The A/C is out here and I’m not paying weekend rates for repair. It will be fixed on Monday. From hearing my 7 year old talking (and my wife), you would think I was torturing her.
When I grew up we NEVER had a/c. We put fans in the windows and more importantly, got off of our lazy asses and did work outside. You know, sweat a little bit and the body naturally cools off. You can’t laze around and watch TV.
Am I crazy or have we as a people become a nation of total pussies?
Now get off my lawn!
Where is “here”?
Having no aircon in much easier in some places than in others. We have central air in our place, but in the three summers we’ve lived in San Diego, we’ve only turned it on about three times.
I just had a nice hot shower. I’ve just turned the fan on in the living room.
West Virginia. Of course the heat index is 102, but it got this hot many years ago and our forefathers didn’t complain about lack of air conditioning!*
*At least that’s what I’m telling my 7 year old. She told me that she thinks that is why they are all dead. 
It’s odd you should mention this, as I’m on the verge of bludgeoning my cow-orkers to death over the very same issue.
The unit that cools our downstairs has been out for 4 days now, and it is apparently the end of the goddamn world because the gallery is about 80 degrees and now the upstairs is getting up almost to 75 because the remaining unit can’t keep up. Mind you, my workspace is a kitchen that used to be a storage closet and thus has no vents–it’s been 80 degrees in there before I ever turn on the stove or oven for the last two goddamn months. I’ve been cooking in there, in between waiting tables, checking people out, and washing dishes. I go home so hot that even after 30 minutes in the car with the a/c blasting I’m still hot and sticky.
This has concerned these people not in the least. When the weather first started getting bad, they suggested that I turn on the stove hood and find a fan somewhere. But when it’s their precious princess asses sitting at a desk, the heat is just horrific and miserable.
According to my grandfather when it got sweltering hot people hung out in their basements because the underground levels of a house are significantly cooler than the above ground levels and at night in the heat many people would sleep out on their front porch. He said that most kids would spend the hottest days swimming in the lake or river or whatever body of water was nearby to keep cool and that his mom kept all the windows open when it was hot out. He also said that lots of people were miserably hot all the time but they had no real alternative so they didn’t really focus on it.
How hot is it in WV today? In NYC we are at 93 degrees coming down off of the hottest few days we’ve seen in a very long time. Yesterday was 102 degrees here. If you guys have been experiencing similar weather it might actually be dangerous not to fix the AC until Monday. Lots more people suffered from heat stroke in the past than do today.
I think you’re crazy, mostly because your wife is apparently miserable and complaining and you’re ignoring her. It is utterly miserable outside. The people “getting off their lazy asses and working outside” in my area are the ones the ERs are treating for heat exhaustion when they collapse in the stifling heat and Code Red air quality and have to call 911 because they couldn’t bear to wait 2 days to mow the lawn. This is the worst heat wave in 30 years. If there’s ANY time to pay weekend rates for an A/C repairman, this is it.
People aren’t acclimated to extreme heat anymore. It takes time to build up tolerance. People that work outside in the heat eventually tolerate it better than an office worker in a 74 degree building. Even then extreme 101 degree heat like we are suffering under now is very dangerous even for people that work outside for a living.
If my AC went out I’d get emergency repairs or check into a motel. Heat stroke is nothing to mess with.
I’m with the OP here.
Had a customer a couple of weeks ago their car had a busted AC. Another shop about 8 miles away had done quite a bit of AC work on the car last year. The mother is grilling if what is wrong now would be covered by the other shop’s warranty. I told her I had no clue, but if she thought it might be then drive over there have them look at it and proceed accordingly.
Her reply?
Oh no my daughter can’t drive that far with no air conditioning.
Seven miles down the freeway plus about a mile on surface streets is too far to drive with the windows down? Jesus H. Christ what a delicate flower you daughter is.
My family didn’t own a car with AC until I was 25 or so and we drove everywhere including across the US in the summer.
Well…
Three things:
People don’t get as accustomed to heat anymore because we have air conditioning. So instead of slowly acclimatizing from spring into summer with more or less gradually increasing heat/humidity, when the AC quits they are suddenly plunged into conditions to which they are not adapted. This is uncomfortable at best and in some circumstances potentially dangerous.
