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Forward planning
I know I’ve had just about enough of winter when we start to look at the travel section of the newspaper for sunny-south deals and we get serious about buying a small air conditioner before the shelves are empty come July. Truthfully, I’m not a sunny-south kinda gal. My parents loved winter and encouraged us to get outside and enjoy the cold weather every single day. We spent our youthful winters tobogganing, skating in the park and walking five miles—uphill, both ways—to school in blizzard conditions. Believe it or not, LOML and I took the kids to Florida once. It was an okay trip, but not one we ever wanted to repeat. Perhaps it was the wrong time to visit Florida, being it was July and all. The drive from Picton to Bradenton was far more interesting than spending two weeks on the beach with three kids. LOML and I even went on a Caribbean trip once—in the winter, smarty-pants. Same sentiment, a good enough trip but not one we ever really wanted to do again. We, obviously, don’t feel the need to escape the weather an Ontario winter has to offer. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we love spending two hours shovelling only to watch the big plow go by and give us a reason to spend another two hours outside. Nope. We aren’t fans of that kind of torture. But we’d rather have to deal with the cold, the sleet, the snow, the bitter winds and the ice than drive to the warmth for two weeks, only to have to come back to subzero weather. Besides, staying here makes summertime in Ontario seem so much more delicious, somehow. So, this weekend we looked at air conditioners while drinking hot coffee with a blanket over our laps. Forward planning is a good thing, but we aren’t always good at it. The discussion about the potential purchase followed the path we’ve been taking in this regard for decades, it seems. It goes something like this.
“What do you think? Maybe we should we look at a room-sized unit? If so, should we get more than one? If so, which room should we put it in? How about one upstairs and one downstairs? No? How about two downstairs and one up? Hey, perhaps we should buy one of those units you roll from room to room. We had one of those, it didn’t work. It didn’t work because we got it for free and most of the parts were missing. Yeah, but it leaked on the floor. Of course, the technology has probably changed. It could work, right? Then we’d only need one of those because we could move it from room-to-room. But we wouldn’t want to move it upstairs. Those things are heavy. Maybe we should get two of those. One to roll around upstairs and one to roll around downstairs. Actually, we could just keep all of the curtains closed in the heat of the day and put that funny film on the windows. That should keep the rooms cool. Right? No? What about ceiling fans in all of the rooms? We have three ceiling fans,now. They seem to work in those rooms. Seven more ceiling fans. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Ceiling fans. But ceiling fans are noisy. So are air conditioners. Do ceiling fans use more electricity than air conditioners? Our electric bill is wild enough without adding to it. But we could check it out. We could speak with my brother. He knows all about these things. I don’t really want to impose on him. He’s always so busy. Maybe we should get central air. My brother would probably suggest some kind of central unit. Did someone just say it would be an imposition to ask him? I wonder if our ductwork would work with a central system? We aren’t getting any younger and heat stroke is “a thing” with old people like us.”
And so it goes. Family Day Weekend, partly spent trying to keep warm and discussing how to stay cool in quickly approaching summer months. We forward-planned, in theory. But, like years gone by, we’ll likely find ourselves gob-smacked in July when the temperature is high and we have to say how much we love the heat.
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