#2-Getting Ready

Preparing for vacation is never easy for me. I start thinking of all the things I need to do until I drive myself so crazy I have to start making lists. You know, the “to do” lists for the kids to manage the house while we are gone, my own list of things to do such as: pay bills, get passports out, notify credit card co. of our traveling, suitcase, new underwear, etc. Then there is the selection of clothing, shoes (always a problem), toiletries--how many 3oz bottles can one get into a quart size bag? How many shampoos in a 3oz bottle? How many .5oz tubes of toothpaste do two people need for one month? Can you get Crest in England?-- Lay it all out, mix & match, delete/add. Where is my travel umbrella? Wow, I know it is summer, but doesn’t the house seem unusually hot? Why is it so hot in here?

The answer, if you haven’t already guessed, the air conditioner went out 9 days before we leave for vacation. Ok, that should be simple, just call AHS (home warranty service) and get a repairman out. 5 hours later, repairman #1 emerges from the basement saying it is way to complicated for him, it is not the air conditioner, but the blower on the furnace that is out and our system is too sophisticated for him to fix.

 So, more phone calls to AHS and search for repairman #2. However, this is Friday afternoon so the soonest we would see #2 is Monday noon. Now to give you an idea of the urgency at this point, the lowest temp. in 3 days was 95 degrees with high humidity.

Enter day 4 without air conditioning and it is the 4th week of July. #2 shows up and confidently states that he should have it fixed shortly. Three hours later he emerged from the basement saying a part needs to be ordered from the factory and shipped here. Noon, day 5, and still no word…so I call #2 company and get transferred to owner who says, “Your system is too sophisticated for us, you need a factory trained specialist to do this repair! So sorry.”

So again I call AHS and not so calm this time. GET ME A REPAIRMAN, NOW! Enter day 6 and repairman #3--my hero. However, it took until the end of day 7 for him to emerge from the basement with the air conditioner running once again. Thank God, since the heat index by that time was at 105F and I only had enough energy to sit in front of a fan and sweat. As a side note, that night I spent hours in the basement mopping up water condensation that had accumulated on the floor over the past week. Did I really need all this stress? Ah yes, character building you say--well do I have enough character now?