Bad Days Made Better by Good Food....

So, the saga of the air conditioning continues.

Alas.

Today, I woke up, feeling rather warm considering that I'd set the thermostat to 74 degrees in an attempt to keep the house cool after yesterday morning's failure of the AC and the afternoon's success in getting it started again.

I got up with a heavy heart. I let the dogs out and looked over at my air conditioning unit which sits on the side of the house. It wasn't running. Again.

More to my chagrin, I discovered the carpet around the furnace which contains the evaporation and blower system for the AC was absolutely soaked. What I'd thought was a roof leak a few weeks ago must have been a minor furnace leak. Now I have a major one.

Naturally, I was not happy. I've now had the air conditioning fix-it-man come twice to my house only to tell me that my air conditioning unit was not working because it was old. He didn't do anything to look at the furnace; he just showed me the magic switch to hit when the system tripped itself off.

Not being a completely stupid Monkeypants, I did ask him if he knew why it kept tripping but all I got was a shrug and, "I don't know. These things happen." I wasn't happy but he wasn't about to tell me more so I had to trust him.

So, this morning, I was a wee bit angry with him. Since my furnace was leaking quite a bit of water, clearly something was wrong with my system. I ended up calling the company who originally installed it and used to do serving on it for the lady who sold me this house. I found their number in the large amount of paperwork she left me. When I spoke to them, the man was a little brusque but as soon as I told him the switch was tripping AND the water was coming out, he said, 'sounds like you need a service. You've probably got a clog." I told him I'd had someone else look at it and he didn't think anything was wrong with it and the man paused for a minute and then said, "he didn't clean it for you?????" in a clearly surprised tone. Nope, he didn't clean it. Seems like he just wanted to sell me a new system and be on his way.

So, tomorrow morning, I have to stay home from work AGAIN to wait for another AC man to come take a look at my system. While I normally like the chance to not go to work, it's starting to get annoying that I'm using my precious PTO to take care of a problem that should have at least been acknowledged the first time I stayed home from work. If the repairman tomorrow does find a clog, you better believe I'm calling that first company and demanding a refund.

On the plus side, it rained almost all day which meant that it didn't get nearly as hot as usual. It's pretty humid but without the accompanying wall of heat, it's tolerable. The puppies and I have the fans going and it's not that uncomfortable. I'm hoping I say that when I try to go to sleep tonight.

The problem is when it's muggy in the house, it's hard to get too motivated to do much. I really need to clean but the house just feels messy, no matter how much I clean. I want to write but, again, my office is stuff and it's hard to work anywhere.

Rather than be a complete sloth, I decided to cook a nice dinner tonight. That usually cheers me up. I decided to try making spiced Moroccan veal patties with a cilantro-lime chutney accompanied by roasted red potatoes and zucchini. Yes, I've been watching far too much Top Chef.

It turned out nicely, I have to say. I didn't have to turn the oven on because I cooked the potatoes in the toaster oven. The veal patties were just seared in a saute pan and the chutney was cold. It was pretty delicious and a nice way to console myself about my stupid air conditioning woes.

I've never made veal before in any way, shape or form. I used to be opposed to it because, you know, it's baby cow. I know my sister who's a vegetarian would be a bit cross at the idea of it. Yet since my taste buds have become more adventurous, I'm a lot more open to what I eat. And I hate to admit it but baby cow is pretty tasty. It's juicier and slightly richer than beef. Yes, PETA, you can start insulting me now.

Speaking of PETA, (and on a random tangent), I heard once again last week how evil KFC was and how they abuse their chickens. They do cruel things like boil them alive and breed mutant chickens. At least according to PETA, Pam Anderson and the internet. Since I found this to be something that seemed a little, well, silly, I did some research. As I suspected, KFC doesn't have chicken farms. Nope. They don't have huge death camps for chickens in which they're abused, tortured and killed. Like many restaurants, KFC relies on local chicken farmers in areas where they have their restaurants to provide the meat. So unless all these farmers have a secret underground Chicken Torture Centre, I'm having a hard time believing those propaganda videos. I do believe there is chicken cruelty out there. I just don't think it's really KFC's fault. Also, I greatly enjoy KFC's coleslaw, biscuits and sometimes, when it's not too greasy, their original recipe chicken so my research was, I admit, a way of self-justification about why I continue to go there. Not that I go there very often but it's nice to be somewhat guilt-free when I go there.

But, I digress. Long story short, a bad day can always be made better with good food. My evening was greatly improved by my dinner. Of course, having two very sweet little puppies doesn't hurt, either. They've been much cuddlier since their spaying and it's rather nice to have their warm fuzzy bodies curled up next to me in the evenings.

At least when the AC works. Ah well, tomorrow's another day and another air conditioning repairman.

