Over breakfast/lunch we talked about how we had just recently been talking about spending a little money to have some home improvements done: a new kitchen floor, some electrical updating, etc. We sighed as we imagined the money for those things being given to the air conditioner repair guy.

After a few little stops, we headed back to the house. We decided to wait for the repair man in the basement - the only place we could stand to be by that time of the day. Fortunately he arrived shortly after 1:00. He found that the control board (kind of like the 'brains' of the heating-a/c unit) had gone bad. It would cost $515. to replace it. Unfortunately, he did not have one for our brand on his truck. He would have to order it.

He must have seen the mixed look of horror and shock on my face as I thought about being in the house without airconditioning for 3-4 days, so he asked me if I'd like him to temporarily bypass the control board with the wiring so that the a/c would run. I excited replied "Yes, please!"

So Mon or Tues he will call us to let us know that the control board has come in and will make an appointment to replace it. Until then, the outside unit still turns itself on and off as normal, just the inside fan/blower does not turn off. No biggie. I can live with that.