Which, of course, is what ours did. I should have read the signs. It didn't seem to get all that cool in the house and our bedroom, about the furthest away from the a/c unit, would stay fairly warm. Sunday evening after dropping Jonathan off at the church to go to Scout Camp, I came home...and it really was a bit too warm. By Monday, it was obvious. Our a/c was not functioning. Well, it was blowing air, it just wasn't cold.
So we had someone come & look at it. Prognosis: dead. The compressor was shot. A new unit? $1,600. Gee, if only I had that on hand. Last week's water line replacement kind of ate into my capital.
While pondering what could be done, we've been pretty warm. See, some brilliant person painted most of the windows shut. And not just a little bit that could be easily sliced through. Nope, they did a thorough job. And the windows that could open...no screens. Luckily, Ken found some in the garage that fit three windows in our home. So, we have three windows in three rooms that provide some air, along with the ceiling fan movement - one in the living room, one in Jonathan's bedroom, and one back in the den. For the first few nights, Analiese has been sleeping on the floor of the den under the open window.
Because of Jonathan being gone, I'd made lots of plans for stuff for Analiese & I to do, which has kept us out of the house and into air conditioned venues. She's taken art classes in the library, we've gone to free movies a church (that is housed in an old movie theater) provides for the kids of the community, and she's gone to 4H sewing class. Wednesday, however, was the day to top it all.
She and I headed out to Lawton for the day. I needed to go to Sam's Club and start building up my supplies again and the closest one is in Lawton - a larger town than ours and 52 miles away (Ken says 46, but my GPS said 52 and I believe it!). When you have to go so far for stuff, you plan it out. Lawton has more and bigger stores - they're even building a Target & Petsmart! I can't tell you how excited people are around here that a Target is coming. You'd think with this being Wal-martland they wouldn't care. It's funny.
We went to Hobby Lobby first, though, since I knew I'd have to drive straight back from Sam's with my perishables. I needed something to hand my keys on...and I wanted something not just utilitarian, even if I had to make it. Actually, I didn't, because they had all their metal decor 50% off and I got the cutest key holder that says "Home" on it. And...we met up with a mom & two of her daughters (her son was off at camp with Jonathan) from our ward at the check out. They had to go to Sam's, too, so we had lunch together (cheapest meal in town!) and then did our shopping.
But our day wasn't over, because I'd promised Analiese that in the evening, Ken & I would take her to the city pool, which is just a few blocks away from our home. They have an indoor and outdoor pool...and the outdoor pool had excited Analiese because they have TWO waterslides there. Not just wimpy things, either. Ken counted 53 stairs to climb to get to the top. One is a straight shot down and Ken liked that one...he shot out of it like a cannon. The other one was a curly-cue and Analiese must have gone down that thing at least twenty times. It sure wore her out! But we all agreed, we have to go back often, because it was too much fun. I'll be going there 3x/week for the indoor pool's water aerobics class and on Fridays, I'll take the kids with me.
So we've avoided much of the house heat. We haven't been too hungry and I haven't wanted to cook, so we've eaten light and drank LOTS of water. Sleeping has been difficult, but Friday night I had Ken put up the tent in the backyard and we've slept out there (he put my mattress in the tent, in case you wondered) and it's been a much cooler, nicer night's sleep. Poor Jonathan came back from Scout camp only to be told he'll be sleeping more nights in a tent! Still, when he felt the heat in the house, he didn't complain.
Oh, and at 6:00 a.m. this morning, the flash of lightning and sound of thunder woke us up. I made them get up and move into the house. I was really too chicken to endure a thunderstorm in a tent. Not that the storm came...all bluff and no substance.
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