When I took apart my first air conditioner, I didn’t know that I was taking a glimpse into my future.
My father was the handyman for a local hotel at the time, and I would spend a lot of time at work with him.
We didn’t have money for a sitter ,or day care, so after school I just went to the hotel with him and carried his tools around. Sometimes I got to watch cartoons in the room as he did his repairs, so overall it wasn’t too bad. One of the tasks he hated the most was working on the air conditioners in the rooms, because it seemed like they broke down all the time. One day I told my dad that the maids should check the air filters in the AC units whenever they cleaned a room. He asked me why I said that, and I replied that the main cause of the air conditioners overheating was due to clogged up air filters. If the maids checked and changed the air filters regularly, then there wouldn’t be so much building up dust and dirt, and there would be fewer AC problems. My dad passed the air filter idea on to the management, who implemented it and gave my dad a raise! Since the air filter idea had been mine, he took me out for ice cream, and told me that he wanted to start teaching me a lot more about HVAC systems. He knew I was smart, and that learning the HVAC trade would give me a good future.