The heat is on (the A/C is off)

If you’re a 40-something, like me, you might remember a time before everywhere was air conditioned. It didn’t seem to be a big deal back then. However, after spending many years in sub-arctic indoor temperatures in the summer months, I have become quite accustomed to this comfort. Once you become accustomed to something like that, there’s no going back.

But no worries. We live in a day and age when we send rocket ships to Mars, so surely the air conditioning will always run.

Until it doesn’t.

My beautiful wife, Megan, and I took a weekend trip to South Haven, Mich., to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary. It was one of those rare times we get to dump the kids on others and make them their problem for a while, and actually go have an adult time. It was a fantastic weekend, full of beach time, sun, food, drinks, and music. The weather was perfect, and a great time was had by all.

When the blissful weekend ended on Sunday afternoon, we drove three hours back to Fishers to pick up the rugrats. When we finally got to our home we walked into the house and were immediately smacked directly in the face with a humid heat wave. Usually that happens when I walk outside … not inside.

I am definitely a try it the DIY way first kind of person before calling professionals. By “DIY” I mean I use Google, Gemini, and YouTube to see if I can get a cheap fix out of it. So, armed with my phone and nut driver, I braved the heat and went out to the A/C unit. I opened the casing by unscrewing about 900 bolts and proceeded to hose off the inside, which was full of cottonwood and grass clipping. By the time I refastened the multitude of bolts, the air coming out of the vents seemed to be cold. Yay! I actually fixed it! I can’t believe what I did actually worked!

Until it didn’t.

On Wednesday, we went out to dinner after work and came home to the Sahara. At that point I clearly understood that my A.I. expertise was not gonna cut it this time. It was time to swallow my pride (and my wallet) and get someone qualified to help.

We immediately made phone calls to get someone out to try to fix it that night. However, that was not an easy task since it was evening. Many HVAC places have emergency numbers, but since the outside temps that week were in the high 1,000s, we weren’t the only emergency happening.

We were eventually able to get someone to come out that night, which is how we found out our unit was completely shot. We were going to have to wait until the next morning to get some options for a new A/C. So, we were going to have to rough it for a night.

We decided the main level was going to be our coolest option, so we brought down pillows and blankets, even though blankets were definitely not needed, and set up our little couch camp. After a trip to the store, our living room now had five fans blowing on us. Our kids thought it was an awesome adventure. We, on the other hand, did not.

We woke up sweating, but the night wasn’t completely horrible. Once the sun went down it cooled down just enough for us to not catch flames overnight.

The next day we went over our options with the HVAC company and decided on a new unit. It was only going to cost us a few million dollars plus seven pints of blood, so I think we got a fair deal. The only problem was they couldn’t install it until the next day.

We were in no mood to sweat through our couch cushions again, so we ended up staying the night with family. I mean, what good is family if we can’t guilt them into making our problems their problems anyway?

So, the new unit was installed the next day, we have cold air now and all is right with the world. I do realize this was a minor inconvenience compared to what many people have to deal with in the world, and I shouldn’t complain. Except I really like complaining, so there!

The moral of the story is … Don’t take what seems to be a minor convenience for granted, because Google can’t blow cool air.

Tim Rathz can be reached at 40somethinginfishers@gmail.com. Follow on Facebook or Instagram.