I had such a nice time at Disney on Tuesday! Oh how I love family!! Tuesday night, fearful that I might not sleep again, I took a Tylenol PM, and with that I slept very well and I had very vivid colorful dreams. I don't usually remember dreaming, so this was such a treat! I dreamed I was having a Mary Kay party at the Magic Kingdom and I had six ladies at a card table right in front of the Cinderella's Castle. The ladies were so excited to be chosen, loved the cleanser, but the makeup wouldn't stick, it just slid off their sweaty faces! They wanted to buy everything and I had to take a keelboat to the parking lot to get their product from my car. End of dream one. Dream two: Miranda and Ben invited their cousins Chris and Josh to go to Sea World for a birthday celebration. Because I have a year-round pass, it was up to Aunt Marty to take all four kids and I pushed them through the crowds in a huge stroller, shaped like Shamu the Whale. End of dreams.
Wednesday
I woke up early because I was roasting hot, sweating and miserable. I layed there, wondering when I would get back to normal, when Mark woke up, complaining about the room temperature. We went to the family room to check the thermostat and David was already there. It was almost 78F in our house at 7AM. There was something wrong with the air conditioner and I called American Heat and Air (AHA), because they are the folks that always send out postcards to remind us to have our A/C serviced.
While I waited, I gave Juliet a haircut. Her hair was so long it dragged in the grass and she was getting very dirty. Juliet HATES ponytails and so the cute top-notch that yorkies are famous for is out of the question. As soon as I pull her hair up, she drags her head on the ground until the rubberband breaks, so first things first! I brushed her bangs forward and cut them off at the eyebrows, leaving some long hair on the top of her head so if I decided to try a hairdo again, she could still have a ponytail. Next, I trimmed her ears with a battery powered clipper, shaving the top 1/3 of her ears clear of hair. I clippered her feet and trimmed up her legs to her elbows and knees, not shaved, but shaped up. I straight-cut her hair to knee and chest length with scissors, then with the clippers I tidied up her private parts. Again with scissors, I cut the long hair on either side of her face/neck so it flows smoothly into the rest of her long hair. She's so cute, and I saved myself $40.
I paid the man from AHA $80 for the service call and I was told that our air handler (in the garage) and the recharger outside next to the condenser both needed replacing and also we needed a freon charge. Total cost: $2777 AND we'd have to wait until Friday for the parts. After he left, my friend Cathy suggested I call Mike Heaton, owner of Heaton Air Conditioning, who used to live in our neighborhood and fixes a lot of the neighbors' aging units and is known to be totally trustworthy. I placed a call, he could come in the morning.
By the time Mark got home, I was a limp, weak, shaky, exhausted mess, too overwhelmed to even consider going to a neighbor for some cool air relief. Mark realized how bad this was for my health (I was shakey and I had begun slurring again) and also that sleep would be impossible for both of us, so we went to the brand new Hampton Inn in Apopka and rented a hotel room for the night for $79. On our way to the hotel we stopped for dinner at Wendy's. Mark had a hamburger and I had a baked potato with brocolli and cheese, but I was still so hot that I barely ate. We were very possibly the first guests in our sparkling new fifth floor hotel room. The bed was like a cloud and the air conditioner was fabulously cool. We set it at 72 and slept wonderfully all night long and woke up feeling refreshed.
Thursday
The drapes made the hotel room so dark, that we didn't wake up until 8 in the morning! We ate a free hot breakfast of eggs, ham and biscuits, and headed back to our hot house to let the dog out of her crate and wait for the Mr. Heaton to arrive. Hey, she's a dog, and we had the fans blowing, so Juliet was fine.
Unlike AHA, Mr. Heaton said our air handler (the garage part) was fine. Old, but fine. It was not causing our electric bill to be high, and he said that "everyone's electric bill is high!" Mr. Heaton replaced the rusted-out recharger (a part on the outside condenser) and filled the unit with freon. Total cost: $421. There is an expensive air handler that we could buy and this would cut about 10% off of the a/c part of the electric bill, saving us maybe $20 to $25 a month, but it was not advised if we weren't planning on staying here long-term, which we are not. He mentioned that he is going to replace his entire a/c system in his 4-year old house next year with this elaborate money-saving system, as he is planning to stay in his house forever and there's a tax break for this expensive upgrade.
Knowing that our air handler is 22 years old (the compresser outside is five years old), it is inevitable that we will have to replace the handler before we sell our house. IDEA! Why not replace it with the used handler that the Mr. Heaton is taking out of his house? I asked him, and he agreed that this would be an excellent idea! We are on borrowed time with the old handler, and pray it will continue to work until Mr. Heaton is ready to replace his. Thank you, Cathy K for suggesting Mike Heaton.
I may have delayed recovery from the Rituxan with a day in the heat at Disney, followed by another hot day at home with the broken air conditioner. I am tired catch nyself slurring my words like a drunk, but can control this if I pay attention. My head is still a little fuzzy, and I have zero energy. My house is now at my favorite temperature, 74F and I have a glass of ice water by my side.
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