Welcome to hell.



OK, so it isn't THAT hot. But it sure feels like it.

We went out of town this past weekend. When I left the house on Friday afternoon, I noticed the air conditioner, a TV-sized brown metal box at the side of our house, was rattling. I thought perhaps something was loose, maybe a panel. When I pressed my hand on the side of the box, the rattling stopped. I didn't think anything of it.

Well, I have no proof that the rattling had anything to do with what happened over the weekend, but a momentary thought of "Boy, hope the air conditioner is OK" flitted through my mind. Perhaps I should have paid it more attention.

We got home Sunday afternoon at about 2 o'clock. It was hot, in the mid 90's, and we were looking forward to opening the front door and being greeted with a breath of cool air. Nope. Instead, an exhalation of hot, steamy, musty, humid hot air wheezed out of the door and smothered us where we stood. Even the dog didn't want to go inside.

Upon inspection, we determined that the air conditioner was still on, the little fan was spinning, and air was blowing out of the vents, but it was like the parlour of hell in our front room. At 2 p.m. the interior temperature was 97 degrees. We took action, running off to Walmart and purchasing some box fans (we used to have one, but it didn't make the purge of belongings that accompanied our move to this house). We thought about buying a free-standing air conditioner, but we couldn't stand the thought of shelling out $400.

So we came home and battled the heat. The dog lay on the dining room floor (hardwood), panting, and occasionally barking at us in frustration. He couldn't understand why we couldn't change the temperature. Barking usually gets him what he wants, but this time there was nothing we could do. We cranked up the fans, sat in front of them, and waited. But when there is no cooler air anywhere for the fans to circulate, the temperature simply cannot go down. Instead, it crept up. At 7 p.m. it was 104 in the house.

We escaped for dinner (leaving the poor dog in the house; there was nowhere else for him to go) and then came home and took the dog for a walk to our nearby ice cream stand. It was marginally cooler outside, and we tried to walk in the shade as much as possible. But eventually we had to go back to the house.

When the temperature had only receded to 102 by 8:30, we knew there was no way we'd be staying in the house overnight. We thought about knocking on our neighbor's door and asking if we could sleep over, but we weren't sure if they had an available bedroom after all their renovating for their two kids. So we packed up and went down the street to a motel. It seems ridiculous to be sleeping in a motel room a mile from our house, but we just couldn't stay there in that heat. We cranked the a/c in the motel room up, showered in cold water, and went to bed. It was actually cool enough in our room to sleep with a blanket on the bed, and the dog was comfortable enough to curl up in a ball on the extra pillows I laid out on the floor for him.

This morning we packed up and came back to the house. It is currently 87 degrees in the house, at 5 minutes to 9. I've called the landlord and left a message for him about the air conditioner. Let's hope this gets taken care of quickly. It's already unpleasant in here, and it's bound to get worse in a hurry.

Well, I hope that wherever you are, you are staying cool. I'll let you know if the a/c gets resurrected, or if we'll be spending another fabulous night at the Super 8.