The Wrath of Karma!

Last week I wrote about the humidity in the face of what would be the hottest week of the year so far. I even wrote in my last paragraph; “So to Mother Nature I have this to say. “Yo Mamma! Bring it! We come from sturdy stock, we know how to do “Summer” around here!”

When am I ever gonna learn not to call out Mother Nature! She always gets the last laugh.

Left: It was hot in my home studio yesterday during my show. Friday afternoon around 5 PM just when all the air conditioner repairmen call it a week and head for home, it suddenly started feeling “a mite stuffy” in the house. With a lump in my throat, I stepped out the back door to inspect the compressor unit of our central air… and my worst fears were realized. Not a creature, fan blade or motor was stirring anywhere around that stone dead hunk of steel sitting on that concrete pad like a lump of coal.

A quick call to the company that maintains our A/C unit got in touch with the call center who answers their calls at night and on weekends. After a pretty confusing conversation with someone “not from these here parts” about where our neighborhood was located, they promised a call from the serviceman who was on call that weekend. Hurdle number one was quickly passed.

But I tripped and stumbled on hurdle number two. The serviceman called within a couple of minutes, a good sign, but he said that he was totally swamped and would not be able to get to us until the next day. Then he inexplicably advised me to turn down the thermostat to the lowest level while we waited. “Huh!” I exclaimed, “How will that help with the compressor not running?” I think he must have realized how inane that advice was because he said that he would call first thing in the morning.

This was the second time in the afternoon that modern technology failed me. Earlier in the day I was going to take in a movie at the local theater, my usual Friday afternoon routine. I had not been able to do that in the previous two weeks due to a heavy load at my consulting job and I was really ready to see the Avengers movie that had been out for all that time. There is normally not a big crowd at the early matinee that I usually attend so nothing seemed amiss until I approached the snack bar to buy my ticket, Diet Coke and popcorn. I was told that the digital projection system in that theater had crashed and the show time I wanted was cancelled.

They asked me if I would like to see another movie and I said no, none of the other movies interested me. I didn’t realize how bad the crash was until I asked about the 3-D presentation that was due to start in ½ hour. “You don’t understand, the entire multiplex projection system has crashed and it would be hours before we could show ANY movies”; was the dreaded answer.

I rearranged my afternoon with the idea that I would catch the 4 PM showing, but when I checked with Fandango at 3, they said that the 4PM show was sold out. When I checked the other movies that were starting around the same time, they all said that they were sold out. Not very likely, “sold out” must be the euphemism for “the projectors are still broke.” So Friday was just not my day. Mother Nature “brought it,” OK. I can still hear the cackling.

Yesterday morning the call came a couple of minutes after 7 AM, after a restless night in the heat, that the serviceman would appear between 10 AM and 12 Noon. So at 10 I sat down to do my show on OGR in a warm home studio. I thought this would be a good “warm up” to the hot summertime studio at WUSC – FM. It can get oppressive there with the window in the control room facing south and that big old ball of fire in the sky streaming heat through the glass. The steel mesh pull down shade is just not up to the task.

It eventually got up to 88 before the serviceman arrived at 11:15 and replaced the starter capacitor on the condenser motor and we were back in business. Why is it always the starter capacitor? Fortunately I have a good ceiling fan in the home studio so I was pretty comfortable.

Here comes the silver lining to this hot story. The problem with the WUSC – FM control room is that the A/C supply vents and the return grill are both in the ceiling a couple of feet from each other. So the cool air stays up near the ceiling and never gets down to the DJ and the hot equipment. Correcting the A/C ductwork is not economically feasible. So I plan on suggesting that they install a quiet running ceiling fan to force what cool air is in the room down to where someone could actually feel it. So, Mother Nature; thanks for the Karma! Maybe I won’t be “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” much longer. Oh MY!