I always thought the primary reason that I go to restaurants is for the food.

Why would I care about anything else? If I don’t like the food that’s being offered at a restaurant, I would never bother to go there. I never really think about the atmosphere, or whether or not it’s climate-controlled in the building. At least, I never used to think about that until recently. Last Friday, I walked into my favorite Mexican restaurant, and I was startled by something I would normally never notice. I was so used to opening those double doors and feeling the whoosh of air-conditioned air wash over me. Instead, I was greeted with heat! It was hotter inside than it was outside. The air was warm and stuffy. Me and my wife looked at each other and shrugged. We were both starving by this time, so we decided to follow through and get a table. Five minutes in, as we were waiting for our drinks, my wife was fanning herself with one of the menus and I felt a bead of sweat trickle-down my brow. When the waiter came with our drinks, I finally asked what had happened to the HVAC system. He said it had been on the fritz since lunchtime, and no repairs would be able to be made until the next day. Needless to say, we enjoyed our refreshing sodas a little more than we would have otherwise. Normally, me and my wife like to order a sizzling plate of fajitas, but we were actually trying to figure out what would be more refreshing at this point. We ended up staying and eating dinner, but we never took for granted air conditioning in a restaurant ever again!

heating and cooling

On my first job out of high school, I had two primary responsibilities.

• I worked at a big box store.

On any given day, I would either bring shopping carts into the corrals or into the store, or I would work in the home & garden section. Whenever my fellow co-workers would complain about their jobs, I would remind them that, at the very least, they had a powerful air conditioner to cool them as they worked at their cash registers or stocking the shelves inside the stores. On the other hand, I was almost constantly sweating my butt off! I especially liked how anytime one of the workers in my department called out, someone who normally worked inside the climate-controlled part of the store would be sent to assist me, and they would act like it was the worst thing in the world. Strangely, I was never asked to work inside the store to cover someone else who called out. What a joy that would be to be able to work in the air conditioner for just once! So many times, I would clear the parking lot of carts, nearly by myself, and then take a moment to rest just inside the building to take advantage of the A/C. One of the assistant managers would assume that I was slacking off, even though I was just trying to cool off! When things were really busy, and the carts were piling up despite our best efforts, those same managers would sarcastically offer a “team building” exercise in which they would go out and help us. Fat chance that would ever happen!

 

air conditioning business

I am always trying to save my money in any way that I possibly can.

I have a budget for nearly anything and everything.

My parents gave me their old SUV my junior year of high school. The SUV had already been in the family for seven years. It had 75,000 miles on it by the time it passed into my hands. I squeezed another six years out of the vehicle, and by the time I was thinking about getting a replacement, it was pushing 150,000 miles. I may be frugal, but the one thing that made me decide to get a new vehicle was that the air conditioning finally failed. I just couldn’t handle that in this oppressive, humid heat we experience down here in the south! When I took it to the mechanic shop, I was informed that there were a host of other problems with the vehicle, and it was basically on its way out. At that point, I was dreaming of a new vehicle with a powerful air conditioner, and I had saved up a good amount due to my aforementioned frugalness, so I finally caved and decided to get a new vehicle. Well, not a new vehicle, per se. I got a used vehicle from a rental company’s sales lot. It only had 45,000 miles on it and was two years old. When I cranked the A/C to max on a very hot and humid afternoon for the test drive, I fell in love. Sure, all the other features were good in the vehicle, but I was missing that air conditioner!

Air conditioner installation

I get stress headaches on a regular basis.

It’s not like I’m freaking out about my workload and all the responsibilities I shoulder.

I do my best to prioritize my itinerary and get things done. It’s just that every now and then, the small text on the computer screen begins to blur, my head starts to swim, and I start to feel a pain that begins in my temples and travels slowly across my skull and sometimes down to my neck. It doesn’t help that my office chair doesn’t provide the best support. Anyway, by the time I get home, my headache can be quite severe, and that’s when I crank the A/C and just sit on the living room couch directly below the air vent and bask in its coolness. It’s the first thing I do when I get home nearly every work day, and it makes me so grateful that I have an air conditioner that I can rely on to cool down, not just my body, but my brain after a long day at work. It’s almost like my brain is a computer processor that needs a heat sink in order to keep from melting! At least that’s how it feels, quite often. I’m also grateful for the air conditioning system at the office I work at, considering that’s typically where the headaches start. Whoever’s in control of the thermostat is a little stingy though, so I still can’t wait to get home to crank up my own air conditioner. It’s the little things that help me to keep going!

Cooling specialist

Our behaviors can really and completely rule our lives in a way that is so subtle, we don’t even pay attention to it.

That’s for sure when it comes to many things in my life.

