It's Hot In Here

Well, the time that is both dreaded and beloved in our household has arrived in full force...summer.

It's beloved, of course, because Samone is home and most days it's just beautiful outside. However, we dread summer for one simple reason...because it's hot.

Our home has no central air conditioning. It went out back in 1988 (during the drought) and our summers haven't been the same since. Fortunately, we do have a room air conditioner in our living room, but it's not very powerful. There is a reason that we got a not-so-powerful AC that I will elaborate on later.

The one sound you will hear in our home is the sound of fans. We have many box fans that we pull out every summer to keep us cool. The rule of thumb is that each bedroom have at least one fan. I don't have a fan in my room currently because I need a fan with legs. I plan to buy a new one sometime soon. In addition to the fans, we also keep our windows closed. That way, the AC stays in and the heat stays out. In general, it keeps the house bearable.

Apart from the heat, there is something else that we all really hate about summer...the electrical problems. The reason that we don't have a powerful air conditioner is because our house runs on fuses. Our house is pretty old and it never got converted to a 220 circuit-breaker line. Most of the rooms on one side of the house (my room, the living room, and Mom & Dad's bedroom plus some of the basement) are all on the same fuses. This means that there is the distinct possibility that a fuse can blow when the air conditioner is on. During the summer, we have to be a little careful to conserve electricity to keep the fuse(s) from blowing. That means that the washer and/or dryer shouldn't be on when the air conditioner is up high, stuff like that. Also, my mom is a little concerned about what will happen since this is the first summer with our larger living room TV. I'm always a bit concerned about what will happen to my computer if a fuse blows.

Maybe one day in the future, we will finally get a 220 line and say goodbye to our fuse problems forever. However, that type of work is incredibly expensive and we already have a couple of other expensive repairs that have a higher priority (fixing toliet, fixing leak from bathtub, repairing my window). In the meantime, we will deal as we always do every summer. Here's hoping things go well.