Not hot as ---- but close

Today it's about how spoiled I have become, and how easily it is to break me of that habit. It is A/C day.

I remember growing up in a small frame house without any form of cooling other than the box fan in the window. That was a luxury. Later came the water-cooled outside monster. I have since learned that such a fan is more appropriate for a dry desert climate, rather than our very humid one. That thing in our room would blow the covers off the bed, but boy was it a cool way to sleep.

As kids, me and my brothers would spend time in Monterrey Mexico with my aunts, including my previously mentioned Aunt Bea. Her house was worse than anything we ever had in Texas. The tile floors in her house and in the patio hallway would be mopped before we lay down and that was cool - for a short time. After a while, we would resort to a piece of cardboard to fan ourselves to sleep. This really put me to sleep, maybe out of exhaustion. In time I would wake up in a sweat and continue fanning. That was what is was. We enjoyed out summers in Monterrey, heat and all.

In a fast-forward to the world of A/C, it is easy to survive in south Texas, with almost 100% humidity and high temps. We live in A/C, hurry to the A/C in the car, hurry to the store's A/C and return home with hardly breaking into a sweat. An example I would use in my Psych class, regarding Operant Conditioning, was about "air conditioning. Back in the day, the store window might have a sign that read, "Air Conditioned Inside." Not only did that sign tell us about a change tot he air, it forecast a change in us too. We flocked to that store. We have been conditioned to live in A/C.

The house's A/C has been acting up. Two days ago it stopped cooling. The outside fan quit and we were getting warm air through the vents. The thermostat is set at 80 degree and it very quickly went to 84 - lions and tigers and bears, oh my!  Quick call A/C 911. I had paid to have this same problem "fixed" two months ago. The company boss comes to check it out. He is a good friend and distant relative to my brother- in- law. He determines that the problem may be something else with the unit. The entire unit will have to be dismantled and thoroughly chemically cleaned. There is also a problem with the water drain. Besides a hefty charge, what does this all mean? It means that there will be no A/C in the house until the work is done.

For me, there are three solutions to the problem. I can spend the day at WalMart's A/C. I can go buy some electric fans. I can find a piece of cardboard and start fanning. The WalMart idea will not work because my aunt cannot leave the house and I cannot leave the workers alone in the house. I won't buy fans for such a short time use, and I am too cheap. The dog could survive outside. On the plus side, it is cloudy today, and there is a slight breeze. I opened the windows, and shared the cardboard with my aunt. Even though things change over time, much stays pretty much the same.

It may not be as hot as hell, but it is close. The cardboard fan will work until fatigue sets in.

Joe V