This week was a rollercoaster. Buckle up because it was quite a ride.
So what happened this week?
A while ago my scribe (Melinda) noticed that her air conditioner was struggling and putting out a fraction of the air it used to output. That meant it had to run longer and it used more electricity driving her bill up by a lot. So she started looking into replacing it.
Since she lives in a co-op, she first needed to find out if she could replace it or if she had to go through the board. Anything inside her apartment is her responsibility, and she can change it. Of course there are limitations on that. Some things require board approval even for the interior. Since the air conditioner unit goes through the wall, Melinda wasn’t sure whose responsibility it was to replace it.
She asked around and found out that the air conditioner was her responsibility. The board didn’t need to be involved nor did it want to know what she did about it. That was great news.
So Melinda started looking around at AC units. But time wasn’t on her side.
The Flood
She woke up on Wednesday morning to find water everywhere. It was under her computer and covering a third of the floorspace inside her apartment.
Where did the water come from?
Well, it didn't come from a storm. It dripped out of the air conditioner. Melinda called out of work, shut off the air conditioner, called the property manager to report the water damage to the wall and started sopping up the water with towels. The clean up went on for hours and then she waited.
The maintenance guy came and confirmed the damage was just to the inside of the wall not the exterior, which meant it was my scribe’s responsibility to fix. He offered to fix it, but she’d have to pay for it since it wasn’t covered by her maintenance.
Melinda agreed since he does good work and had fixed the wall in her neighbor’s kitchen after a leak from an upstairs apartment damaged it. Of course, her neighbor didn’t have to pay for that service since that was covered by the maintenance.
But she needed an air conditioner since it was in the high 80s with high humidity. Thus began the real adventure.
A Hot Night in NY
While Melinda handled all the stuff above, I grabbed her phone and searched for someone to replace the air conditioning unit. (This is Ran, Sarn's son from the Curse Breaker Series, and this is where things go awry. But I had the best intentions!)
Unlike a window unit, this air conditioning unit sits under the window, and it’s a lot bigger and heavier than a window unit. So it wasn't something my scribe could replace on her own even with help from fictional characters.
(We're just here for the magical mayhem, but household repairs aren't magical. They take time away from writing, which was what my scribe should have been doing since she wasn't working. But I digress as I often do.)
I found someone and set up a time for them to come and see the misbehaving air conditioning unit. Then I tried to get my scribe to write, but the temperature just kept rising and the humidity too.
The only windows in her apartment are in one corner, and there is no cross ventilation. So it got unbearable pretty fast. But my scribe stayed the course and didn’t turn on the air conditioner for fear of another flood.
The temperature was forecast to drop into the 60s that night but it would get even more humid since there was rain on the way. The temperature did drop, but none of that cool air came in the windows since there was no breeze, so my scribe didn’t get much sleep.
A Line In the Sand
The next morning, she couldn’t take it anymore. (Neither could we.) Melinda put a towel under the air conditioner and turned it back on. It started dripping a little while later. But she wouldn’t turn it off.
She intended to work that day (Thursday) and she needed the heat and humidity to go down for that. It did but very slowly since only air came out of only some vents. We found out why that afternoon when an HVAC guy came.
He took the cover off the air conditioner to see if there were any tags or information panels or anything to tell him who manufactured the unit and how many BTUs it was.
There were some panels under there, so he got that info. But that wasn’t all he found.
Unexpected Ice In The Heat
The filter for that unit is a big rectangle of what looks like dark gray felt from a craft store. Two thirds of that filter was covered in a thick layer of ice!
Yes, you read that right. The air conditioner was making ice in the heat!
The HVAC guy said that happens when not enough air passes through the filter. He recommended that we remove the filter. That would stop the ice from forming since the air could flow more freely. But then anything from outside could pass through and harm the coils. So it wasn’t a long-term solution.
That harm could take several months to build up so it would be okay for a few weeks. (We hope it will not take several weeks to get a new air conditioner unit installed.)
Melinda and I got to work pulling off that filter. It came off in pieces, making quite a mess. But we persevered and got off as much off as we could despite the ice, and then Melinda turned the air conditioner back on.
4x as much cool air now came out of the machine. She cleaned up the mess and put another towel down to catch the water from the ice we couldn’t get off. It was a centimeter thick in places on the filter.
On the upside, the increased air flow cooled the apartment more efficiently. By the next morning, there was no more water coming out of the unit. So that was good.
But the estimate the HVAC guy emailed is $3438.00!
Divine Intervention?
Before that estimate arrived, someone Melinda’s worked with for many years texted her with the number for her son-in-law who happens to do HVAC work. She urged my scribe to call him.
(I did too. We needed a second opinion!)
So Melinda did, and he sent someone to look at the unit on Saturday.
But right after she made that appointment, two of Melinda’s neighbors called. They talked to other neighbors and found out who they used to replace their air conditioning units. They recommended that Melinda call that place.
I'm going to leave things here for now since the newsletter is getting kind of long and we haven't talked about books yet! I promise to continue this tale next week when I know how it ends.
Did I get any page time?
Yes, I did! I got some new scenes in Chaos in Chains!
Melinda wrote two chapters before the air conditioner entered its diva era and caused so much drama. She also wrote a chapter on Friday and Saturday. So she could deliver 4 new chapters (chapters 33-36) for Chaos in Chains to patrons.
The story must go on! That’s the rule. You can read those new chapters on Patreon and Substack right now.
Please follow the campaign and tell everyone you know about it. We're probably going to use any money we don't send to the printer to pay for the water damage to the wall. It's crumbling away while we wait for the maintenance guy to fix it.
But he won't fix it until we get the air conditioner replaced, so that's our goal for the next week. Wish us luck!
That's it for this week! I hope you have a great week and read some great books.
Book Recommendations & Sales
Bring Your Light: Two Cozy Fantasy Advent Calendars
Two Collections of 25 Stories Each, Counting Down to Christmas. Cozy Fantasy, Romantic Stories, Magic Blizzards, and Maybe a Few Heroes. Follow to find out when the campaign launches.
Riders of the Apocalypse: Complete Epic Fantasy Book Series
An angel, an ex-god, & a dragon take on the riders of the apocalypse in 4 humorous epic fantasy adventure books. Follow the campaign to get notified when it launches.
Curse Breaker Unleashed: A New Epic Fantasy Book Trilogy
An ancient army awakens and the only man who can stop them is the one who set them free in three new adventures full of heart and hope. Follow the campaign to get notified when it launches in 2027. My scribe will write these books next!!!
