My mother won a big chunk of money on a scratch off lottery ticket last week and I am trying to convince her to invest in her central air conditioning and heating system.

She bought her mobile home a few years ago and when she moved in, her central HVAC system didn’t work.

It took all of her money to move in so she didn’t even have the HVAC system looked at. She just started using window air conditioners and space heaters, neither of which are energy efficient. Her electric bill isn’t very high, but that’s because she rarely uses the window air conditioners or space heaters because she is trying to keep her electric bill down. So, in the winter, her house is almost always cold and in the summer her house is almost always hot, with her trying to keep her electric bill down. I’ve been trying to explain to her that her central heating and air conditioning system would definitely be more comfortable and it is definitely more efficient and comfortable than what she is using now. I explained to Mom that she could get zone controlled air conditioning and heating or just close the air vents in the empty rooms. At the very least, Mom could consider ductless air conditioning and heating and close off the air vents for good. Mom told me that she hasn’t made any final decisions, but I really hope she heeds my advice. Mom deserves to be comfortable in her old age and whatever she chooses to spend her money on, I hope she makes a good decision.

Cooling workman

I’m really proud of my oldest son, even if he is hardheaded and selfish.

He seems to be outgrowing those traits, fortunately, and I really hope our relationship improves.

It all started when he graduated from high school. He really struggled to get good grades, but he did well and graduated near the top of his class. We really expected him to go to college but he was adamant about joining the workforce immediately out of high school. My son had no intentions of attending another four years plus of school. My husband was furious and my son ended up running away. I got the occasional letter that he was doing okay, but no real information until he called last night. My son is now an HVAC technician. He found an apprenticeship right out of high school and my son was able to get paid while he learned the trade. He recently got certified, and got a raise, and he finally called home because he wanted us to be proud of him. I was amazed. I always thought you had to go straight to trade school full-time to become an HVAC technician, but my son proved me wrong. You learn something new every day. My husband wasn’t so quick to be impressed, until he found out how much money HVAC technicians make. That softened his heart a little bit. And my son works for a good company that has plenty of work and offers good benefits. They say that where there is a will, there is a way, and my son found it. Like I said, I’m really proud of him.

ductwork sealing

I’ve got to get serious about cleaning this old house.

I moved into this rental a few months ago because my lease was up on my old apartment and I struggled to find something of the same quality.

The first time I checked this place out, I kept noticing that it smelled like someone had been burning incense in here just minutes before I arrived. That must have been the case. When I got the keys and drove over here alone to start cleaning, it smelled horrible inside. It smelled like a mix of sewer gas and mold. Thankfully the sewer gas odors were easy to remove. Every sink here has an air admittance valve underneath because of a lack of rooftop air vents for the plumbing system. These air admittance valves break over prolonged years of use, so simply replacing them is usually all you have to do to get back to normal again. Sadly, the mildew odor wasn’t as easy to address. At first, I couldn’t find any mold outside of the bathroom shower. After I cleaned and sanitized the tile grout, I kept noticing the same odor throughout the house. I went on the hunt for water damage but found none in the most common places, like underneath sinks or near the water heater and air conditioning unit. However, I decided to look at the ductwork after finding no mold on the air conditioner itself. Disgustingly, I found mold growing in the metal ductwork behind several of the ceiling vents throughout the house. After the fourth contaminated vent, I dropped my tools and called an HVAC cleaning company. I hope that getting the ductwork professionally cleaned will remove the nasty odors from this old house.

Washable filter

My friends all love going out to bars on the weekend to drink themselves into oblivion.

• I was always dragged to these places on Friday nights when all I wanted to do was go home, eat dinner, and go to sleep.

