flameforger’s revenge

We had an unseasonably cool week during Flameforger’s fest. It was fall-like weather with a hint of crispness in the mornings. I was chatting about it at the dentist and we were both like, there is no way fall is here. It’s gonna get hot again. But we’ll enjoy this weather while it lasts.

As expected, it has gotten hot again—and worse, our air conditioning has died. It’s been semi-functional for combat all summer. On moderate days, it did the job; on hot days, it wouldn’t cool to the specified temperature (e.g., we had it set at 69, and it would only get to 75). We talked about fixing it, and I looked up an HVAC guy with good reviews, but I never got around to calling.

Wednesday I got back from work and it was like stepping into a heat wave. Seems the air conditioner conked out entirely. It was 84 degrees in the house, and it stayed that way into the evening despite the outside temperature dropping to 67. There was a whole arc where I went around trying to open the windows for the first time. It was a failure. The windows aren’t the type you can just lift. They’re all controlled by decrepit hand cranks, and I was worried I’d break them. I was able to slightly crack open a couple of the windows, but that did nothing to ease the temperature. I re-closed them. At least the balcony has a screen door for a little bit of relief.

The heat continued into Thursday. It was intolerably hot both outside and inside, but more so inside. In the afternoon, roommate rousted me from an afternoon nap to tell me it was 90 degrees in the house and we had to do something NOW. (I hadn’t actually been asleep. I was lying perfectly still with the fan on me, trying unsuccessfully to sleep, wiping away sweat and thinking of wet bulbs.) I booked a next-day appointment with the HVAC people. So we’ll see how that goes.

As I write this, it’s 10 pm and still 87 degrees in the house. HGR pointed out that is old-people-die-in-Europe level heat. Dante suggested going to a hotel until the AC is fixed. That might genuinely be necessary if the HVAC people can’t fix things tomorrow. Initially, I was thinking we just had to hold out until Saturday for cooler temps, but the forecast has been updated to reflect 80+ temps continuing through the weekend.