Tuesday, May 04, 2004
On the way home from work I saw a girl walking her dog, whose fur was dyed a dull green. Nearby was a tall, skinny older man using a long stick to help him walk. After arriving safely at my destination, I climbed atop my roof to work on the evaporative cooler, also known as the swamp cooler.
Adam said: "Ahhhh! No swamp cooler! When I first moved to Arizona, my grandparents used the swamp cooler. And my grandpa was ridiculously stubborn about waiting until monsoon season was practically over before switching to mechanically cooled air. It was *miserable*."
I replied: "Homer, unfortunately, doesn't have one of those new fangled "air conditioners." When someone told me about them I went to the store and bought hair conditioners and sprayed them around but it was still damn hot. Really, the swamp cooler works really well except in July and August and then I just wander around my house naked or in my boxers. With the curtains just slightly open. For instance, 9:00 PM on July 14. Joey cat came to tell me to behave. She should meow."
A miracle happened, and I managed to get the main cooler working! And not leaking water all over the place. The only negative things that happened were a couple of small scrapes and an annoying electrical shock when I splashed water onto the outlet. My left hand developed a strange tingling and I stupidly looked at it for a moment before realizing that that magic stuff called electricity was traveling into my body. My bad.
In other news, I was a little Nancy Drew today, investigating the Mystery of the Arched Opening. A reporter for a local newspaper, my friend Bob, and I visited a house built in the late 1870s that actually has a basement (very, very rare in Arizona). Along one wall of the basement was a strange arch made of four rows of bricks. We puzzled over it and decided it wasn't a fireplace, bread oven, or a cistern. The actual function remains unknown. The same house has a room with a dropped ceiling. Above the ceiling is a mural from the late 1910s-early 1920s, very Maxwell Parrish looking. Someday someone will remove the ceiling and that will be grand.
Mistake picture, "Blurring wrestling."
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Adam said: "Ahhhh! No swamp cooler! When I first moved to Arizona, my grandparents used the swamp cooler. And my grandpa was ridiculously stubborn about waiting until monsoon season was practically over before switching to mechanically cooled air. It was *miserable*."
I replied: "Homer, unfortunately, doesn't have one of those new fangled "air conditioners." When someone told me about them I went to the store and bought hair conditioners and sprayed them around but it was still damn hot. Really, the swamp cooler works really well except in July and August and then I just wander around my house naked or in my boxers. With the curtains just slightly open. For instance, 9:00 PM on July 14. Joey cat came to tell me to behave. She should meow."
A miracle happened, and I managed to get the main cooler working! And not leaking water all over the place. The only negative things that happened were a couple of small scrapes and an annoying electrical shock when I splashed water onto the outlet. My left hand developed a strange tingling and I stupidly looked at it for a moment before realizing that that magic stuff called electricity was traveling into my body. My bad.
In other news, I was a little Nancy Drew today, investigating the Mystery of the Arched Opening. A reporter for a local newspaper, my friend Bob, and I visited a house built in the late 1870s that actually has a basement (very, very rare in Arizona). Along one wall of the basement was a strange arch made of four rows of bricks. We puzzled over it and decided it wasn't a fireplace, bread oven, or a cistern. The actual function remains unknown. The same house has a room with a dropped ceiling. Above the ceiling is a mural from the late 1910s-early 1920s, very Maxwell Parrish looking. Someday someone will remove the ceiling and that will be grand.
Mistake picture, "Blurring wrestling."