If I didn’t drink with them, they’d all pressure me to; and if I didn’t drink enough, I’d be pressured to drink more. At 28-years-old, this is the sort of behavior I’d expect from college students, not adults about to hit 30. I don’t know why they can’t just buy liquor and drink from home, but apparently they crave the social environment that a bar or nightclub affords. Some are out looking for people for one-night-stands, while others just want to get obliterated on alcohol. It doesn’t matter, because now they’re all forced to drink from home after the pandemic closed the bars and restaurants in my area. The health experts have said that bars and restaurants are perhaps some of the most dangerous places for viral transmission. Mask rules are almost irrelevant because everyone has to at least temporarily pull their mask aside while drinking or eating. In reality, many remove their masks altogether. They all think the viral particles hit some magical, invisible wall at a distance of 6 feet. They don’t realize that once these particles get into the air, they can float to further distances unless you have a strong central HVAC system that is constantly moving the air inside. If a bar wanted to stay open while protecting their staff and customers, getting strong air ventilation would go a long way in ensuring that sense of safety. Still, everytime an infected person exhales, more of those particles fill the air. It’s like smoking a cigarette indoors—at some point the smoke gets so thick it’s difficult to see through it.

HEPA filter

I have been driving old used cars for as long as I’ve had a drivers license. My family always had old beater cars as well, mostly because my dad was a skilled mechanic and was able to keep all of those old cars on the road much longer than they would have been otherwise. We never paid for those repairs beyond whatever parts my father had to source from either the junkyard or from discount auto parts sites on the internet. Nowadays I live on the other side of the country from my parents and can no longer benefit from my father’s skills as a mechanic. As such, my old used car seems to be getting worse by the year. I had to get a new catalytic converter for the exhaust system after replacing the cracked radiator. When I first bought it, I had to get a tire alignment to get the steering back to normal. No matter what I do to fix this car, there always seems to be something else going wrong to take its place. Currently, my car’s air conditioner doesn’t work. Air moves through the vents, but it’s either room temperature or hot depending on the weather conditions outside. I was hoping that maybe my car’s air conditioner just needed to be charged with more coolant, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, I was informed that the compressor for the air conditioner had fried. This was no simple or inexpensive fix, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford it. That meant having to drive the car through the summer season with no air conditioning inside. I had to leave my windows rolled down, and even then I still sweated like crazy.
Heating tune up

Businesses by and large have varied on their responses to the pandemic.

I live in a fairly conservative area and I remember walking into businesses during the initial lockdowns and no one was even attempting to follow county and state guidelines.

The local hardware store in my small town refused to comply with county mask ordinances, but no one in the county even wanted to enforce these rules to begin with. If I walk into a business and see that everyone is not wearing a mask, I turn around and leave. There’s always someone else with a competing business, whether it’s a hardware store, the bank, or a negligent doctors office. The cannabis dispensaries all seem to be doing their best by comparison. They all have mask rules for their retail locations and no one is allowed entry unless they comply with the rule. Still, I’d like to see them following suit with my favorite dispensary. This store not only requires masks, but they also use this high powered UV light air purification machine. It has a strong fan that pulls in air from inside the store and pushes it through a series of UV light bulbs, killing any viral particles in the process. If local businesses would simply improve their ventilation, it would go far towards mitigating health risks among their customers and employees both. Just getting better ventilation alone could reduce the rate of transmission. These companies will complain about the costs, then the federal government will shrug its shoulders while expecting all of the states to materialize the money like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. And if no deal is reached, they simply project and blame the other side.

Dial thermostat

Something my family enjoys every single year is watching the fireworks during the 4th of July.

My kids are absolutely dazzled by the fireworks exploding in the air.

