The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Summertime has both wonderful things and not-so-wonderful things.  Here are a few from the past couple days:

THE GOOD
Ripe watermelon, straight from the field...

THE BAD
With hotter temperatures, fire season is in full swing...

AND THE UGLY
For anyone who doesn't know, July in San Diego was one of the coolest on record. August started out the same way - threatening to break 100-year-old records of the lowest daytime high temperature. Granted, that is about 65 degrees - which in no way is something to complain about.


But all of that changed last week when Mother Nature said, fooled you little peons, just as you started getting comfortable in your light jackets and cool breezes, now it's suddenly going to be the HOT! ah ha ha ha! In contrast to July (and, really, most of the summer), August has brought a "heat wave" that is now breaking record highs, instead of record lows.


Now, I'm fairly hip with the 100+ weather, having survived many summers in Phoenix. However, it is amazing how quickly one's tolerance for the heat dissipates when, suddenly, the air conditioning goes out.

AND CONTINUES NOT TO WORK FOR 4 WHOLE DAYS.


Last Tuesday, the AC at the office turned off, right about at the hottest portion of the day. Meh. We call air conditioning guy. He comes out, says he's not sure what's wrong but it doesn't look like the unit is getting any power and we probably need a $1300 part to fix it. Probably.


Wednesday, he comes out, replaces the part, and.... still no AC. Did I mention how difficult it is to concentrate on work inside a building that is maintaining a toasty 89 degrees? Everyone's walking around the office in their socks, shirt collars unbuttoned, sweat on their brows. Temperaments are, at best, testy and at worst, downright cranky.


Thursday, the husband of one of my co-workers stops by the office. Being a sort of handy guy, he climbs up to the roof to check out the AC unit. He climbs back down in less than two minutes and proclaims, "I found your problem."


Turns out, the landlord had the energy company install one of those "Super Saver Energy Boxes" that turns your electricity useage off during peak (aka the hottest) hours of the day. Which explains why the AC was working in the morning, but mysteriously turned off at the same time every day.


You would have thought the AC repairman would have looked for that. I mean, if your computer wasn't working, wouldn't the first thing you do be to check and make sure it's plugged in?


So after a quick call to the energy company the "Super Saver" was disabled and, theortically, we were going to have air condition again. Friday proved the energy company to be liars and for our building, once again, to be hot. Nothing like being on the top floor of an only moderately-insulated converted warehouse building. It was cooler outside than in.


Who knows what next week will bring... I miss you, air conditioning, please come back.