Life without Air Conditioning

When today started I thought I heard a foreign alarm tone coming from my phone.  No, it wasn’t strumming or chiming in a different language.  Do I look like that type of girl?  We won’t entertain a journey down that narrow road.  Instead I’ll share an interesting development.

The walk from air conditioned facility through the beginning of a sweltering day deposits me at the threshold of the office building I call home for the weekly forty.  The welcoming chill of conditioned air embraces me; delivering a touch of lightheadedness.

I know what you’re thinking.  Be nice to me! [spoken in a crestfallen tone through pouty lips] If I may continue, today the atmosphere was foreign.  Instead of cool I was embraced by a blanket of humidity.  Funny how a building can heat up and adopt the characteristics of the exterior environ so quickly.  By the time I stepped off the elevator six floors from ground I was beginning to perspire.  I know, not something you find particularly interesting.  Well honey neither do I!

The air conditioning system was down.  You know what that means.  The icing (an oxymoron, yes?) on the meat cake was the revelation that running water was no longer running.  Hell, it wasn’t even walking.  So faced with the potential for a burgeoning health crisis I dismissed all but senior staff and stuck (yes the right environment for being sticky) around for a meeting and then a conference call.

Why am I telling you all this, like you want to know how Nikki spends her days in boy costume?  There’s a moral, an end to the story.  Retreating to an interior office away from the sun beating relentlessly against the large windows and heating an already warm office, I settled in with my colleagues for a not-so-uncomfortable meeting.  The conference call was a different story.  Sorry, not a different blog.  I know you’re probably wishing for root canal or something less painful.

By the end of the call the cooling system had been rebooted and the temperature leveled off at eighty degrees.  In an hour and a half the water was flowing and the temp was down to the high seventies.  When I was thinking things could get worse fortunes turned and conditions improved.

I probably sound silly for sticking around after dismissing the staff.  But things have got to get done and another day out of the office would not solve my problem.  The work elves stopped coming around and cleaning up delinquent work product long ago.  

Sticking with the situation and having faith in human nature paid off.  Things do come around if you invest in patience.  It is a virtue and one to be extolled.  Coming from someone as impatient as this girl, those words must sound foreign.  Teachable moments abound.  I’m off (no snide remarks please) to electrolysis and the glorious promise of silky smooth complexion.  There’s distance between here and there but that space is shortening with each passing week.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Love and hugs, Nikki DiCaro