In the old days, people did die of heat stroke, become ill from the heat, and so forth greater numbers than today because they simply couldn’t get out of the heat. Obviously, not everyone died, but it was a known risk. Heck, even in this era of AC about 700 people dropped dead in the city of Chicago in 1995 (I think it was 95… it’s awhile back) during a heat wave. Granted, most of them were elderly and without AC at the time, but that sort of proves the point that there is a risk to heat, and not all of them were elderly or chronically ill.
We probably have more people these days surviving with chronic health conditions. The last 10 years of my mother’s life, for example, she was severely debilitated with heart disease, such that without late 20th Century medicine she would have died decades earlier (as did her relatives from prior times, half of whom were dead by 45 due to heart problems). She simply could not tolerate heat above about 80 for more than about 20-30 minutes without suffering real problems, in some cases sufficient to send her to the ER. Back before AC was common she simply would have died in an episode of severe weather. My spouse has chronic health problems, without cooling centers for when our AC when out he would have definitely landed in the hospital this week and, again, in prior times he would have probably been dead by now. So yes, there is a group of people who are medically delicate now that just didn’t survive back in the past.
But yes, some healthy people are just… sheltered, shall we say? They mistake discomfort for torture and are unaware of alternatives to AC.
Right now it’s so humid in Georgia the natural cooling device of the body - sweat - simply isn’t working. It doesn’t evaporate and cool the body. It’s not just uncomfortable, but as mentioned above, it can be dangerous. I would invest in a few fans to direct on the beds - fans don’t cool the air but do aid in evaporation of sweat, making you “feel” cooler. An ice pack on the wrists and back of neck can also help.
Misery loves company and all. If my Google-Fu is accurate, I only need a replacement capacitor that starts up the outdoor unit, so it’s a quick fix as long as the part is available on a Sunday. Weekend service rates may be painful, but this is why I keep a “shit happens” buffer in my checking account (in addition to a “major shit happens” savings account.)
The thing about this heat wave is that we’re not getting the usual evening thunder and rain storms that usually happen more days than not this time of year. Those bring some relief, if only for a couple hours.
To be fair, nobody in this house is elderly or has a medical condition. And also to be fair, I don’t remember getting this hot as a kid. Maybe I was used to it.
Our A/C went out yesterday, too, and we have the same deal- can’t get it fixed til Monday.
It’s 97 inside the house (at 9 PM), according to the thermostat. We’ve got the attic fan and two oscillating fans. It’s so hot that the stuff in our freezer is melting and the freezer is (or was yesterday) fine.
And to make matters a million times worse, I got in a car crash today and am without a car. In the suburbs. With a roommate who also doesn’t have a car and no bus stops at least a mile and a half in any direction. So not only do I have no air in the house, I also can’t escape the house. There’s not even anything nearby like a gas station or drugstore. My mom agreed to let my dogs stay at her house last night, but “just for the night” and she was really pissed that I asked.
I’m extremely uncomfortable. My dogs are barely moving. I feel like the house is melting. If I had my car, I’d go beg at my mom’s door for some cool air. Or else just drive around in it. I think my roommate has died. I have a wicked headache and don’t feel well and this sucks. I don’t care if I’ve been pampered by my modern lifestyle. I want my air conditioner back.
In the meantime, I’ll keep feeding my dogs half-melted ice cubes and go hang out in the shower for a while.
Some of the problem is that we have more heat-generating devices sitting around than we used to. Nowadays, most homes have multiple computers + plus all their paraphernalia + multiple tvs + dvrs.
My current computer puts out so much heat that I actually had to partially close the heating duct to this room in the winter, because the computer + furnace is just ridiculously hot. It’s summer now, and the computer is still putting out that much heat, and it sits closer to me than the air conditioner does.
Some of us have different priorities. Apparently, being a pussy myself, I would make sure that my wife and daughter are comfortable and safe, rather than bitching about the females in my life being… pussies… :dubious:
Well, it’s cooled down a little bit, OUTSIDE. Just stepped out for a smoke, and it’s cooler out there than it is in here. Some wind to blow some of that air in might help, but that’s not happening.
Having been in NYC and San Antonio this week in 97-degree weather, I can safely say it’s a LOT better in San Antonio:
Our furnace went out last winter during the coldest days in the last 20 years…What are the freakin odds anyway.
They lived underground.