Misadventures in Home Maintenance

First of all, let me say that this crap, Tylenol Nighttime Severe Cold and Flu, does not work. I took it at 9:37pm; by 11:30am, I was wide awake with a raging sore throat. Stick to Nyquil. There’s a reason why it’s the nighttime sniffling, sneezing, aching, stuffy head, fever, sleep better to feel better medicine (yes, I just did that from memory).

I tossed and turned, managing to get a few more drops of sleep (never you mind that my throat seemed to be sewing itself up just for the joy of it). I kept on hearing something akin to raindrops in my sleep, accented by a buzzing sound. Water? Dropping? Oh no! Maybe I was about to see Samara from The Ring! I was marked for death because of that stupid video! Oh no! I opened my eyes to see if I’d see the hideous ghost there (and put me out of my throat misery), but all I saw was darkness, per usual. Besides, it’s been more than a week.

I was once again wide awake at 2:50am. As I attempted to drift back to sleep, I noticed a little something.

Well, a big something: A big whirring sound coming right outside my window.

Turning on my light (I’m telling you, I know all the sounds the house makes, and this was not normal), I proceeded to notice that a tube that runs from the air conditioner to some big gray box (did I not say this was a midadventure in home maintenance?) is dripping water. Onto my carpet, my desk, my clothes I left folded on my sofa, onto the bare floor. Not good sprang to mind immediately. I feel the line. It’s ice cold.

So this is what I had heard in my half sleep.

The noise is still coming from outside my window. I open my window. It’s the A/C unit, but something’s not kicking on; there’s no air flowing from our vents or reigsters. I go upstairs to my computer and proceed to look stuff up, unsure if whether I should alert the family.

I fail to find anything of use. The noise is still going. It’s now 3:40am. My throat is killing me. I debate whether or not to trip the A/C circuits so at least the noise shuts off and maybe the line will unfreeze. While debating, my older brother awakens and asks what the God awful noise is.

I explain all that I’ve done in the past hour (which isn’t much). He fiddles around the the thermostat, gets the A/C to flow, but he cannot get it to stop. I ask if we should trip the circuits. He decides it’s best to wake the maintenance man himself, Mr. Dad.

We do. Dad at first mumbles at us to turn the damn A/C off, but gets up when we explain that we can’t. After some discussion and after observing the drippage in my room, Dad trips the circuits to shut off the A/C. There’s no other way around it, and the unit should be fine. We are sans A/C on a day when it’s supposed to get back up to 85 degrees (of course).

I got enough sleep thanks to going to bed early, but this damn throat still wants to close up on itself.