Sunday Morning Post, Vol. 3, #30 - The Heatstroke Week

This past week  Southeast Pennsylvania had its sixth heat wave of the summer season.  It is August and this is when we are used to having days of excessive heat and humidity.  But,  we've had more heat waves this summer then I can ever remember having.  The temperatures (before humidity) topped out in the low 90's.   Post humidity:  the heat was near or slightly above 100.

In other words too effin' hot for man or beast.

Uncomfortable no matter how you sliced it,  and yes this heat could be sliced.  Fortunately our central air system performed faithfully.

Until Wednesday.  It was on that day our power died a few times in the morning and a few times that afternoon.  It briefly shut down everything including the work I was doing on my computer.   I didn't think much of it at the time;  oh,  there was a slew of oaths uttered in contempt of technology that would've made the salty Warrior Queen proud.   Fortunately my computer came back up after a few minutes without my having to reboot.  

As the afternoon wore on I noticed that it was getting warmer inside the house.  I futzed* with the thermostat a few times to get the air to come back on.  I would hear a reassuring, but ultimately deceptive click.  The thermostat  temperature climbed from 78, past 80 and finally settled on 85 for the better part of the last two days.   

That night I called our local cooling/heating/plumbing entrepreneur to see if someone could keep look at it.  I spoke to the answering service, which I half expected.   They took my message and advised that the dispatcher would call me the next day.  Apparently the people we have been   dealing with for years does not have an emergency night crew.  Bummer, but I coped. 

The next day it was frustration and extremely hot in the living room.  Frustration because the dispatcher called and said their technician would be out with a window of 2:30 to   4:30,  and  they would call 30 minutes before arrival.   At about 4:15 the call came, not from the assigned technician, but from  the dispatcher saying that the original technician was held up on a job,  but they were sending out another technician, This time the window was 3:30-5:30.

Typical.

In the meantime I began to feel so warm that I became weak and lethargic.  Also,  I had stopped sweating.  I was sure I was having an episode of heat stroke.  Also the thermometer which my AAPC** chapter purchased to check people's heads as they come in for meetings (which have still not happened),  beeped loudly with the reading that I was running a fever.

I put ice bags on my head until I could feel that I had cooled down.  Also I started sweating again,  which normally makes me feel very uncomfortable,  but in this case I know it's a good sign.  

The second technician called at  4:50 to say he would be there in 40 minutes.   It was actually 5:50 when he did arrive, but quite personable and eager to diagnose my problem.   A quick check of the fuse box showed that the fuse had been tripped.  A flick there and back outside to look at the main unit.  It took awhile and he came in with grim news:  the compressor was shot and to replace it would cost nearly as much as a new unit.

Okay,  so all of five minutes I thought I could get away cheap.  Then he went into some detail about part availability:  this unit was so old that parts (such as compressors) are hard to find.  The technician also explained that the heater could also stand to be replaced as it was just as old as the air conditioning unit.

He gave me a few ballpark figures,  each higher than the other.  So now I'm hot and feeling that my checking account would be thinned out shortly.  This technician said someone would contact me the next day to give me more details.  The best news I got:  they could loan me a few window units to get me through until the work on the full units could be done.   Yay!

Long story short:  I decided to bypass the financing plans and pay for the whole thing while I have the money.  The new system will be installed on Monday.   I'm looking into the new units as protecting my investment and perhaps increasing the resale value of the house down the road.  The money I used is part of the life insurance policy I cashed in when Anne Marie passed away.

It's forcing me to be philosophical about her death.  There is after all a reason for every event and everything else which happens in our lives.   If only I could have had both a new system and Anne Marie.

If only fate would've been kind enough to grant me this wish....

 

*Look up that word in your Spo and Wagnells! 

**American Academy of Professional Coders, which is not listed in your Spo and Wagnells. 

(As always, thinking for reading.)