Cranky and obsessing; or, a new low in posting

Over what, you ask? Over the #@!^$ "air conditioning" in our apartment.

I know I've mentioned before that our A/C is really a "cooler" - it's a radiator. Hot water runs through it in the winter when it's cold, and cold water runs through it in the summer when it's hot. No nasty freon or other refrigerants, so it's environmentally friendly.

The problem is, it doesn't work.

Or I should say, it doesn't work consistently. Sometimes I turn it on, and cool air emerges. It's not the icy cold air you get with true A/C, but it's pleasantly cool, and if I turn it on before the sun makes it round to our west-facing windows, and shut the nicely double-glazed windows, the apartment stays pretty comfortable. Not quite as cold as with A/C (I'm one of those people who likes to be able to sleep under a light blanket even in the middle of summer), but you know, very tolerable. I had the cooler on all day Wednesday and Thursday and I was perfectly fine.

But other times, I turn the damn thing on, and it just blows room-temperature air. Which, if I shut everything up before it's skanky-hot outside, is a little bit of an improvement from the outdoors. But not really very much of an improvement.

Did I mention that the high yesterday was 98°F (that's 36° for you Celsius types)? (Weather.com says it was 93° but they're on crack.) And that the high today is supposed to be "around 100°"? And that right now the cooler is set on blowing room-temperature air?

I even turned it off last night and opened the windows to catch the cooler night air (thankfully, it always gets cooler at night here so we get some relief; I know when I visited a friend in Houston the high was 104° but what was almost worse was that it stayed in the 90s ALL NIGHT LONG) (of course, everything in Houston is A/C'ed up the wahoo, but it was still a bit of a shock to this northern girl). I was hoping against hope that turning the cooler on this morning after its long rest would do the trick, and cool air would issue forth.

Nope.

Gah.

(When we first moved in, we had a day of room-temperature air, and I asked the management company to come look at it, and of course when they showed up, it happily produced cool air on demand, and the guy explained that it was a radiator not true A/C, and I though, okay, well, now I know how that works, I guess it wasn't really blowing room-temperature air, it was just that I expected it to be colder. So I thanked them and they went on their merry way. But of course now I've figured out something is FUBAR. And it's the weekend. And I highly doubt they'd show up to fix it today, when I'm not even sure they're going to agree that it's FUBAR. Gah.)

(And I realize this is one of the most boring things I've ever posted. In such detail, no less, when I could just say, "My A/C isn't working properly and it's hot. Phooey." But I am completely obsessing over this, because that's what I do about climate control. It's my thing. I can't decide whether I'm obsessing more about the heat, or more about the fact that THE ADVERTISED A/C WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO WORK ISN'T WORKING. Or, is sort of working, but isn't actually COOLING ANYTHING DOWN AND OMG CAN IT BE FIXED OR WILL I LIVE MY LIFE IN UNCERTAINTY. Either way, obsess, obsess, obsess. I'm probably about as bad as Limon de Campo's Awesome Man. And my own awesome man is at work and has heard me obsess about this for the last 24 hours, so I thought it was time to share with you, dear internets. Aren't you glad?)

Comments

[Marilynn]

For years and years, I taught in a high school in the SoCal desert -- about 30 miles ESE of Palm Springs -- without air- conditioner in my classroom. Only the offices had a/c, of course!

In the classrooms, there were only "swamp coolers" (sometimes called "desert coolers" and now referred to as "evaporative coolers" -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooling#Evaporative_cooling ) If yours doesn't work like one of these, you might want to look into it. That swamp cooler did a great job in my classroom as long as it wasn't hideously humid with high desert heat. Many homes in that desert have two systems -- regular a/c and a swamp cooler system, too. Regular a/c only needs to be run when it's horribly humid and hot, as only that desert and places like Houston and Washington, DC, can get!

And drink lots of water!

=)

[Thoroughly Educated]

I would totally be obsessing and miserable about that, too. (Reminds me of the summer I signed on for an archaeological dig that promised hot running water at the campsite where we were to stay. Turns out what they meant was that the pipe supplying water ran above ground for about two feet before entering the shower room and the sun was supposed to warm the water during that transit. In Yorkshire.)

