Monday, May 22, 2006

“C” Woes

Saturday night when we went to bed our air conditioner was keeping the house nice and comfy-cool. (Remember, I live in South Texas where it’s very rare not to run either the heat or the A/C.)

At 2 a.m. I awoke feeling warm. But the inside blower was blowing, and I figured it would cool off soon.

Wrong! The blower ran all night, but the outside compressor was not running so there was no cooling.

We got up early Sunday morning, cursing the “C” and planning to set up our camper in the driveway to sleep in on Sunday night, because IT has air conditioning!

I called the owner of the business who had sold and installed the A/C seven years ago. (Yes, it was a Sunday morning. Yes I know the guy's home phone number. We live in a small town, remember? Hey, the unit had a 10-year full parts and labor warranty, and it's only seven years old—why not?) My intent was just to let him know of our problem and hopefully get a serviceman out as early Monday as possible.

To my amazement he (the company owner!) said he would come over in an hour or so and take a look. He did, and it turned out to be simply an electrical connection that had vibrated loose over the years. Some corrosion had occurred as well, so he replaced the contacts and we were back in business with cool air blowing!

I intended to let all of you know about this episode on Sunday, but I thought the pictures of the fawn were more important.

(Plus I didn’t want to admit to any distress or frustration, and thus encourage the “C” to attack other electrical equipment.) But...

That turned out to be a false hope! Today, when I arrived at home after work, I found that telephone service throughout my neighborhood is non-functional. Kaput. Nada. Zilch. As I type this, we have no land-line phone service.

Now some of our neighbors (two of them, who knocked on our door to ask it WE had service) assume that an underground line may have been cut, since we do have road construction going on a few blocks away. But you and I know different, don’t we?

Hopefully the rest of you will be spared. These attacks MAY have been in retaliation for my careless “naming of names” last week. But we’ve learned from that, haven’t we? I’ll be more discrete in the future.

10 comments:

Zinnia said...

We have frost warnings for early morning hours. It took us a long time to cover up the gardens.

Candace said...

Not again! This is contagious, right? I'm gonna have to start commenting as "Anonymous" if this doesn't stop!

Anonymous said...

Psst: Male dogs can destroy compressors by peeing on them.
-One who found out the hard way.

Karyn Lyndon said...

You? More discreet??? lol lol lol!!!

Duke_of_Earle said...

Zinnia: Down here, all danger of frost is past by March 15, Gee, frost in late May? What a concept!

Canda... I mean, Anonymous: I would imagine that a female dog could also perform that feat if she were tall enough. But your point is well taken.

Karyn: "More" is a comparative term. You know; kind of a "relative to..." thing. For someone who never exercises ANY discretion, being "more discrete" only requires me to exercise a smidgen. With Herculean effort, I might manage.

John

Anonymous said...

Touch wood - all clear on this side.

Anonymous said...

Duke this is a weird coinidence, last night I dreampt I was somehwere hot digging a big pit in a road and when I found some wires I used a pair of wire clippers to cut some wires.

The moment I cut the wires I woke up.

I wouldn't have thought anything of it but when I put my shoes on this morning they were covered in mud and I've lost my favourite spade.

Hmmmm......

Duke_of_Earle said...

...and in the Victoria, TX, "Advocate" this morning was an article about a strange garden spade found on a road construction site near my neighborhood. The steel shank had stamped into it, "Draper DDS/S STAINLESS STEEL." Nothing like it has ever been seen in this area before. Also found nearby were muddy shoe prints and a pair of wire cutters of U.K. manufacture. Local authorities are puzzled, and checking fingerprints.

Candace said...

Dee-dee-DEE-dee, Dee-dee-DEE-de! You guys are creeping me out!

Emmy Ellis said...

Yeah, Draper is a UK tool maker. How weird!

:O)