personal

Something in the air

I woke up this morning around 8 o’clock and called the air conditioner repair service I’d scheduled for today, as I’d been told to, in order to get a two-hour estimate on when they’d be arriving. That estimate turned out to be between 8 and 10, and they were here well before 9 and gone not too long after. They took the air conditioner unit with them, which means we’re in for a handful of warmish days (at least in part of the house) and leaving fans on for the dog. But a broken condenser blade — which is apparently the problem — isn’t going to fix itself, not in this heat.

Of course, later in the day, the first repair service I’d called, and who I’d booked for next Tuesday (but planned to cancel) — they showed up too. Sorry, fellas, but your head office told you the wrong date, and there’s nothing left here for you to repair. My cup runneth over with air conditioner repairmen. And on today of all days: air conditioning’s 110th birthday!

Also showing up at the door today: a Verizon repairmen, here to fix the phone lines yet again. We had the latest of many service appointments last week, but that guy had given me no reason to suspect anyone else was actually coming back. Today’s guy told me essentially the same thing as everybody else, that Verizon is not going to re-invest in the copper lines and is not going to repair them. They want all of their customers on FIOS, whether their customers want it or not. (It’s my parents’ decision ultimately, but FIOS doesn’t have any better reputation for speed, price, or availability.)

To this repair guy’s credit, though, he was here in the backyard and up the block for most of the afternoon, well into the early evening, and the phone does seem to be sounding slightly better, less crackly and impossible to hear anything. That may only last until the next big rainstorm, if that long, but we’ll see.

It’s actually kind of amazing that I got any work done today. If only I was working on a textbook for phone and air conditioner repair instead of social psychology. I might have more luck finding reviewers.

Again with the Monday!

I didn’t sleep too great last night. Which is weird, because you’d think after thirty-something years of nightly practice, I’d have gotten the hang of it.

It felt very much like a Monday from the get-go, a feeling that hasn’t let up all day. I’m working from home tomorrow, which is good, because the air conditioner downstairs is busted and somebody’s coming to (hopefully) repair it. I can also keep an eye on the dog, who usually spends his days in the kitchen, and make sure he doesn’t overheat.

Right now, though, I’m just enjoying the fact that the air conditioner in my bedroom is not busted. I grow less enamored of summer with each sweaty day.

Saturday

It was a quiet day, spent mostly hanging around the house. I went food shopping in the morning, then over lunch somehow wandered into the genuinely terrible movie Larry Crowne on cable. It’s actually a remarkable movie in a way; despite being genuinely bad on most every level, there’s still something pleasant and watchable about it. A friend over Twitter described it, quite rightly, as a sort of “banal coma,” and Keith Phipps of the AV Club writes:

Above all, the film offers a neat lesson in the pros and cons of movie stars, whose presence can elevate even the slimmest material with sheer charisma, then drag it back down when that charisma gets overtaxed. Hanks and co-star Julia Roberts are born stars—or at least extremely practiced ones—which serves them well here until it becomes apparent that the film has little going for it beyond their personal appeal.

Later in the day, though, I watched the considerably better — the surprisingly better, actually — Fright Night remake. It’s not brilliant or anything, but then again, neither was the original. This one’s probably scarier, all around, and definitely less campy. Like I said, it’s surprisingly not at all bad.

Then again, I’m a guy who willingly watched more than half of Larry Crowne, so what do I know?

Thursday

For whatever reason, this seems to be the week of authors visiting our office. We had a nice lunch — the book’s commissioning editor, our sales manager, the author, and me — and then we were joined later by two members of our marketing team. (My own boss, who likely would have joined us, is currently out of the office.) And our discussions went well, I think.

Though I’m still glad tomorrow’s Friday.