Before tying the knot, I never expected that freon, or any refrigerant, really, would ever play a prominent role in my marriage. But, here we are.
["If you love somebody, if you love somebody, set them freon... free, free, set them freon." This song actually caused a little fight between my friend RB and I. It came up during the audio round of a pub trivia game, and I thought she said it was The Police, so I wrote that as our answer. We got it wrong because it's actually just Sting, which RB insisted that she said in the first place.]
The AC unit in our house has a leak, and it's causing some domestic strife. This weekend was fine, because the temperatures have been relatively mild (yesterday was gorgeous, today is the same, mid 70s - mid 80s), but last weekend and early this week it was painful (high 80s - low 90s). It was too hot for me, and if it's too hot for me, then it's sure to be absolutely unbearable for S, because she's with child and even if she wasn't... well, let's just say toughing out physically uncomfortable situations isn't exactly her forte. And if you wanted to whip up a volatile household concoction here are some good ingredients: sweltering heat, pregnancy, large unanticipated hits to your household budget, difficult insurance and repair companies.
But, we've been managing. The saving grace has been a window unit in our attic. When it gets too bad, S can go up there and chill out, literally. We put an air mattress up there so she can even sleep there when need be. It sucks not sleeping in the same bed, but it's better than having S get too hot and go insane, and snuff me out with a pillow while I'm sleeping, so that I'll stop generating heat. I won't join her in the attic, because it's actually too cold for me. She likes to crank the air conditioner up to sub-arctic levels and then cozy up under the comforter. This makes absolutely no sense to me. I follow a more natural cold to hot progression. The only reason for the air conditioner, in my view, is if you're sleeping in with only a thin sheet, with the ceiling fan on and you're still too hot. I mean, if you're too hot and you have a jacket on, what's the logical thing to do? It's the same principle to me at night.
Anyway, this week is supposed to be mild, so if we can get our AC fixed this week, we will be fine. But, that's a big if. We bought maintenance insurance through our mortgage company for just this type of thing, but it turns out, our policy isn't exactly what we thought (huge surprise, I know). The big thing is that we can't use any repair company we want, we have to use our insurance's preferred company. We can't even contact the repair company directly, we have to contact them through our insurance. This completely destroys any incentives to provide fast, quality service. The insurance company doesn't really give a shit, because they aren't the ones living in the heat, and they're the ones who have to eventually pay the bulk of the bill, so if the service is slow and crappy, what's it to them? Similarly, the repair company doesn't have to make us happy, because we aren't their direct costumer. It's not like they will outright ignore us. It's more like they'll give us a twelve hour time window on a Friday, show up at 7pm during a thunderstorm, and then proclaim that we have a leak which they can't attempt to locate or fix because it's too dark and wet out. But don't worry they'll call us later to schedule another appointment, and if we're really in a hurry, we can feel free to pay a different company out of pocket to come out and try to fix it faster. Oh, and also, they need a $60 check for you deductible. Yeah sure, here you go, thanks asshole.
In other news, a friend and colleague of S's is taking a new job (in the same company) and moving to a new state, so we hosted a surprise party for him last night. It was a real surprise party in that he had no idea what was going on. His wife duped him into thinking there was a PTA event in our neighborhood and that they were just going to stop by our place to say hi. Even upon arriving he didn't get what was going on. He thought we were having a party that they weren't invited to and that they were intruding. It wasn't until he noticed that the only attendees of our party were his coworkers who were all yelling "surprise" at him, that things clicked. It was pretty funny.
It turned out to be a good party. I spent a decent portion of it playing "soccer" with a beach ball with some kids (everyone against me). It was fun, but I ended the night with a huge grass stain on my jeans, and a split toenail. Playing in flip-flops when there is a 7-year old boy in sneakers, who's style of play is to kick whatever is in front of him as hard as he can all the time, is not the world's smartest idea.
The parents of the 7-year old boy had the craziest birthing story I've ever heard. It was 6pm and the doctors were expecting the delivery to happen around 12am given the current state of things, so everybody left the suite except for the parents. Before leaving they suggested the about-to-be mom use the bathroom because she was about to be anesthetized and she'd probably be more comfortable it she went now. So, she goes to the bathroom, and SPLASH, out comes the kid, into the toilet! She didn't even realize it because she nearly blacked out from the pain. The dad hears the splash, comes in, and takes the kid out of the toilet. No doctors or nurses are in the area. Is that crazy or what? It shows some serious negligence on the part of the hospital staff (which isn't very comforting as it's the same hospital we're going to), and some serious Johnny-on-the-spot-ness on the part of the dad. Had he not been around the kid could have drown in the toilet! Pure craziness.
Well, I think that wraps up this entry. I have some episodes of The Ultimate Fighter to catch up on. The finale was on Friday and I didn't even know the new season had started already. I've actually been kicking around the idea of taking a mixed martial arts class, myself (get it, "kicking around"?). I don't have much desire to actually fight somebody in a match, but the discipline and toughness it teaches, along with the cardio workout I would get, make it pretty attractive. That's the thing about MMA. Detractors say it's human cockfighting and too brutal (almost certainly less brutal than football, but that's a different topic), but it's actually an intricate craft that one has to hone through hard work. Thugs don't get rewarded in MMA, they get annihilated by technicians, who actually train and focus. In my opinion, the values the sport teaches are overwhelming positive. And it's fun as to hell to watch.
Anyway, until next time...
["If you love somebody, if you love somebody, set them freon... free, free, set them freon." This song actually caused a little fight between my friend RB and I. It came up during the audio round of a pub trivia game, and I thought she said it was The Police, so I wrote that as our answer. We got it wrong because it's actually just Sting, which RB insisted that she said in the first place.]
