Ever had one of those times when it felt like if anything can go wrong it WILL? We had one of those weekends starting on Friday, but amazingly things have turned around.
It started on Friday when we discovered that the A/C was not working. We both had been working in the backyard, and came in to cool off, only to realize that the house was NOT cool, but at 85 degrees and climbing. Now our 12-year-old air conditioner is not the best; it works okay with fairly warm temps but just can't cool the house enough when it gets into the high 90s. But this was much worse than that, it was running with absolutely no cool air coming out. So, rather than calling a HVAC guy and paying weekend rates, we decided to tough it out and turn on the attic fan for Friday night, knowing that we'd be heading to the lake Saturday and could sleep in the A/C on the boat.
While we were at the lake Saturday, Dave had scheduled the SeaRay dealership to come and look at the boat (remember previous post? BOAT means "Break Out Another Thousand"). One of the engines kept failing on idle, and it could mean any number of things going on. The verdict was that we have a bad starter on one of the engines (unrelated to the engine failing, that was fixed with an temporary adjustment to the idle) and so the starter had drained three of the four batteries. In addition, the idle adjustment was a short-term fix and the guy recommended that we have the carbuerators rebuilt in the next year. So, it could've been worse, but still we are looking at several hundred dollars.
Then we headed home on Sunday night, knowing that the house would be sweltering, but both of us having to be at work early on Monday morning. After we arrived home and started unpacking, I went to put some things in the fridge and it was off !! Upon further inspection we found that apparently because the house was so hot an GFI outlet in the appliance garage (that little corner cabinet where we keep toaster, coffee grinder etc) overheated and flipped off, throwing the GFI for ALL the appliances in the kitchen. You can imagine the choice words that were being uttered at the Bolduc house, as we pulled hundreds of dollars of dripping, soggy food from the fridge and freezer.
So, considering our luck so far, I really feared for the worst on Monday when the HVAC guy came. He was a friend of a friend, and we figured he would give us a good deal on the labor, etc, but weren't sure what the outcome would be. He was there for less than 30 minutes, and the total charge was $45! It was a simple part (the capacitor?) and easily replaced. He did say that our unit was an inefficient one and that's why we do have problems when it gets really hot outside -- but, that he wouldn't replace it until we just had to, because it does do what it is supposed to, for the most part.
THEN, Dave found out about the same time that he was the top sales rep for the quarter in the St. Louis/Springfield region, and has won a trip to Napa Valley in November!! Woohoo, wine country here we come!
So the week is looking up, I'm hoping. It was nice to have things turn around for the better... maybe we should bank on our good fortune continuing, and go buy a lotto ticket or two!
