I have had better Augusts.
On 8/7 our downstairs AC unit went out hours after I got some rather unpleasant news (which I will not discuss at the moment—I’ll explain once I have more details) which pretty much kept us running around like headless chickens for the last three weeks. Repairing the AC unit is just not in the budget right now so we have two window units keeping downstairs tolerable (I am very, very grateful that temps have dropped back into double digits here in the clavicle of Texas), and I have had three meetings regarding The Unpleasant News and have three more to come.
If that wasn’t enough, last night Lyndon’s truck decided to crap out. We tried jump-starting it and putting in a new battery (which it needed anyway—the old one was leaking goo), neither of which worked. Lyndon can hotwire it so it’s not the starter motor. At this point we’re not sure what’s going on so he’s trying to research garages in the area in between calls, and once he makes his choice we’ll get it towed over there and let the Pros from Dover take a crack at it.
On the plus side this is the first time we’ve ever had serious trouble with the truck, and it’s 17 years old so that’s pretty damn good. On the minus side, we really didn’t need another expense right now. Last night he said, “We’re good people, right? We haven’t pissed anyone off, have we? So why is all of this happening to us at once?” I said I didn’t know why, but apparently five planets are retrograde right now so maybe that’s futzing with the ether.
So, yeah, things are a little hectic here in Casa Fletcher at the moment. If I owe you a project, you will get it. It will just take a little longer than I expected.
The place is closed up like Fort Knox—all the blinds are down and drapes are drawn to keep the inside shady and as cool as possible naturally and ease the load on the AC units. The only other large appliance allowed to run during the day is the refrigerator—anything else has to wait until well after sundown and preferably when the temps drop back into the 80s. We’re doing our best to reduce the load as much as possible on Anita Gigawatt, dontchaknow.
I’m not going to keep bitching about the heat because nobody needs to hear that and places like Phoenix have it worse, anyway.
Sorry about that—between trying to get various things on the business side done and then coming down with what I assume was a viral sinus infection that knocked me on my ass, I have been well and truly out of it for the last couple of weeks. In fact the only think I really had to spoons to do last week was finish formatting all of Nic’s titles that I’d taken out of KU and publish them wide. That was finished on 7/7/23, much to my immense relief.
It is amazing, how much better you feel after a good night’s sleep. I actually want to work and don’t want the world to explode anymore.
When it’s 89°F out but the humidity is 72% and you have a heat index of 107°F, yeah, you might need to sit down with some water after going to the store.
At least I’m upright and in good enough condition to sweep the downstairs, wash soiled litter collection mats and the Bachelorette Pad tray, wipe down the kitchen counters, do a load of laundry, and prep an episode for release on Kindle Vella tomorrow.
Melanie Fletcher 