The AC unit in our house has a leak, and it's causing some domestic strife. This weekend was fine, because the temperatures have been relatively mild (yesterday was gorgeous, today is the same, mid 70s - mid 80s), but last weekend and early this week it was painful (high 80s - low 90s). It was too hot for me, and if it's too hot for me, then it's sure to be absolutely unbearable for S, because she's with child and even if she wasn't... well, let's just say toughing out physically uncomfortable situations isn't exactly her forte. And if you wanted to whip up a volatile household concoction here are some good ingredients: sweltering heat, pregnancy, large unanticipated hits to your household budget, difficult insurance and repair companies.
But, we've been managing. The saving grace has been a window unit in our attic. When it gets too bad, S can go up there and chill out, literally. We put an air mattress up there so she can even sleep there when need be. It sucks not sleeping in the same bed, but it's better than having S get too hot and go insane, and snuff me out with a pillow while I'm sleeping, so that I'll stop generating heat. I won't join her in the attic, because it's actually too cold for me. She likes to crank the air conditioner up to sub-arctic levels and then cozy up under the comforter. This makes absolutely no sense to me. I follow a more natural cold to hot progression. The only reason for the air conditioner, in my view, is if you're sleeping in with only a thin sheet, with the ceiling fan on and you're still too hot. I mean, if you're too hot and you have a jacket on, what's the logical thing to do? It's the same principle to me at night.
Anyway, this week is supposed to be mild, so if we can get our AC fixed this week, we will be fine. But, that's a big if. We bought maintenance insurance through our mortgage company for just this type of thing, but it turns out, our policy isn't exactly what we thought (huge surprise, I know). The big thing is that we can't use any repair company we want, we have to use our insurance's preferred company. We can't even contact the repair company directly, we have to contact them through our insurance. This completely destroys any incentives to provide fast, quality service. The insurance company doesn't really give a shit, because they aren't the ones living in the heat, and they're the ones who have to eventually pay the bulk of the bill, so if the service is slow and crappy, what's it to them? Similarly, the repair company doesn't have to make us happy, because we aren't their direct costumer. It's not like they will outright ignore us. It's more like they'll give us a twelve hour time window on a Friday, show up at 7pm during a thunderstorm, and then proclaim that we have a leak which they can't attempt to locate or fix because it's too dark and wet out. But don't worry they'll call us later to schedule another appointment, and if we're really in a hurry, we can feel free to pay a different company out of pocket to come out and try to fix it faster. Oh, and also, they need a $60 check for you deductible. Yeah sure, here you go, thanks asshole.
In other news, a friend and colleague of S's is taking a new job (in the same company) and moving to a new state, so we hosted a surprise party for him last night. It was a real surprise party in that he had no idea what was going on. His wife duped him into thinking there was a PTA event in our neighborhood and that they were just going to stop by our place to say hi. Even upon arriving he didn't get what was going on. He thought we were having a party that they weren't invited to and that they were intruding. It wasn't until he noticed that the only attendees of our party were his coworkers who were all yelling "surprise" at him, that things clicked. It was pretty funny.
It turned out to be a good party. I spent a decent portion of it playing "soccer" with a beach ball with some kids (everyone against me). It was fun, but I ended the night with a huge grass stain on my jeans, and a split toenail. Playing in flip-flops when there is a 7-year old boy in sneakers, who's style of play is to kick whatever is in front of him as hard as he can all the time, is not the world's smartest idea.
The parents of the 7-year old boy had the craziest birthing story I've ever heard. It was 6pm and the doctors were expecting the delivery to happen around 12am given the current state of things, so everybody left the suite except for the parents. Before leaving they suggested the about-to-be mom use the bathroom because she was about to be anesthetized and she'd probably be more comfortable it she went now. So, she goes to the bathroom, and SPLASH, out comes the kid, into the toilet! She didn't even realize it because she nearly blacked out from the pain. The dad hears the splash, comes in, and takes the kid out of the toilet. No doctors or nurses are in the area. Is that crazy or what? It shows some serious negligence on the part of the hospital staff (which isn't very comforting as it's the same hospital we're going to), and some serious Johnny-on-the-spot-ness on the part of the dad. Had he not been around the kid could have drown in the toilet! Pure craziness.
Well, I think that wraps up this entry. I have some episodes of The Ultimate Fighter to catch up on. The finale was on Friday and I didn't even know the new season had started already. I've actually been kicking around the idea of taking a mixed martial arts class, myself (get it, "kicking around"?). I don't have much desire to actually fight somebody in a match, but the discipline and toughness it teaches, along with the cardio workout I would get, make it pretty attractive. That's the thing about MMA. Detractors say it's human cockfighting and too brutal (almost certainly less brutal than football, but that's a different topic), but it's actually an intricate craft that one has to hone through hard work. Thugs don't get rewarded in MMA, they get annihilated by technicians, who actually train and focus. In my opinion, the values the sport teaches are overwhelming positive. And it's fun as to hell to watch.
Anyway, until next time...
That's pretty much exactly why I like to watch UFC even though I am bored to tears by virtually every other type of sports spectating. It's fascinating to see a fighter's mental fortitude, intense training, and instincts put to the test, especially when their opponent is equally well-prepared. Once I understood enough of the ground game to follow the strategy and flow it became like watching a chess match (except interesting!). Plus, there's a pretty good chance at any moment that someone's going to get knocked out or submitted, whereas other sports are so ritualized and broken up into plays and time-outs that I lose interest.
ReplyDeleteI imagine with your wrestling background that you'd be a leg up on getting started with MMA. I'd be interested to hear how it goes!
Yeah, I'm probably going to look into it in a few months after my racquetball season ends. There's a gym right by my office which is perfect. I just have to make sure it's not too big of time commitment.
ReplyDelete