I travel back and forth between two houses.
I typically stay up north from May until sometime in November and then spend the rest of the year down south.
I recently made an extra trip to my southern home during early September for the sake of a much-needed getaway. I planned to enjoy the sunshine, warm temperatures and simply relax. However, I arrived and realized that the lawn was in desperate need of mowing and all of the gardens overgrown with weeds. Inside, there were dead cockroaches to clean up, dust coating every surface and mildew thriving in the bathrooms. Since the outside temperature was steadily in the upper eighties, I started up the air conditioner and was thankful for the influx of cool air from the vents. On my third day there, I realized that I was overheated, sweaty and uncomfortable. I checked and discovered that the thermostat wasn’t working. Replacing the batteries solved nothing. I read online that my thermostat might fail to operate because of a tripped breaker. After flipping the switch on the breaker panel, the thermostat lit up and I thought my problems were solved. The reading indicated that the indoor temperature was at 82 degrees. I set the temperature at 72 and heard the air conditioner start up. I went back to work on cleaning the house, expecting it to cool down. When I was still sweating profusely a half an hour later, I took another look at the thermostat and realized the air conditioner had accomplished nothing. Although it was making plenty of noise, there was no cool air coming from the vents. I couldn’t get a technician to show up for repairs until the following day. I ran the overhead ceiling fan on high all night and still found it impossible to sleep.