Heat Wave

We had a sort-of heat wave the week I was in Oakland to attend to Lucia’s health care. It was hot in Oakland and I could only imagine how hot it was in Ben Lomond. In actuality it got between 95-100 degrees and I was glad that I wasn’t home for that.

Imagine hot weather and menopause. Why didn’t I ever notice my mother getting hot flashes? The first person who I ever noticed having a hot flash was Patti Labelle about 25 years ago. I always wondered why she fanned herself excessively while she performed. I get them badly, maybe once or twice a day but worse at night! I call it my private summer. It is highly annoying and it is what I really dislike most about menopause. Here’s an article on Hot Flashes: http://www.webmd.com/menopause/guide/hot-flashes

Now you know I have mental pauses and private summers!

Before Labor Day a fire broke out in the Santa Cruz Mountains then a few days later in Morgan Hill. On the way home from Oakland, I noticed a sign on Highway 9 that said “No Outdoor Watering” “Extreme Fire Conditions”. The sign was changed a day later to say “Restricted Outdoor Watering” The heat and lack of rain has dried everything up.

When I got home from work on Wednesday the valley was hazy with smoke from the Morgan Hill fire. That, combined with the beginning of fall sunset gave the sky an eerie effect.

I spoke to my friend Marilou in Los Angeles and they were in a middle of a brown out, I guess we were lucky, the temperature there was 113.

This year I bought two air conditioners in preparation for the heat. Last year we had a heat wave that was unbearable and all the air conditioners in Santa Cruz County were sold out. I wanted to be ready.

Even if it gets hot only a few weeks in the entire summer, it is quite unbearable and it is nice to have rooms in the house where I can get some relief. The bottom floor is the coolest in the house but now I rent it out so I can no longer use it.

As luck might have it, the larger of the two AC units broke down after only a couple of weeks. It took a while for me to figure out what to do with it. It has a five year warranty from the manufacturer but do I call them? Do I call Home Depot? What an inconvenience! Then there is the business of having it uninstalled from the wall, carried and transported all the way to Watsonville, ordering a new one and having it re-installed all over again. By the time this all gets done I will most likely no longer need an AC in 2007.

So yesterday, my next door neighbor and on-call handyman, Gary had removed it from the wall and carried it to my front driveway on a bench. I noticed this when I came home and I thought, “Hmmm, how am I going to get this into my VDub Beetle?” I did. How?

1. I drove my *“Muffin” to the top driveway as close to the unit as possible.
2.I pushed the passenger seat back as far as I could.
3.I reclined the passenger seat as far as I could.
4.I got my wheelbarrow and put it side by side with this enormous machinery (luckily my wheelbarrow isn’t deep)
5.I got a piece of wide and thick plywood and created a ramp on my front deck (which is about 9 inches higher than the driveway)
6.I slowly slipped/nudged and plopped the AC onto the WB (wheelbarrow)
7.I rolled it down the ramp and swung it by the passenger side of my Muffin while the door was close and parked it beyond the door.
8.I opened the door as wide as I could.
9.I rolled the WB as close as I could parallel to the seat. There was still about a foot between the WB and the seat.
10.I put a thick blanket over the seat so as not to scratch or tear the upholstery.
11.I slowly slipped and nudged from the outside and pulled and tugged from the driver’s seat inside. After a bit of maneuvering, I got the AC in the car!

*Is my 2006 New Beetle Convertible that I purchased last year. I have always wanted a convertible. Ever since I was in high school my Uncle Tony promised me a convertible Karman Ghia. I never got it, I always knew it was pure BS, but the thought was nice. You had to know my Uncle Tony; he was quite a character and his promising me a car was just something he would do. He always meant well.

Anyway when I bought my VDub, I wanted a silver one with a black top. I had a silver Mercedes Benz at the time and I liked the color, it was sleek. There wasn’t a silver one at the dealership where I bought my car. There was a yellow one with a black top, another yellow one with a grey top, and others, but not one of them really got me excited. It just so happened that there was a couple more in the back lot, one of them really caught my eye. It was cream color with a beige canvas top and a tan interior. That was my car. It was perfect and just what I wanted, a basic VDub convertible. Manual top and vinyl seats: perfect for transporting my furry creatures, Angus and Abbe, and sometimes Oso and Lilly. Perfect for Santa Cruz!

When I first drove in to work, my friend geo said it looked like a Coffee Muffin. So I named her Muffin.

So today I am taking back the AC.