We love it when it gets really dark so you can clearly see all the beautiful colors of the fireworks. In our area, they have a really impressive show and the finale is always intense. I can’t even imagine how much money they spend on these firework shows, but they are always exciting to watch. One thing I always make sure to bring is a portable heater. It’s not always chilly outside, but sometimes it does get chilly and I always like to be prepared. I can’t tell you how many times that portable heater has come in handy. It’s nice when you have the perfect heating system even when you’re outside. We also bring mosquito repellent because I hate mosquitos. My wife always hates the smell of the mosquito repellent, but we both agree that it’s better than getting eaten alive by those spawns of the devil. When the firework show is over, we usually aren’t in a rush to leave either. We will often bring snacks and we will just relax for awhile until the place clears out. I don’t enjoy driving in traffic, even if I have the perfect temperature control settings in the car. It’s always peaceful when driving home when most of the people have already gone home. Sometimes, we even pick up our own fireworks and then we have our own mini firework show when we get back home which is always fun, especially for the kids.

boiler repair

One of my wife’s favorite places to go to is the planetarium.

• She absolutely loves viewing all the beautiful stars and constellations, and she is actually very knowledgeable about all the planetary systems and everything out there.

She can even name all of the moons of Saturn! While that is impressive, the thing I enjoy about the planetarium is that it is peaceful and relaxing. The other thing that is wonderful is that they have the perfect temperature control settings. They don’t really blast the A/C system too much like they do at regular movie theatres, but the A/C is just right in my opinion. I don’t feel like I need a coat on to feel comfortable, and I could easily lay back and fall asleep because of how relaxing it happens to be. So whenever my wife talks about going to the planetarium, I’m always more than happy to go with her. Of course, we also love to go stargazing too and we have a very nice telescope. She’s usually the one schooling me about the constellations and what we are actually looking at. She can even tell me the stories about the constellations and she makes it sound so exciting. Of course when we go stargazing, I always make sure we bring a portable heater along because it gets really chilly sometimes during those nights. The planetarium is always the best because we never have to worry about it being too hot or too cold, but I have to admit, you can’t beat the real thing when you are looking directly out into space.

Air conditioner tune-up

Recently my wife has been taking hot yoga classes. I honestly didn’t know anything about it, I just thought it was some type of advanced yoga that they were doing. Well, it turns out that pretty much all yoga is advanced from what I can see. My wife asked me to come to her hot yoga class and I had a real hard time. The thing that was most challenging for me other than the crazy positions you have to achieve was the pumped up heating system. The temperature control settings in the studio were absolutely ridiculous, but that’s why they call it hot yoga. You are supposed to sweat while doing this yoga. I guess the sweating helps relieve your body of all the toxins and everything and it’s supposed to make you feel more energized and pure. I don’t know about being energized though, I was feeling entirely exhausted and sweating profusely. I couldn’t achieve even half of the poses that they were doing in this hot yoga class, but my wife made it all look pretty easy. She said if I do the yoga classes with her regularly, I would be able to do it all too soon enough. Her thinking that I’m going to continue to do these hot yoga classes gives me high anxiety. I can’t even deal with the cooling system failing in the middle of the hot season, and that’s what hot yoga classes feel like! You feel like you are roasting to death and it’s not a very good feeling. I guess it’s a good way to lose weight though by cranking up the heating system like that while exercising.

air conditioning business

Recently, I decided to take my family to visit my sister and her family when they bought a new house. They have an amazing new home with 35 acres of land and the house is huge. They have a little lake in the front of the house and the place is entirely excluded and private. I have to admit, I am a little bit jealous of their house. They have fireplaces all throughout the household and the whole house is equipped with radiant heated floors. I can’t believe they have such a fancy place, but they do operate their own million dollar business that has been incredibly successful and lucrative. I hope that one of these days, I can achieve such success, but in the meantime, I just wanted to have a good time. We actually went four-wheeling around the property and it was such a great time. The kids all played together and they had a good time. We all even went to skip rocks across the lake. We talked about going swimming, but it was honestly a little too nippy for that. When the sun started to go down, we all went inside the house to enjoy the radiant heated floors. Also we were able to warm up in front of one of the fireplaces and it was so cozy and relaxing. I love the way their home is decorated, and I love relaxing in front of the fireplace like that. We even got some hot cocoa that my sister made for us, and it was absolutely wonderful.

a/c installation