The Hot, The Humid, And The Broken AC

In less than 24 hours we will be on the road to Orlando.

"Ooooooh, vacation!" you say.
"Yes." I say. "...but not with enthusiasm."

It is kind of a bummer that I am not more pumped up by the whole idea of a all-expenses paid trip to Disney World, and honestly, I feel kind of guilty for not being more excited. But man, life has been rough the past few weeks. I won't go into every problem, every drama, every stresser, but basically I am going into this trip exhausted, tense, and hesitant.

We'll jump to the biggest issue. How about a broken AC?

Yep, Saturday evening we returned home from dinner around 7:15 and I immediately spotted a large puddle in the laundry room by the garage door. My first thought was Phoebe had been up to no good while we were gone, but I quickly realized this mess was not because of her. The water (yes, it was just water) was coming from the foot of the door jam. This was very puzzling to me. There was also wetness in the garage by the door, and on the other side of the wall in the house...making my carpet nice and squishy. Of course, I panicked. Was it a leaky washing machine? A broken pipe in the wall? The AC unit? The water heater? Please, Lord, don't let it be something leaking in the slab foundation...

With some investigation, we knew it was not the water heater for it was completely dry around the unit. We also figured it was not the AC because it was still running fine. We were out of ideas, and were soaking towels trying to find a source, so we called an emergency plumber to the house and waited. Around 10pm the plumber showed up, did very little, and told us it was the AC unit afterall, and he could not do a thing for that. We wrote him a hefty check for doing basically nothing, and began placing bowls to capture the leak and setting up fans to dry everything out.

In the morning things we remarkably drier (yay!) and we then called a AC repair man. Keep in mind, this is Sunday. Not just any Sunday, Father's Day. I knew it was going to be hard to get some one out, and it was going to cost a fortune, but if you remember, at this point I had only 3 days until we left for Florida, I needed this thing diagnosed and fixed fast. To my surprise, the company I called answered at 8:20am and had someone at my house by 9:15am. I was told there would be a large service call fee, which I expected, but the repairman waved it, which I did not expect. He poked around and said it needed a new cooling coil, and a recharge of freon. But that was only a quick, temporary fix. The unit is 14 years old, and it was failing...it probably did not have much life left and we discussed installing a whole new system. Chris and I agreed to go ahead and do it, but we informed him of our timing issue. The man shuffled around his other clients and told us he could get it done Tuesday...one day before we leave.

The unit was still cooling at this point, so I wasn't too worried about the 2 day away scheduling. Then several hours past.

"Hey...it's hot in here." I thought.

Sure enough, the temperature was rising and the AC was officially dead. We called the repairman again and we did some troubleshooting over the phone. We were told that was most likely unfixable, and we would have to wait until Tuesday morning. *whines* Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning? No AC? *cries* It wasn't his fault, and he had done so much for us, it was just really sucky.
The repairman called about 3 more times apologizing that he couldn't do more, and he offered to buy us a Father's Day meal out, and to deliver a window unit for at least one room.

We did take him up on his dinner offer, and we decided to buy our own window unit just in case we needed it later for whatever reason.

Monday the repairman dropped by and tried to see if he could fix the unit at all until they could replace it, but no.

It's hot and humid, kids are cranky, I'm cranky too. Addy's molars are coming in, so that doesn't help anything at all. Lorelai hates the heat as much as I do, so we were not a fun bunch to be around. I got them and the dog over to my mom's house for part of the day, we did go out to lunch, but there were still a lot of tears, and still so much to get done before our departure.

It is now Tuesday morning. They are here, already working, and I am anxious. I am hoping it is simple, straight-forward, and not too time-consuming. I know it will take most of the day if not all, but when that sweet cold air fills my house again I will be so grateful, so thrilled.
Then, I have to get my butt going on packing the car for early tomorrow morning. I am having house guests while we are gone, so I will make sure they pay special attention to AC, making sure everything is operating smoothly.

I will be happy to get this taken care of. Oh, and I predicted this would happen this summer...just sayin'. At least it didn't happen while we were gone.

Like I said, there have been other issues, other dramas, but I won't discuss them here. I am just emotionally, physically, and mentally drained and this trip isn't going to be relaxing. Trapping my teething, car-hating 1 year old in carseats, hotels, and strollers will not make her happy in any way. Lorelai should be better, but Addy will probably overshadow her with screams and tantrums. Please God, prove me wrong. I will be so happy to be wrong. Even if I am wrong, I am still in Florida. Lord, give me patience...and cooler weather.

P.S. I am so grateful for our understanding, kind repairman Mr. Don Trotter. He has gone above and beyond the call of duty and we are so very thankful for him and his company. If you are having any issues with your AC, call him! Drop my name, he knows us well by now! ;)

P.P.S. Departure in T-minus 22 hours and counting...


M.LEWIS