The Universe Comes Poking

The past couple weeks have not been good for Thevictorians. The Universe has been meddling again. The high point was Tuesday, when we had the closing for the sale of our upper 10 acres. Other than that, we've been on an express ride to Not-Heaven. There was the leak in Bargain House that destroyed the bedroom floor, and Val's near-death from a narrowly-avoided 35 mph collision, and the broken air conditioner at home. 

The heating and cooling system was installed in Bargain House. It was $4800. No surprise, it was true to the estimate. We knew this would be one of the major expenses. Hick had thought of doing the wall-mounted heating and cooling thingies, like he put in the Beauty Shop, but an actual HVAC unit was the better option.

Our own HVAC unit, which we have currently been using with the fan blowing on LOW continuously, and the COOL option turned on in the evening, has been recommended to be replaced. Funny. How in June, the workman who came to give us coolant at an exorbitant price, had told Hick that he should probably replace it, but that he's wait at least a year, due to a new coolant version coming out that's really expensive. REALLY? And now the boss of the company, Hick's buddy, says he could TRY to find a motor and replace it, but it would be better to get a whole new unit instead. It's a wonder Hick can walk, what with having two people pulling his leg to different lengths. 

Anyhoo... Hick says that we are getting a new HVAC unit, because this one is at least 25 years old, and that the other guy's recommendation doesn't matter, because it won't be needing coolant right away, and prices will go down. Doesn't make much sense to me, because of course a brand new unit will need coolant to start off with. But I'm not the dealmaker around here. Oh, and our new unit will cost $8,700. But silver-tongued Hick talked it down to $8,500 by paying cash. It will be installed on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, The Pony called Thursday night, all hush-hush because he didn't want Hick to overhear, to report that there was a LEAK in Pony House, around the air conditioning unit. That The Pony had turned off the AC, blotted up the water, and had put down paper towels. ALSO, that parts of his wood flooring had buckled (a week or so ago, not related to the AC leak), AND that he had a mouse, but had caught one in a trap.

The Pony didn't know if a mouse had chewed some vital tubing in his AC, or what might be going wrong. But was going to sleep with the windows open, and pick up the house so as not to get a lecture from Hick, who could hopefully come the next day to take a look at it. I told The Pony that Hick was at the hospital (visiting), so wouldn't be barging in that night anyway, and to give him a call later, around 8:30.

Not really good news, but acceptable news, is that Hick couldn't get his compressor hose into The Pony's AC, but his finger reached, and he cleaned out a clog in the drain hose. So The Pony's AC is working fine now. 

Hick says he might be the culprit for The Pony's floor buckling, since he ran the vent hose from the dryer under the house. It's an inside room, no access to a wall. So maybe the moisture from that messed with the floor. I am skeptical, because surely that would have happened before now. It's been over three years since The Pony moved in. The floor situation will take longer to fix. Hick is not sure where the mouse got in.

So... we are ready for The Universe to lay off for a while.