Holiday Traditions

Memorial Day has it's traditions for most households. For some it's a time for throwing meat on the grill and inviting friends over. For others it means special memorial services for loved ones who have given their lives in military service. For me, Memorial Day has taken on a whole new tradition since I moved into this house.

I suppose it would be more accurate to say the Sunday before Memorial Day has its own tradition. I don't know how my old air conditioning unit knew it was a holiday weekend, but inevitably it would die the Sunday night before Memorial Day, making the service call a time-and-a-half visit and ruining any plans I had made for the day off. This happened many, many times over the years, but last year we bought a brand new shiny air conditioning unit. Sweet. The old unit with its tradition built on sweat and overtime was hauled off, and I celebrated.

At least I celebrated until tonight. Apparently the old unit left the new unit a memo:

MEMO

To: New A/C
From: Old A/C

Heh heh. Wanna mess with the people that work you to death all summer? Totally shut down the last Sunday in May.


Yep. We were sitting here this evening, playing some pinball, messing with the pup, and watching the Spurs destroy the Lakers, when Greg noticed it was getting warm and went to kick down the temp on the thermostat. A few minutes later the air still hadn't cut on. A feeling of dread overcame me. Tomorrow is Memorial Day. Flashbacks started. I remember the year I was supposed to go to the movies with my brother that Monday, but instead we sat around watching the Deadliest Catch marathon and waiting on the repair guy...

This time we weren't standing for it. We scoured the unit inside and out, we pushed every button, we flipped ever breaker. The unit isn't even a year old yet, it's birthday is June 4. There was no excuse. I refuse to accept that it wouldn't work. And this time, for the first time ever, I defeated it. I found the tiny wire that had broken off, the one that carries the signal from the thermostat. Greg was able to fix it in under 3 minutes. Today I will not sleep with every fan I can find running full speed. Today I will not toss and turn, waiting until a reasonable hour to call Fred. Today is the day when we declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish, without a fight. We're going to live on. We're going to survive. Today, we celebrate the Sunday before Memorial Day!"

Ok, yes, I stole that from the movie Independence Day. But dangit, that's about how I feel.

Take that, Curse of the Old A/C! Take that.