Air Conditioning, How I Miss Thee

The air conditioner at work has been malfunctioning lately. This malfunction happens on such a regular basis, it’s created a new routine in my day. When it’s decided the AC is not working, I put in a call to our maintenance manager. Shortly thereafter, the AC repair guys comes in, asks me what the problem is (the air is working in the back of the building by not the front), he then goes up to the roof and works his magic. He then comes back inside to make sure (cool) air is once again coming out of the vents, and lets me know to call if it stops working again. By the end of the day, the AC decides it’s had enough, makes a loud, angry noise and then quits working. After the majority of the office concurs the AC has indeed shut off again, I put a call in to our maintenance manager and the process starts all over again.

This has gone on four times this week and several times last week. Yesterday afternoon, the AC decided it was tired of this routine and quit working altogether. That’s the conclusion we’ve come to anyway, because when the AC repair guy came in today, he came in to confirm we, once again had no AC, then said he would go check out the problem. This time, however, he never came back. Thankfully, the weather hasn’t been as hot as a couple weeks ago, so the situation could be much worse. The weather, however, is still in the mid 90s and the office is likely in the 80s.

Usually the AC makes the office cool enough to wear pants, long sleeve shirts and even jackets, on occasion. We are not used to the warmer weather. Today, our controller said “I’m going to the bank and when I’m done there, I’ll call to see if the AC is working.” I thought he was only half joking, but he never came back to work. We used every fan we could find to try and blow the cool air from the back to the rest of the building. Instead, all it did was blow around the existing hot air and all we could do to stay cool was to make frequent trips to the back of the building.

I can live without air conditioning at my apartment, the ceiling fans and the cooler nights are making it easier to cook and sleep. I can live with the fact that the air conditioner in my car is making angry noises because I rarely drive it. The fact I live without the AC in most aspects of my life means that I really do expect it to be cool at work. When it’s warm and uncomfortable in the office, all I want to do is curl up under my desk and take a nap. At least the water cooler dispenses chilled water.

Despite the heat, today was one of the better days that I’ve had at work in the last month. I’m still not sure if things are looking up for the long run, but hopefully, if the air conditioner is fixed tomorrow, it’s a sign of better things to come.