From my appetites the quality heating and air of my home, I’m forever behaving in a way that seems routine. It’s like some of the things that we do get so ingrained that we have the toughest time trying to unwind those behaviors. I think that’s why we have such a hard time sticking to diets or exercise regimens. It’s the routine behaviors that want to get back in there. This spring, I took on my HVAC cooling behaviors and surprisingly, it’s made a big difference in my summer. The behaviors I changed in the spring are making life in July a lot more manageable from a variety of perspectives. When you live in a region where the heat is the big deal, it’s almost natural these days to reach for more HVAC cooling. So we just crank the thermostat and move on. But actually, human beings have lived without residential HVAC for most of our existence. Residential HVAC has only been around for some 70 years. This past spring, I decided that I’d be more accepting of the heat and acclimate a bit more as the temperatures began to rise. I didn’t reach for the thermostat at all until the temps got into the 90’s consistently. That has led to being able to enjoy a thermostat setting of 79 during the day and 75 at night. Plus, the heat isn’t as overwhelming with less air conditioning.

 

 

heating technician

I’ve always had a sort of romantic affinity for road trips.

• From the time I was little and my dad would whisk me out of the air conditioning for a trip to somewhere special, I’ve always enjoyed the notion of hitting the road.

And that sure came in handy during the summer of 2020. When the company I worked for shut down the offices with the zone controlled HVAC, I wasn’t quite sure how that was going to work. Much of my job is done with the customers. I’m doing the implementation work or closing deals in person so there was only so much that I could do from the air conditioning at home. The first few weeks after we were sent home from the zone controlled HVAC of the office, there were plenty of zoom meetings on that topic. I wasn’t the only one who needed to be in front of customers or onsite doing the work. So we ended taking it by regions and reassigning projects to where we were in relation to our customers. That summer, I packed some suits and other stuff for an extended road trip. Thankfully, I have great air conditioning in my car so that wasn’t a problem. And I was able to find the best air conditioning in the hotels that dot the interstates. I found that the hotels that had the big, wall unit HVAC equipment to be the most consistent when it came to awesome HVAC cooling. While I didn’t like being away from home so much that summer, I did sort of enjoy being on a once in a lifetime, extended road trip.

central heater

I’m now in countdown mode.

It’s the end of July so I’m just less than a month from going on our annual beach vacation.

Actually, we missed out in 2020 due to the pandemic. My wife and I were both still working from the air conditioning of our home that summer. But last year, we found the perfect rental situation which really made up for that lost year. We’ve always chosen to go on our 2 week, end of summer vacation at a beach since the kids were old enough to enjoy it. Those kids are now champing at the bit to get out of the HVAC of our home and into the ocean. I think we created some water people here. They just can’t wait to get to the sand and the sea. There is something magical about the beach. And when you lived so landlocked the way we are, it’s a blast to just get to the beach. However, I’m also so excited about the fact that we were able to book the same rental house. It’s about 2 blocks from the beach and in just a perfect location to restaurants and entertainment as well. I don’t think I drive all that much at all on vacation once we get there. But this house has the very best residential HVAC I’ve had the pleasure to experience. It really is remarkable. There is zone controlled HVAC throughout the house as well as a smart thermostat managing the whole thing. For me, vacation is so sweet when you’re out in the sun all day but come back to the perfect HVAC cooling. And with a thermostat in our room, I can keep the HVAC cooling going all night.

 

Business

I think the first step toward solving a problem is to acknowledge there is one.

That’s what I did last year as I stayed inside the air conditioning nearly the entire summer for the second straight year. When I moved here, I knew there would be an adjustment to a different climate. But I just had on idea how tough it would be for me to deal with the summer heat and humidity. It’s unlike anything that I have ever experienced before. And the way I was dealing with it really wasn’t healthy and it was costing me a ton of money. I seriously was going from the zone controlled HVAC of the office to the air conditioning of my home. I wasn’t getting outside for exercise or even to just get some fresh air. The only time I was outside was to get in the car or retrieve the mail. And getting the mail was awful because it included these utility bills that were crippling my budget. So, I decided to talk with a native of this region to see if I could figure out how better to deal with my problem. The first thing she suggested was simple acceptance. One of the big problems I was having was that I feared the heat and humidity because it was so intense. But generally, that’s only during the peak heating hours of the day. My friend helped me figure out that mornings are lovely as are the late evenings. And she helped me not go right for the thermostat in the spring as the temps begin to rise. And all of this has made this a much more pleasurable and affordable summer indeed.

programmable thermostat

I was just overdue for a ductwork cleaning and ductwork resealing appointment

I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye every now and again. Then, I would find these strange sort of dust balls just lying in the middle of the carpet. I had no idea what was going on. Perhaps I was crazy or I was spending too many hours working inside the zone controlled HVAC of the office and raising a family. This single parent stuff is tough. There is just so much to do outside of the zone controlled HVAC of the office that it makes it tough to keep up. And I feel as though I’m always so fatigued because all I’m doing is playing catch up. When we were first divorced, my ex was great about helping out around the house. He took care of the yard and all the HVAC equipment stuff. I didn’t have to remember to call for HVAC maintenance as he took care of all that. But he lives almost an hour away now due to a transfer so much of that is on me. So when I actually saw the dust ball float down from the HVAC air duct, I knew it was time to call the HVAC company. They calmed me down and told me it was nothing too serious. I was just overdue for a ductwork cleaning and ductwork resealing appointment. They came and did that just last week. Well, I am completely thrilled with the indoor air quality in my house after the ductwork cleaning and ductwork resealing. It’s just awesome and at least I know I’m not crazy or seeing things any longer.

Air conditioning workman