Anyway, this doesn't solve the they-promised-a/c-and-there-isn't-any problem, but can you get better shades to control the sun when it's really hot? I'm thinking of those cool-shade things made for shading porches, like the ones that Plow and Hearth sells.

[lived in hot state since 1991]

You can get a room air conditioner with a pan underneath that collects water, at Target or at a hardware store. They run between $350-500. We currently are pricing one for our screened in porch. Currently it is 98 degrees out on the porch. Think cool thoughts :)

[New Kid on the Hallway]

Thanks for the sympathy, folks! As for additional appliances - well, first, we have casement windows, which make it very hard to install any other cooling system, since most vent out a (sliding) window; second, we don't really have the floor space for a cooling unit; and third, I don't think I could convince NLLDH in a million years! When we moved into our old apartment, it had no cooling system at all (well, 2 ceiling fans). My instinctive response was, well, we can buy a window AC for the bedroom! Yeah, that went NOWHERE. He actually likes heat. Sigh. (Especially since this place is in theory A/Ced - NLLDH's response would be we can't buy an A/C, it's already got A/C.)

But TE, we do need to look into shades further. I have to talk to our management people because we moved in, no shades, la la la, we didn't get around to buying them right away although we meant to - then after a few weeks we got a notice that they were putting blinds in the bedroom. Which was welcome, but my thought is: why not the living room too??? So I'm going to ask them that. First thing tomorrow morning!

[Janice]

Cellular blinds are really very good at cutting down the head (and insulating in the winter!) so something like that in the living room might be smart.

I love, love, love having air-conditioning (finally!) and get just the teeniest bit cranky on days when Mike thinks it is cool enough in the basement family room and turns it down. As I work upstairs, I end up always a bit overheated. *sigh*

[Thoroughly Educated]

Ooh, Janice has a good point: cellular blinds would work well, and would look nicer than a lot of other shade options.

[michelle]

That is miserable. You have my complete sympathy. One of my worst childhood memories ever involved a heat wave with no air.

[I Got an]

If it IS a new low in posting, then I'm not altogether happy to admit that I beat you to it:

http://igotanaincrazybeeyotch.blogspot.com/2008/06/things-that-currently-occupy-my-time.html

:)

I appreciate the fully honest and physical, "Hi, life sucks when your internal organs are simmering" type of post.

[New Kid on the Hallway]

I got an A in crazy beeyotch, you totally win for best blog handle! I saw you comment over at Bitch, Ph.D. (I think) and just cracked up! welcome! :-)

And we are so totally planning on cellular blinds - there are some nice ones at Home Despot. :-)

Janice, I had to laugh because your comment makes me relive my childhood - my dad was ALWAYS saying that the AC was too cold and my mom was ALWAYS hot. (I was always on my mom's side!) Of course, my mom was the one who took care of everything in the house (cooking, cleaning, etc.) so it's not surprising she was a bit warmer than my dad hanging on the couch!

(I also feel obligated to acknowledge that lack of A/C is such a privileged kind of complaint - in this climate, which is hot but not crazy-hot, people-die-of-heatstroke hot, there are a hell of a lot of worse things I could be dealing with. I still want real AC though!)

And for some reason I'm remembering how our old yellow lab used to go stand in front of the AC and look at us, as if to say, "Turn it on!" (He was so smart.) Then when we did, he'd stand there in front of the air, blissfully hogging it all. He was such a great dog. At least I don't have a fur coat. ;-)

[maude lebowski]

i'm kind of the same way, except that not only do i freak about internal climate control (i, too, like to sleep under a blanket even in the summer), but the weather itself stresses me out. like when it's still hot in november and i think it needs to be winter already, or when it's still snowing in april and i'm ready for spring. it's all very neurotic. but i expect seasons to occur when i think they should, and i really get very stressed when they don't.

wow, i never realized until i wrote this how very looney that must sound.

[New Kid on the Hallway]

maude, I completely understand - one of the things I didn't like about living in Former City, which was way further south than I'd EVER lived before, was that the seasons were just. all. wrong. I suppose I'm worse about this because I lived in the same place for the first 23 years of my life, and then moved to a colder but otherwise the same climate. If I'd moved south/north/east/west all over the place as a kid, I wonder how I'd feel about this...