Burn, Baby Burn!

Tammy's brother and his co-worker must have had the tune, "Burn, Baby Burn", turning in their heads Monday and Tuesday. Sometime over the weekend, one of the two air conditioning units stopped dead and, in compliance with Murphy's Law, it had to be the upstairs where they were working. They sweated through two days of sweltering heat in spite of two fans propped in the windows. The room was hot a person could break out in a sweat just sitting there doing nothing. Steve and Tammy sweated too for visions of The Money Pit swirled in their heads. After all between a leak, old wiring, and other surprises, they feared the negative spiral into a fiscal sinkhole was about to begin.

Today a repairman did a thorough check of the entire system: air filter, compressor, condensation areas, condenser coil, electrical components, fan and motor, refrigerant and thermostat. Checking the electrical components was an especially daunting task: they had to check the A/C box near the units, the circuit breaker panel (we have two!), and a rat's nest of wires up in the attic which has absolutely no ventilation. The repairman could have baked a sheet of cookies had there been less dust and dirt up there. He found two problems: some genius had installed a switch in the attic backwards, and paint dust had completely clogged the air filter. The damage was only $59 for the service call!

Note to Self: Tell the contractor to shut off the upstairs air conditioner and power up the fans whenever they sand.

Question for All: Is a poltergeist capable of reversing a switch? Hmm . . .