When I got the text to come over and hold the flashlight for my neighbor, I knew it was a bad thing.
Earlier that particular evening, I had slipped out of the air conditioning of my home for my evening walk.
These days, after spending all day inside the commercial HVAC of the office, I don’t come home and plop down in front of the TV. Nope, I get home, change and then head out to the gym, for a walk, some pickleball or whatever. I just make sure that I get some exercise after spending the day inside the zone controlled HVAC of the office. On my walk that evening, I noticed my neighbor outside with the HVAC cabinet so I walked over. Turns out the air conditioning had gone out and he was going to try and fix it himself. For sure, this guy is great with his hands and is tops when it comes to taking care of household projects. However, heating and cooling equipment are a different animal altogether. I gently reminded him that perhaps it would be easier to simply call the HVAC technician. But he’s the sort who doesn’t really believe all that much in HVAC professionals. My HVAC equipment gets seasonal HVAC maintenance twice a year. He doesn’t believe in HVAC maintenance. And that also might be why my HVAC unit was running and his wasn’t. So I ended up going over to hold the flashlight for an hour before he finally gave up. The next morning, there was an HVAC company van in the driveway.