Mmm, refrigerated air

Well, the dude didn't call and didn't call. I called my dad up, in case he recognized the "symptoms" and had an idea of the problem (and also to whinge at him a little about being hot and tired and stuff always breaking on holidays).

He offered to reimburse me the cost of a hotel room. I didn't really want to do that (and anyway, I can afford my own darn hotel room). But I decided to start looking.

As I thought, no place had any vacancies. Well, the Best Western had one "smoking" room left but with my allergies, I'm better off going with a hot house. And I didn't try the "meth hotel," a girl's got to have some standards. ("meth hotel" - one in which several people were busted for making meth. On more than one occasion.)

My next thought was to do what I had been threatening to do since summer 2011. Get a window unit for my bedroom. I checked the Lowe's website and found that they had some on offer that would cool a smaller space (the one I got does up to 150 square feet, which is just about the size of my bedroom) and they weren't too expensive. And Lowe's was still open.

I did express worry on Twitter about whether my old-house wiring could handle it. I was remembering the old 1970s model my folks had that I think even required a special outlet. A friend (who I am guessing also has a house with older wiring) said, "If you can run a microwave without shorting stuff out, an air conditioner should be OK." 

So I went and got one, with some trepidation as to whether I'd be able to install it.

All told, it came to just about $140, which is less than half the price of a pair of Jimmy Choos, and I will enjoy this FAR more.

But, oh, what it took to get it installed.

First, I had to pick the window - one near an outlet and not too close to my bed. (Cold air blowing right on my neck = no bueno). And then I had to go cut some of the stupid bushes that had grown stupid big close to the window. Then try to get the screen off. Then go back in the house and get the step stool because I was too short to unhook the top latches. Then remove the screen.

Then get the air conditioner out of the box. Had to install the "top rail." (And the pictures in the manual as to how to do it? Tiny and VERY lacking in detail. I finally figured it out). And put the accordion-folding side panels on so it could be sized to the window opening. Likewise, uninformative instructions.

THEN lift the thing up and jimmy it around until it was at the right slope so it would drain and was also sitting securely. Then, screw the anchors in (I hope I can get them back out; this thing is NOT staying in the window year 'round, not if we have another winter like last year).

Then, finally, plug it in, say a little prayer, and turn it on.

Yup. Success.

I FEEL SUPER INVINCIBLE NOW.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I MANAGED THAT.

I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR.

(CAPSLOCK IS HOW I FEEL INSIDE, RICK)

So hopefully it's cooling the bedroom well. (I put it in, turned it on, took a shower, and am now both faffing around on the Internet and eating cherries.)

Oh, and guess what? GUESS WHAT? Guess who called just as I had all the bits and bobs on the air conditioner and was ready to stick it in the window?

Yup. The AC repair guy. (He had a family emergency. I'm totally sympathetic, probably more so since I solved part of my problem). He's coming tomorrow morning.

Of course, there's a chance the fan is totally borked and will need to wait on parts or something, so the window unit may be good insurance. (if I hadn't opened it before the dude called, I might have toughed out tonight in a hot house and tried taking it back tomorrow for a refund, but oh well. I had the packaging pretty well destroyed by that point. And anyway, as I said, this is something I've considered for like three years, and as I said, it's less than the cost of two nights in a hotel, so....)

Air conditioned air from a window unit feels and even smells different from central air. It was funny, the moment I stepped in front of the unit (to be sure it was running and cooling), I flashed back to the hot summer days when my parents would let my brother and me camp out on the floor of their bedroom. We didn't have air conditioning in the house - almost no one where I grew up did, but it was mostly okay because summers rarely got above 82 during the day and usually cooled down a good bit at night. But there would be a few days, usually in August, when it got bad. Or when we couldn't have open windows because of the mosquito trucks. (I don't know what they sprayed - DDT was banned by then - but whatever it was, my dad didn't want us breathing it).

 Anyway, my parents had a window unit in their bedroom. As I remember, they spent medical "flex dollars" on it because my dad was able to get a prescription from the guy treating his migraines- the air conditioner would cool, filter, and remove humidity from the air and the guy felt it was a plausible thing to have to help deal with them. (I do remember days when he'd have to go up there and lie in the dark. And I've had that feeling myself. There is a genetic link, I think, for migraines)

But on those really unbearably hot nights, we got to camp out on the floor - my parents in their bed, the cat in the bed with them, me on a camp mattress over by my dad's closet door and my brother on another camp mattress over the other side of the room under the window.