I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Hey Hot Libby~

I think you are close to my parent's house and they spent the day at the bookstore to stay cool.

Please let me know if you need to come over.  My mom has declined the offer to stay with 4 kids/4 dogs/1 cranky husband.

Hot Libby - hope your power comes back soon. My sister in Potomac now has power again - can't believe Pepco actually beat Dominion on something! Other sister who is at my house is going there, as Potomac is huge, whereas I live in a box....

Cousins in Northern Va still have no power. What a total weekend of hell. The whole country is burning up.

It's a pleasant 79F with a humidex of 86F here in southern Ontario today. The rest of the week looks a bit worrisome with humidex up to 100F.  It might be a good time to use that little plastic pool I got for the grandchildren last week. And a darned fine excuse not to mow the lawn.

My DH and I had a discussion last night and we agreed that we would rather live through our ice storm of 2009 than these high temperatures with the power out.  At least we could bundle up and our gas water heater still worked so we had hot water.  I think this heat would probably put us in the hospital if we didn't have air conditioning. 

notself, I agree; the heat is brutal. I'm going 'round and 'round with my landlady over inadequate/inefficient air conditioning now. My A/C has been running on max for over a month now. Even with floor fans also running, the curtains closed, most lights out, limiting cooking and running the dryer, etc., it's currently 85° in my apt at 7:30 pm. From experience, it will go up another degree or two by 10 pm, before starting to fall overnight. If I'm lucky, it will fall to 80° overnight. Last Thursday and Friday, it was 88-89° inside.

The landlady and head of maintenance think I'm a whining, unreasonable bitch, and are visibly and audibly angry when speaking with me now. They insist it's working adequately and I have no reason to complain. Today, the maintenance said that "maybe next year", they'll switch to window unit A/C. Currently, it's one of those combined heating/cooling devices like you see in hotel rooms. Since my front window is huge (88 inches across, 50 inches high, and opens side-to-side like a patio door), I asked how a window unit would work here. He said they'd "cut out part of the glass and build a box to hang it on". I pointed out that would considerably block my view, and asked if I would even be able to open the window with such an arrangement. He was visibly angry and said, "Man, it's always something!", as in "Man, people will complain about anything!" and left.

I really didn't think that was an unreasonable question. So, I obviously have to get out. I'm going to have to find out where I can afford to move and how to get out of my lease. Argh! And my credit score isn't great due to medical bills, so that will affect where I can go, also. Wish me luck that I don't have a couple of meltdowns before I can get this resolved.

PS - I can't find out who even owns the complex any more to find out whether I have any recourse to arbitration, etc. It's been sold several times, most recently in March. The official owner is an LLC (limited liability company) created just before the sale of the complex. Nor do I have the fine print of my lease: they've been using a simple renewal document for years, listing the length of my lease, how much, name and date, even with new owners. I'm going to assume they probably aren't going by the exact terms of my original lease.

Wow, didn't mean to write a book!

Riley - I have bought 5 blade ceiling fans with lights for $50 at Home Depot.  They are cheap!  I have ceiling fans in all rooms except for the bathrooms in my home.

A late thunderstorm brought some blessedly cool air last night. We were almost giddy to be able to sleep in our own bedroom (in the top of the A-frame, west-facing, no A/C--can you say hot?) with a blanket even! Best sleep I've had in a few weeks!

DH rigged up his own "cooling system" earlier at the bedroom deck door--an old sheet draped over the screen, the water hose dribbling over it, the fan in front pulling in the cool, moist air. He's a clever guy...

Back to 100 today, though, so off to the air conditioned work and hope for a quite day so I can get other things done...

I'm with you, gardengumby! Can't wait for those predicted 80 degree days! Of course, we all know how Seattle weather forecasts can change very quickly. Let's hope this one holds.

Mary 

Ang,

Yes it did!  The linesmen were here at 5 p.m. and turned back on!  I blew them kisses and they blew them back!  DH was getting ready to trade me to the linesmen for air conditioning!

I have now disposed of the no-longer-cold perishables, filed the claim with the insurance company, and am going out to forage in a little while.  Fortunately our power came back Monday night and trash day is Tuesday ... not even any time for the trash cans to get especially stinky!

Our a/c ran 12 hours straight to cool the house down to a livable temperature.  My little boy cat is very happy ... he was so happy that he stayed glued (warmly!) to my side all night long!  His mother is just sort of "Yeah, well, whatever."   DH is no longer going to trade me in for air conditioning.

 Every day he reads the temperature in Seattle to me from the newspaper.  Torturer! 

 L

Happy 4th of July to all my U.S. friends!

It's a hot humid day here in SW Virginia.  I was able to walk Tank early and get a couple of the fields mowed.

Tim left for work early this morning, so I'm not doing anything special to celebrate today.  I did have some work come in, so I'll be busy transcribing some reports.

Maggie had her surgery on Monday.  She looked so awful when I picked her up.  She was radically shaven and she looked so small and scrawny without her fur.  She's having a hard time, and I'm supposed to be working the surgery knee where she had the ligaments repaired.  I hate doing that because it hurts her and it makes me so anxious when she cries in pain.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday.

hugs,

Bren

Can I join in with you all?  I think I am strange...well, strange enough, anyway...:)  And you all seem like a really nice bunch of folks...

Thanks for the welcome...and I am so relieved to hear you are open on Sundays...

Thanks everyone for the welcome...

Blue...hope your hot toddy hits the spot.

I can only imagine pock suppets must include chamb lops? 

Happy Independence Day to you all.  Independence from what exactly, remains to be determined.

Welcme CLC

Oh the pock suppets are alive and well. Lamb chops are yummy.