Cool Again
John D. - stop reading right now. Really.
I've got another snake story!
We had central air conditioning installed last year. We turned it on one day last week, no problem. Sunday, the hottest freaking day of the year so far - hot & humid - and it stopped working mid-day. We kept all the blinds and curtains closed trying to conserve what coolness we'd achieved. I called the company we have a maintenance contract with and as expected, they were very busy. The nice woman told me all the techs were out on calls and we could see one between 6:30 and 9:30 pm. She and I troubleshot the situation over the phone with no success. And they can't work on the outside unit in the dark anyway so I scheduled them to come Monday morning. When it finally cooled down a tad, we opened all the doors and windows. Slept buck naked with the fans going. (I apologize for that visual. I'll wait while you go disinfect your eyeballs.)
Steve's daughter, Lizz, has been staying at our house so she was able to be there this morning, which was nice so I didn't have to leave work. The tech called me when he was done - a snake had crawled into the outside unit, touched two somethings - and fried. He said it happened a while ago because it was so decayed ("black and mushy") that he barely recognized it as a snake. He cleaned it out, replaced a couple of parts and we're back in business. I asked if there's anything we can do to prevent another snake from crawling in there and he said not really because they are so small, they can wriggle through most anything. It was a garter snake, the diameter of my pinky, if it was like the two Venus brought up from the basement last year - or wherever the heck she got them from.
I sure hope we don't have any more $245 snakes!
And I can't explain why the unit worked fine last week and for a while yesterday morning if the snake had been fried a while ago - like last fall, from the sounds of it. I'd heard enough details as it was!
It's a good thing I rarely see these snakes because of all God's creatures, snakes are definitely on the short list of ones I hate. A lot. If I knew how many snakes were in our yard, I'd probably hurl. Some things are best not known.
I've got another snake story!
We had central air conditioning installed last year. We turned it on one day last week, no problem. Sunday, the hottest freaking day of the year so far - hot & humid - and it stopped working mid-day. We kept all the blinds and curtains closed trying to conserve what coolness we'd achieved. I called the company we have a maintenance contract with and as expected, they were very busy. The nice woman told me all the techs were out on calls and we could see one between 6:30 and 9:30 pm. She and I troubleshot the situation over the phone with no success. And they can't work on the outside unit in the dark anyway so I scheduled them to come Monday morning. When it finally cooled down a tad, we opened all the doors and windows. Slept buck naked with the fans going. (I apologize for that visual. I'll wait while you go disinfect your eyeballs.)
Steve's daughter, Lizz, has been staying at our house so she was able to be there this morning, which was nice so I didn't have to leave work. The tech called me when he was done - a snake had crawled into the outside unit, touched two somethings - and fried. He said it happened a while ago because it was so decayed ("black and mushy") that he barely recognized it as a snake. He cleaned it out, replaced a couple of parts and we're back in business. I asked if there's anything we can do to prevent another snake from crawling in there and he said not really because they are so small, they can wriggle through most anything. It was a garter snake, the diameter of my pinky, if it was like the two Venus brought up from the basement last year - or wherever the heck she got them from.
I sure hope we don't have any more $245 snakes!
And I can't explain why the unit worked fine last week and for a while yesterday morning if the snake had been fried a while ago - like last fall, from the sounds of it. I'd heard enough details as it was!
It's a good thing I rarely see these snakes because of all God's creatures, snakes are definitely on the short list of ones I hate. A lot. If I knew how many snakes were in our yard, I'd probably hurl. Some things are best not known.
posted by Stefani at 1:55 PM
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6 Comments:
Our air also went out last week. We were able to get someone out within a day ONLY because he lived by us and could "catch" us on his way home. No snakes in our unit. Some part went out...to the tune of $275. Cool air is worth it though, huh?
I have a similar story about snakes, but sadly, it was one of the snakes I owned . -Stephen from Rochester
Yeah but with the snakes the rodent population is probably down.
I'm with you sister on the hating snakes thing. If I ever see one, I'll die, I'm sure of it. I'm an equal opportunity hater of creatures (ie: snakes, bugs, lizards,etc.) I hate them all equally.
Oh my - another worry about our central AC - snake infestation! Glad it's up and working again.
Do you have poisonous snakes in your area? Where I grew up (Kingston NY) we had lots of copperhead snakes and sometimes timber rattlers. As kids we learned to watch where you stepped when in the woods -- but then I moved to the Binghamton area where poisonous snakes are extremely rare (supposed to be a few timber rattlers, but their population is so low they are considered an endangered species) and I lost most of that caution in walking in woods. Now I live in Rhode Island which has no poisonous snakes at all but I have learned to fear ticks (lyme disease) and mosquitoes (West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis) -- frankly, I think I preferred the snakes.
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