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Broken with bad timing
Except ...
"My air conditioner stopped working."
One of my sons made that announcement in the midst of a protracted throat ailment. Even though we have whole-house air conditioning, his room usually seems like a sauna. So last year, I bought him a small air conditioner for his window.
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Last October, probably, we disconnected the machine and stored it in the garage. Once the mercury started to rise this spring, we reinstalled it.
I think it worked for one day.
Because of my son's illness, I took pity and bought a new air conditioner. We'll see if it still works in 2012.
Yeah, I know. I should've gotten a warranty. But I've found over the years that it's almost impossible to get one of those things honored.
One exception: In 1982, I purchased a Yamaha stereo receiver. It started sounding strange, so I took it to an authorized Yamaha repairman in Greensburg. After he was finished, the receiver worked fine.
It still does, 29 years later.
I can't say the same for a similar device I purchased for another son a few years ago. At some point, it decided it was going to shut itself down automatically.
In these days of being able to look up solutions to problems on the Internet, I figured I could find a way to make it work again. I did find some forums that addressed the matter, but no one had any success, rather than to have it repaired by a professional.
So I looked into that. Of course, the professional wanted a large sum of money to take a look at the receiver. And I'm guessing that actually fixing it would cost approximately as much as the device did new.
I'm also guessing there's no guarantee it wouldn't break again.
Speaking of guarantees, a few years ago I purchased a lawn mower on which it's prominently stamped, "Guaranteed to start." And the mower has lived up to that proclamation!
Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that one of the wheels won't grind itself up and fall off. Which reminds me: I need to look online to see if I can order a wheel, and quickly. I'm assuming the neighbors will have a fit if my grass grows too high.
Hey, I'll take a bad wheel over what usually happens to my lawn mowers: I'll run over something that's hidden in the grass, and the impact will bend the crankshaft. And that's pretty much the end of the mower.
So I'll stop complaining, especially because I know the coolest place to go in my house to beat the heat.
That's if the new air conditioner makes it through this summer.
Online editor Harry Funk can be reached at hfunk@observer-reporter.com.
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