I'll keep you posted.

Happy Wednesday!

Groundhog Day!

We're almost halfway through the week already.That would feel more like an accomplishment except the week is moving very slowly so far.

Today was Groundhog Day. I find that to be an odd tradition. A groundhog is woken from a coma-like state just to be thrust outside to see if he sees his shadow. When he's done, he's put away again. I heard that PETA was trying to stop the tradition and replace the groundhog with a robotic one.

Now, while I really don't get the point of Punxatawny Phil, the groundhog, it's a slightly more logical tradition that getting out a robot.

Ok, when I say logical, I say logical in the way that traditions often are; They don't make a whole lot of sense as time evolves but we still hang on to them as they slowly change over time. Take Christmas, for example. Aside from the obvious Birth of Jesus celebration, Christmas is a hodgepodge of traditions from all over the world, the trees, the yule logs, Boxing Day....when you dissect it, it isn't really a cohesive picture other than the fact that it is Christmas. Same goes for Easter, really. How else can you really tie a giant Bunny that leaves colourful eggs to the death of Jesus?

What it really comes down to is that Groundhog day isn't a real holiday. We don't send cards and to me, that's a pretty good marker of whether something is worth commenorating. If Hallmark doesn't make a Happy Groundhog Day card then it's not a true holiday. Though, by now, they very well might.

In truth, it's a pretty silly holiday. It's a legend- the groundhog sees his shadow and there's six weeks of winter left. Well, it's February 2nd. Traditionally, in Pennsylvania as well as most other places that have seasons, winter generally lasts at least until April, sometimes longer. Thus, we really don't need to wake a sleeping groundhog to tell us this. Especially given that there's always a shadow, as long as there's light coming from somewhere. It might be faint but there's usually a shadow.

So, while I feel like Punxatawny Phil probably could be left to sleep for, oh, say, six weeks longer instead of being forced into the light, it doesn't mean that I support the idea of a robotic Phil-The-Groundhog.

It seems a little silly to me, to be honest. The groundhog is a figurehead, a tradition. It doesn't really mean anything. Even if the groundhog didn't see his shadow, I'm going to take a wild guess and say it's likely there's still at least six weeks of winter left.

Which means that Phil could probably retire and we'd all be ok. We could still call it Groundhog Day, I suppose. Retiring the tradition would probably be slightly more dignified than celebrating Animatronic Groundhog Day. I mean, what if the animatronic version broke down and hundreds of children were watching? Even if it's as realistic as some of those creepy Fur Real pets you see in stores, the batteries could die and when the batteries die, so does the groundhog. Score one for Peta who protected Phil from being woken up but left thousands of children scarred for life because the groundhog "died".

Ok, that's the worse case scenerio, I admit. But it could happen.

I suppose what I'm really getting at is that if we are reduced to an animatronic groundhog, it would be a little pointless. Where's the meaning in that? With Punxatawny Phil, there's the ability to see a furry little critter with somewhat-scary-teeth who sleepily stumbles around for a moment, once a year and lives to celebrate his ongoing fame. He has a personality, even if it is a slightly zombie-like one. Animatronics are not the same. Trust me, I've been to Disneyland and ridden Pirates of the Caribbean many times and even though the animatronic figure looks quite like Captain Jack Sparrow and has Johnny's Depp's character's voice, it's NOT Captain Jack Sparrow and it's just not the same.

So, in defense of Phil, I say if PETA puts enough pressure on to replace the organic creature with a robotic version, it's probably not worth Celebrating Groundhog day. An animatronic version isn't that far off from being a computer in which case, why don't we just design an animation of Phil going out from his hole, seeing his shadow and returning to slumber? It'd be about the same thing.

You probably know that, shockingly enough, Phil did see his shadow again today. Just like he seems to do every year. I don't really wait with bated breath to find out if he will. To be honest, I almost forgot it was Groundhog Day until I heard about PETA's protests. My favourite part of Groundhog Day is the Bill Murray movie. My favourite moment is where Bill Murray, on one of his repeats of the day, enthusiastically recognizes his old classmate who is very annoying with a "Ned? Ned Ryerson?" and then punches him in the face. It's not as violent as he sounds but it's the joyful glee you see in Bill Murray's eyes as he does so that just makes you laugh. Most of the movie makes you laugh. There's nothing funnier than Bill Murray when he's in one of his insane moments of sanity like he was in "Groundhog Day" and "What About Bob."

I should probably watch that movie again. If I recall, they have a real groundhog in the movie, even if it's probably substituted for a fake one during the stunt scenes. If not, I'm sure PETA would have been on the case and the scenes would been dubbed with an animatronic version.

Happy Animatronic Groundhog Day just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

Happy Wednesday!