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| Blogs > wandering54 > Does life begin at 51? |
A "minor" inconvenience
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A "minor" inconvenience First of all, I am using the word minor here in the same sense that Jonathan Swift used "modest" in "a modest proposal" when writing about dealing with a famine in Ireland by eating babies. As Swift, an Irishman, felt that cannibalism of the young was anything but modest, I don't consider what happened as a minor event. It's been hot here in Southern Illinois in the last few weeks, our discomfort levels have been running over 100 degrees at midday fairly consistently since the end of July. Our ambient temperatures this week have been between 99 and 102 for highs all week. So, our air conditioners have all been running hard all this time. My AC is an electric furnace, and air conditioner combined, and it was installed in 1989. Tuesday morning, I had just finished shaving and was getting ready for work when Ms. Holly (the cat) and I began to notice a funny odor. I started seeing smoke and started checking lights and so forth. It seemed to be coming from around the AC, so I popped the cover off and looked inside. There were flames inside the unit. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and zapped the unit a few times until the flames were gone. Then I had to call my boss and tell her that I couldn't be in. I called the HVAC people and told them what had happened. The receptionist said that it was going to be 1 PM before they could get anyone out here. I said that would be OK, thinking that it wasn't going to be much better with anyone else in this weather. They got here about 3:15 and looked the unit over. There was a leak in the pan, between the coils and the electrical wiring. This is probably what caused the short. The wiring inside was melted and would all have to be replaced. In short, it was going to cost more to repair than to replace. They called a supervisor and he came out about 3:45 to give me an estimate. The total for a new unit would be $2,954.00, more than I had available. They offered financing at about 13%, but I told him I wanted to check with the Credit Union and see if I could get a better rate. He said they could do the work Wednesday or Thursday when I had decided. I thought that I would have to wait until morning to check with the Credit Union, but discovered they were open until 5. I imagine this isn't a surprise to the younger generation, but I still figured banks closed at 3. So, I hurried over there, sweaty as I was, hardly the way I usually conduct business and they not only got me a rate of 10.9%, but deposited the money in my account before I left at 5. I called the HVAC people and left a message with the night dispatcher. About 15 minutes later, I got a call from the supervisor I had spoken to, and he said they'd be out by 8 AM. They finished the job yesterday, and it was cooled down nicely by bedtime. In the long run, this may turn out to be a blessing, since it gets cold here too, and no heat in January is almost as bad as no Air Conditioning in August. School starts Monday, and the students are coming back now. This means we will be very busy, but busy makes the workday go faster doesn't it? |
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