The old central air conditioning unit in our house died last week. For someone who grew up without A/C, you'd think I'd be okay. But I was completely panicked. 'How will I sleep?', 'I hate sweating', 'OMG, my hair'....were some of the thoughts that raced through my head. After the A/C guys delivered the harsh news (they would need about a week before they could replace the unit), I slowly came to accept my reality. My sticky, humid, sweaty reality. So, a week went by, during which time I dug out my window screens and fans, wore my hair in a ponytail, and spent a ton of time outside with my kids. I did more yard work in a week than I've done in ten years, we played in the sandbox every day, we walked our dogs (my mother just rolled off her chair reading that, I'm sure), we picked every wild daisy we could find. And you know what? I liked it. I liked being able to hear the birds chirping all day. I liked feeling the cross breeze in our living room. I liked (correction: loved) not cooking. And I loved not fussing over my hair. In retrospect, it was very much like a vacation.
Two days ago, we got our new air conditioning unit. As the A/C guys made their final adjustments and checked to make sure the house was cooling down, I joked that I was planning on leaving the thermostat set at 58 degrees just because I could. But when the work vans pulled out of the driveway, I immediately shut the unit off and opened all the doors and windows again.
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No need to rush home from vacation, right?
Ahh yes, a flash back to the summers of my youth.
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention, I really like this photo.
ReplyDeleteI have for many years felt that A/C takes away the experiences of summer (hot summer nights sleeping in a second floor bedroom in "shorty" pajamas....)- but I'm not giving it up (hot summer nights in a second floor bedroom...).
ReplyDeleteLoved this post - enjoy the rest of your vacation!