Cold Enough For Ya?

I have been pretty bummed about the non-operational status of our air conditioner for the last couple of weeks. If you are wondering why I might need air conditioning in the Fall, then you obviously ain’t from around here, and consequently, you know not about Tennessee weather.  There is a precise pivotal moment every Fall in Tennessee in which the weather goes from about 90° to 50° in an instant. Everyone looks around, thinking to themselves, ‘Boy, it sure did get cold all of a sudden!’ This occurs every October, and this year, it happened this past Saturday. So for most of the last 2 weeks, my house has been a sweltering hot box, and I’ve done what I can to keep the temperature down – opened the windows, run fans, etc.  

No air conditioning also means no heat. Since the pivot, it’s been getting pretty cool around here. This morning, the temperature was about 40° (a blistery, wintery cold in these parts).  I felt a chilly bite on my toes after getting out of bed, which means that it is time to bite the bullet and get the heat/air fixed.  I’ve been putting it off as long as possible. When things around the house stop working, I try to look at the bright side. ‘Think of all the money we’re saving on the power bill,’ I tell myself. ‘That will help pay for the upcoming repair. And hopefully, this cold air will help with our bug problem!’ (In case you’re wondering, it’s not the kind of bug problem you get from your house being nasty…It’s a different kind of bug problem. Don’t judge.) One way I try to look at the bright side is to reminisce about all the worse household problems we’ve had in the past.

“This is not nearly as bad as those winters we went without heat,” I said to my husband. “It was much colder then. Remember?” (As if he could forget. He stays bundled up with a space heater under his desk all summer.) “Or the whole summer we went without air conditioning and we slept on the living room floor in front of the open front door with a box fan? Or those years when we only had enough hot water to fill up a sink? Remember trying to take baths by heating up water in pots on the stove and a turkey pan in the oven? And 2-minute showers? At least we have hot water now.”

“True,” he eloquently replied.

Not only do we have plenty of hot water now, we also have a front door that doesn’t fall off when people try to use it. In our old place, we frequently had to yell at our guests to try to stop them from opening the door. If not opened properly, the plastic veneers would fall off the Styrofoam door; the whole thing would come apart, and it would take an hour, 2 people, and 4 screwdrivers to wedge it all back together. Our frequent visitors became accustomed to walking up the door and waiting for us to let them out.

There were also several times in that old place that we had no water at all. Usually, this was not because we didn’t pay our bill (usually), but because of several plumbing issues that arose and caused us to have to shut off the water to the house to avoid further indoor flooding. I used to bring a couple of empty jugs to work with me so I could take water home for cooking, showers, and toilet-flushing. I became quite proficient at the 1/3-gallon-of-water-shower.

Compared to years past, we are living in the lap of luxury. No longer do we let our kitchen sink drain into a bucket that we carry upstairs to dump in the toilet. Sure, we still have household problems. The lights often go out in the kitchen, and the only way to get them to come back on is to tap on the outlet behind the table. But, at least we have light. And, I try to remember that things could be (and have been) much worse. We may not be living high on the hog, but these days, we’re much more comfortable. Or at least we will be once we get this heat fixed.