Goodbye July (part 3)

That very afternoon (Thursday) the air conditioner broke! I think it broke at around 2pm and I didn't realize it for an hour or so. By 4pm it was 84F inside the house and I was one cranky momma. OK so you might think that 84F is really not that bad. Well you are right, if that 84F happens to be anywhere but in the south. See we have this little thing called humidity in the South. It makes life pretty darned miserable! It makes temperatures like 84F seem like 90F, and it makes you and everyone else feel super sticky, oh and you sweat like crazy. Mr. PD didn't get to look at it until around 5:30pm that evening and his assessment was "it's broken." It took every ounce of will power not to smack him upside the head (it was the heat induced crankiness trying to take over!) He got one of his work contractors to come look at it. The assessment on that end was that the generator was broken. It would be a $500-1000 fix. Now to call the landlord and give him the bad news. The landlord called the guy who originally put in the unit because it should have still been under warranty. This other guy said he'd be by to look at it the next day (Friday.)

Great. We'd have to sleep in a hot humid house. It was 87F in the house by 8pm. Mr. PD and I set up the air bed in the basement were it was cooler. I debated whether the kids should sleep in the basement with us or not. Finally we sent them up to their own room and set up fans in their room. It was a good decision.

Later that night, down in the basement Mr. PD and I are watching America's Got Talent on our laptop. Over the show I hear a scritch scratch. I've got really good hearing, plus I was still paranoid over the 2 bats in the house. Mr. PD didn't hear anything. I turn off the computer and turn on the lights. You guessed it! Another bat. This one was crawling over some board game boxes on the top shelf. We gather our combat gear, rackets, gloves, and brooms. Mr. PD gets stationed at the stairs to keep the bat from going up stairs. Right next to the stairs is a door to a storage room and through that storage room a door to the outside.

By this point the bat has settled itself back to sleep behind the board game boxes so I can't do my cup and cardboard catch and release. Instead I have to poke it until it comes out on his own! Do you know how hard it is to poke something that you know will come flying at you and still jump out of the way? I finally got the darn critter to come out of it's spot behind the board games and then the fun of herding out into the wild began. After about 5 minutes we were able to get him into the storage room. another 15 minutes and we had him out the door!

The next day the darn AC repair man did not come to our house until 4pm! And he couldn't fix it that evening so he didn't come back until Saturday morning. UGH! it was 90F in the house by Friday afternoon. Good thing Mr. PD had some common sense to take me out to dinner and then we strolled around the mall for a few hours.

Other things that happened in July included dentist bills, a new car battery after my car wouldn't start 2 separate times, super hot temperatures and missing Mr. PD for 2 weeks while he was super busy with planning and making sure the Boy Scout 50 mile hike happened.The only thing missing from July was fire ants!

Au revoir July, don't come back until next year and only if you promise to be nicer to me.

Norma