The Unblog Post

[Writers Plot]

posted by Doranna

You can blame this one on the air conditioner. I certainly do. I had this week's post idea chosen and ready to write during the regular Sunday evening blog-writing time (it only makes sense that a listmaker would also prefer to have a weekly pattern of events, don't you think?). And then came the air conditioner.

Casita Durgin is a thing of creative beauty...it started life as an RV garage with attached office, received a serious upgrade before I began renting, and is now a delightful and unique little home with sporadically high ceilings. However, it wasn't originally built to be a house, and there are some environmental management issues that would have been done differently if it had been--specifically, venting and buffering sun heat. I live at 7,000 feet, where the air can be crisp in the shade and yet big-time sizzling in the sun--and boy does it beat down on my little home.

Until recent global warming issues contributed to ten years of deep drought and unusual heat, air conditioning was not a Necessary Thing. However, a few degrees of extra heat each spring has made its impact. The first summer after I moved, I realized I'd need AC in the office (ie, ex-garage) during late spring, when the sun rises strong, the sky is perfectly clear, and the temps shoot upward 30-40 degrees once dawn makes way for day. (At this point, anyone who wants to say "it's a DRY heat" is welcome to give it a try as working office conditions.) The landlord and I found a perfect solution in one of those ductless AC units--it's quiet, it's efficient, and it handles the office very nicely. It was not, however, meant to handle any other part of the house--and it sure doesn't!

Meanwhile, it so happens that my bedroom is the hottest room in the house--starting about 5am and heating up from there.

*gasp*

Since moving in, I've tried portable swamp coolers, I've managed the windows and the blinds with ruthless efficiency, and...well, mostly I didn't sleep very well. Things came to a head last year when my habit of leaving the front and back doors open to bring in the cool night air ended abruptly; our rural area felt a touch of the urban with a nearby home break-in and subsequent midnight visit by police because of my open door. Oops.

Over the years there's been discussion of an AC unit for the bedroom...it was always stalled by the narrow vertical nature of the window, and the expense and difficulty of finding an appropriate unit. That is, until a couple weeks ago, when the landlord found a wee horizontal unit on sale at Sam's Club and grabbed it up...leaving only the need to make it work against its nature.

Well, it took two days and a certain radical window deconstruction, but this morning I woke to the blissful hum of a working AC unit, buffering me from the morning heat. And that's why I wasn't writing my blog post yesterday during its allotted time, and why instead I have rambled on about environmental management here at Casita Durgin, and why in spite of my blogging failure, I'm wandering around the office this morning with a goofy, blissful grin on my face.

It's the little things, you know.

So this post is dedicated to the small spots of blissful success in life. If you have 'em, celebrate 'em! I know I am...