Heat

I returned from work to the homestead to find three very unhappy campers. The crux of their unhappiness rested with the fact that without my constant, expert intervention, the air-conditioner was doing an excellent job of making a block of ice on the coils, but a piss poor job of cooling the mansion. Alas, it seems as tho the coolant leak has only gotten worse, and the machine is barely able to keep 2 degrees ahead of the outside temperatures, which are in the mid nineties now. I can understand their angst.
I dug out the phone book at work and did some how-much-is-this-gonna-hurt reconnoissance. The gist of it is that you have to pay a just-showing-up charge of around 80 bucks. Plus fuel surcharge (you have to pay THEM for their gas getting to you). Plus parts. Plus labor. Plus coolant, so much by the pound. This stuff, a gas mind you, comes in POUNDS? Yea, right. I thought they taught me in high school that gases are measured in cubic units, but maybe I missed something somewhere. One shop quoted me lower prices for everything all around, but BOB knows they are probably low balling me just to get started on my wallet. Whatever, they have me by my hot, sweaty......well, you know.
Looks like I'm gonna have to short Peter to pay Paul this payday. Could I suffer the remainder of the summer without the air? Probably, albeit miserably. But the furniture and computer and anything else that can suck up the humidity and warp would probably differ with that opinion. I know the wife would be giving me those I'm-trying-desperately-to-think-you-actuallly-care-about-me eyes until those cool breezes return sometime next year. Around Christmas. Loaded with humidity.
These are the joys of home-ownership. Instead of outrageous rent increases, you get costly breakdowns in essential life support systems. I could easily refinance this loan and repair everything, except that our credit has suffered the effects of occasional breakdowns that ate on time payments on other things. It's a vicious circle. However, we shall prevail. We always do. Somehow. Someway. Anyone interested in a spare kidney?