Relentless Heat

From July 2nd- August 10th (40 days) was the second longest consecutive streak of 100º+ days in Fort Worth. The record is 42 days (set in 1980)... I was really bummed that we got sooooo close to breaking the record and didn't. I mean, we are already suffering, why not have some reason to celebrate the miserable heat.

Well, there is still hope. As of last night, we have had 62 days at 100º or higher. The record for number of days 100º or higher in a summer is 69 (also set in 1980)... they are predicting we break that record. Making it the HOTTEST summer EVER!!

My mom asked a couple weeks ago how we were handling it. I said "Well, good. Our air conditioner works so our house feels great, we just don't go outside much..." Guess what happened now...

Yes. I jinxed us. Our air conditioner broke. Our home has 'zoned air conditioning' meaning we have a unit to cool upstairs and a unit to cool downstairs. The one that broke was our downstairs unit - the bigger of the two. I cried. Thayne talked to the repairman and told me that it was the fan motor and that it would cost $4,500 to fix. Did I mention that I cried? So The repairman comes, fixes it and the bill was just over $400, and I am suddenly so happy (who knew anyone could be so ecstatic about paying $400?!)... Turns out that I misheard Thayne. He had said "four to five hundred" not "forty-five hundred!!" That was our happiest misunderstanding in our 9 years of marriage!!

Till that night... As I sat at the computer I heard a terrible noise and my gut told me it was our air conditioner... the compressor.

The repairman comes back the next day and tells us the compressor is broken and it's not replaceable. We could just replace the outside unit (quite expensive), or replace the whole unit (really expensive).

Well, the repairman is supposed to come today and replace the whole unit... unfortunately, the really expensive option... it will be much better choice for our house in the long run as we knew of other problems this particular unit already had... but financially quite painful for a while.

My perspective being "half empty" at the moment, has this looming thought... Oh no, we have 2 AC units... 1 just broke... they are both the same age...

So while all this has been happening, our house has been sweltering. We usually have it at a cool 76º during the day... It reached 89º Saturday night. It only "cools" to about 82º in the morning. If we all lay on the couch and don't move, it's almost tolerable... Because our one unit it broken, the upstairs one is working overtime. Even so, it can't hold it's temperature during the day (even with our mater bedroom door shut - that's the room with the thermostat). I think the upstairs got to 81º Saturday night.

I hope the repairman comes soon... I want a cool house again!

Oh the joys of owning a home... Oh the joys that come with a relentless summer! Here's to breaking the record!

P.S. On our hottest day (August 3rd) Check out what our clock/Thermometer read:


116º!! Yes, it is off, the thermometer piece is trapped underneath the roof of our covered patio, so it always reads high, but a scary temperature nonetheless... The official temperature for that day was 110º! Our thermometer actually read 118º on August 2nd, but I didn't get a picture and officially, Wednesday was hotter...blah blah.