The cool comfort of A/C

my storage devices room to play Tuesday morning was a little damp. It had rained a little the night before and the forecast called for more of the same with heavy storms moving in from the west. So far this summer, anytime we start to moving towards a typical summer dry out, we get the much needed rain. Because of this, my lawn still looks pretty damn good heading into mid-July. This time last year we had dried out pretty significantly with little if any rain in June and early July. I had a quiet house this morning despite having guests. No one but me was stirring about, and I don’t believe Mindy was awakened by my morning prep. I felt tremendous after another pleasing night’s sleep. This made the completion of my exercises that much easier. Soon I was out the door with Ykraps strolling the streets of Scioto Woods. I can always tell how much rain we received by observing the depths of the pond. It was just slightly higher than usual meaning we got little rain through the night. I enjoyed my coffee outdoors despite the dampness. I was nice taking in the warm, wet summery air. I went about my usual prep and gave thought to what the day might hold in store. This would be a telling day in that I would learn what we were looking at to repair Lindsey’s car, and I would finally have my home A/C fixed after two years of band-aids. I was feeling a bit anxious about those looming expenditures. Before getting in the shower I made Mindy a cup of coffee and took it to her in bed. She likes that. It’s the least I can do after all she does for me. By the time I was ready for work, Jacob and found his way to our bed and asked for a hug before I left. Mindy was planning to clear an area in the basement where the kids could readily play and we could store most of their current toys. The most likely area we agreed would be the area just to the left of the stairs. The plan is to move all of my junk into a tighter area just to the south and then move the many carpet remnants I have to soften the play area. She would be working around neighbor Mike who would be down there doing my A/C repair. Once settled in at work I got right down to business when my phone rang. It was Lindsey telling me that Aarrow Radiator had called asking or me. I called them back to get the bad news. It was her transmission and it was going to be costly! The estimated cost to repair the Honda is $1800. OUCH!!!! She’s put no more that 150 miles on the vehicle and here we are rebuilding the transmission. I was not too excited about the news. Rather than give the nod, I decided to call around for some options. I called a Honda dealer and then Cottman. The Honda dealer was very helpful and called me back two different times with various options and pricing. But bottom line, he said if he did it, it would be no less than $2500. Cottman said they would tow it free and would likely end up costing about $1800 given the symptoms described. I called my guy at Aarrow back to discuss his warranty and process. Bottom line was he would stand behind the work for 12,000 miles or 1 year. He told me to think it over and call back once I felt sure what I wanted to do. They’ve always been good to me and upfront and honest. Realistically, there was no reason not assume differently now just because I didn’t like what I was hearing. I felt sort of like a caged rat, though. I mean, I just bought this car off of Mindy’s brother-in-law, who I trust. I paid about book value for it, and now I would need to spend almost what I paid for it in repairs. Lots of things were running through my head. $1800 is a Caribbean vacation, 9months worth of groceries, a years worth of fill-ups, enough lumber & drywall to finish my basement. What to do? Run! I left for my run early. Not so much because of the car quandary, but because I had a 1pm customer call to join. And because inclement weather was moving in, it seemed like the smart thing to do. During my run I managed to stay dry. And during my run I resigned myself to having to bite the bullet and pay to have the car fixed as required. I could & would recover in a relatively short amount of time. So, after returning to my desk, completing my customer call, I called Dave at Aarrow and told him to go ahead and get started on the Honda. The rest of my day went by at a speedy pace, just as like it usually does. I left for home close to 5:15pm and was home a short time later. I spoke with Mindy during my drive home. She had a busy day which included the basement project along with a play date with her friend Teri and her son Massamo. Mike was still working on the A/C, but was just finishing when I arrived home. Mindy was excited for me to view the results of the basement project. It looked good. She asked for my help and advice on properly placing the carpet large remnants still left over form when my home was built, and still some from 1986 when we bought and moved in Valleyview and had all the carpet replaced. I asked Mike what the damage was. He charged me $380 for his services. And while I wasn’t sure exactly what it would be, I guesstimated somewhere near $400. Mike was just wrapping up the job, and Mindy was wanting to head to her home to pick-up a few more things along with getting the kids some dinner. I left with Ykraps and Jacob came along. Jacob asked if he could play in the pond for a minute while we walked Ykraps. I obliged. Unfortunately, he slipped off the rock and got his feet stuck in the mucky black mud covering his entire feet to the ankle. I told him we’d hose him off once we were back from our walk. He chose to wait at the bridge for my return. Mindy and Bella were just pulling away and Mike was loading up his gear and leaving. When we returned, I hosed off Jacob’s feet and ended up soaking him completely. He asked me to. We played outside in the water for about ten minutes. After spraying him for a while, I watered my back flowers even though we had a couple good soaking downpours throughout the day. Jacob and I went back in and I began tidying up around the kitchen. Jacob asked if I would cuddle on the couch with him. He needs that every so often. After a little relaxation, Jacob watched some Disney cartoons and I began playing on the computer. Soon, Mindy returned with food. She got Wendy’s for the kids and El Vaquero’s chips and salsa for us. I had rearranged the carpet remnants and vacuumed while she was gone. I didn’t tape them as planned though for wanting her approval first. She liked what I had done, so we agreed to tape the seams after dinner and putting the kids to bed. The kids went to bed with relative ease after reading them a P.D. Eastman book. Soon Mindy and I were back in the basement taping the carpet seams. I only had about 15 feet of carpet tape so we chose instead to use duct tape. It worked well for the intended purpose. After taping the many seams we vacuumed again and in no time at all it was looking really quite nice, and certainly ideal for a play area. Next, we retreated to Mindy’s van to carry in a butt load of toys from her home. We placed 99% of them in the new play area. We plan to isolate the play area from storage and the rest of the basement by hanging old sheets. When we were through it was nearly 9:20pm. Mindy went up for a shower. I was only minutes behind and went up and jumped in bed. I was looking forward to yet another good long night’s sleep.