One of Those Days...Again

Our A/C is at least 20 years old. Last year it conked out and was resurrected by liberal applications of oil and the tender loving care of the R.S. Andrews tech.

Last Friday morning it didn't seem to have gotten as cool as it was supposed to during the night--I woke up to 73 degrees rather than 71--and I overrode the programmable thermostat to make sure cold air was coming out of the vents. It was fine and went on behaving fine.

Somewhere last night--before Room by Room of course--both James and I felt a little warm. He checked the vent in the den and although the unit was working, the flow of air was minimal and it was making a louder noise than usual. He took a flashlight and went out to the back yard to discover the compressor still going but the fan stopped.

We turned off the unit and he made sure there was no foreign matter inside, then he turned the hose on the unit. After rinsing it down the fan started to spin again, not at as high an RPM as it should be and making an almost rattling noise.

We have a service contract with Andrews, so I called up their emergency line. The tech told us we should probably turn off the unit, but we had to keep it going: it was hellishly humid out and neither of us can breathe properly with air like that. It actually worked fine during the night and it was at the proper temp this morning.

The emergency tech told me they would try to send someone out today due to our respiratory problems, but when I called in this morning sure enough there were no openings today. The woman there did make me an appointment for tomorrow morning, however.

Okay, the angle on this is that neither of us cares--much--if the A/C goes out. The service contract means it will be fixed eventually and we'd just have to swelter through it.

Willow and Bandit are another matter. Right now Wil is pretty safe. It's rained all morning, so the summer sun that usually comes in the kitchen window is past and it won't get much warmer in the kitchen, which is on a slab and should keep Little Miss cool. Bandit, on the other hand, now sleeps upstairs, which would turn into a smothery, suffering mess if the A/C conked out. He's been up there since he got sick last February; the air there seems to be better for him.

He's also not feeling well, I found out last night. He'd only eaten minimally of his seed, although he devoured a sprig of millet just before bed, which means he still has an appetite, but his droppings were watery and he's droopy and when let out, immediately hightails it for my shoulder to snuggle against my neck, which is a bad sign. He hasn't been breathing well since last year, so you can see my problem with leaving him in a house where the A/C might drop out any minute. On the other hand, if the A/C stays on, it's certainly better for him than the muggy, dirty summer air.

I ended up (a) running to Petsmart before I went to work to buy him fresh seed (as fresh as the manufacturers say packaged seed is, I've had several bags develop spores; I didn't see any in Bandit's newest package of seed, but that doesn't mean they're not there, which could be contributing to his ill health) and (b) bringing him downstairs to the den where he used to stay and where he is at night. I also brought the small air cleaner from our bedroom down and set that up. It's underpowered for the den and will not recycle the air as much as it should, but it's better than nothing. The den will stay cooler than upstairs with both ceiling fans going and should the A/C go out he should be able to breathe okay.

At least I hope so. He seemed a bit perkier this morning, and had some semi-solid droppings, but he still wanted to "'nuggle" the few minutes I let him out. Sigh.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 1:05:00 PM

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