Our arguments are few and far between but yesterday we had a little one. It went something like this.
The scene: I was on the phone with a friend, Mom came home with an arm load of groceries. The AC unit was blasting (for the first time this year). It was 90 degrees outside; 88 inside. Before she even set the groceries on the counter, she reaches up to the vent, observes that it was luke-warm air and whisper-tells me, “The air isn’t COLD.”
And this. This, my reply (tilting the phone away from my mouth):
“Please don’t criticize the coldness of the air coming out of the vents. I’ve been working on this and it keeps blowing a breaker, and I KNOW the air isn’t cold.”
The look on her face was as if I’d doused her in cold water.
“Well, I didn’t know any of that. I was just letting you know that the air isn’t cold.”
“Yeah, I KNOW it’s not cold. I’m trying to fix it,” I whisper-emphatically-said. And then into the phone, “Shannon, I have to go. I have to deal with the AC unit.”
We hung up.
Critical moments.
Realizing that my chilling response was neither warranted or deserved and that I should use my big-girl words to express the underlying reason to my pithy reply, I explained the troubles I’d been facing with the AC unit and that I was indeed frustrated by my lack of knowledge to fix the problem.
And her, knowing my flighty disposition when I’m (feeling like I’m) in over my head, offered a solution, helped me implement it and then let the situation rest.
Meanwhile, I texted our landlord and asked for her advice.
“Did you take the cover off?”
See, the AC unit is on the roof of the travel trailer. And it has a cover on it to protect it from the elements when it’s not being used. Removing the cover is key to its functionality. Apparently.
So this morning I sojourned to the top of the travel trailer.
When I was a kid, there were certain things we weren’t allowed to do when Mom wasn’t home. One of them was operating any kind of machinery and I’m pretty sure that climbing around on the travel trailer roof would’ve been on the list. I thought about that while I was roaming around up there. After she’d left for the afternoon.
But I took my phone with me (I was in the middle of a text conversation with Kristin) and I told her, “I’m on top of the travel trailer right now. Texting you” to which she logically replied, “Why are you up there?” In the event of an unlikely fall from the top of the travel trailer, at least someone would’ve known where I’d been when they’d last heard from me. #alwaysthinking.
Oh, I forgot to tell you I was on top of the travel trailer in my pajamas. And though remaining in one’s pajamas till late morning often denotes laziness, I was actually quite busy prior to climbing a ladder.
And while I was up there, I took this birds-eye-view photograph of my favorite space:
Mission accomplished. My dismount from the trailer roof was flawless and the AC unit is quite happy now. We have cold air, all the breakers are in tact and my surly attitude over Mom’s observation of the air temperature is behind us.
Bring it on, Texas summer. Bring.It.On.
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