Turn on the A/C!

Happy new year, everyone! Brace yourselves for an inevitable rant about the proper pronunciation of our current year (It's Twenty-Thirteen, people) that I'm sure I'll write eventually.

Two days ago, with temperatures wavering around in the teens, a customer called our family business to tell us that they were FREEZING and their furnace wasn't operating properly. The house had cooled to 58 degrees. We quickly scheduled an appointment to repair their furnace. On that very same day, a company called to inform us that their computer server room was 93 degrees. This company is a long-time customer of ours, and since we had installed the air conditioner for their server room, we ran out to check on it. Unfortunately the little Sanyo mini-split (a cross between a window unit and a whole-house air conditioner) had given up the ghost and needed to be replaced.

That's where I found myself today, standing 25 feet above the ground on a wind-whipped rooftop, changing an air conditioner. In January.

As my brother-in-law Konrad likes to joke, certain Iowa days are "colder than a tin toilet seat on the shady side of an iceberg." Thankfully today wasn't quite worthy of that title. The sun shone down and the temperature stayed around 28 degrees. Had it not been for some stiff winds, it might have been downright pleasant.

The company had a forklift that they graciously let us use to hoist the new air conditioner and all our tools up to the roof.

 

This isn't the exact forklift we used, but one similar. That is just a photo from the internet, as evidenced by green trees and snow-free ground. 

The forklift was expertly operated by Shelby, who has gained some forklift experience in different ventures of his work career. When the forklift operator handed the controls over to us, he asked if any of us knew how to drive one. Shebs immediately said "Yep! I know how." After the operator left, Shelby confessed that he has only operated forklifts like this: 

But he was confident that there wouldn't be much difference. He ended up being right, lifting us to the precise spot on the roof with style. The forklift had a work platform attached to it, which we filled with tools, parts, the air conditioner, and ourselves. The platform had guardrails on it, which made it feel like a giant crib that you ride in.

This platform was perched right beside the slanted roof edge, and saved my VERY LIFE when I started to slip down the icy metal roofing. In gratitude, I very nearly decided to name my first child "Safety Platform Graber". I recanted such thoughts when only an hour later, the platform tried to murder me by allowing the side gate to swing open when I backed into it. At that moment I was suspended 23 feet above a set of train tracks. Don't tell OSHA that I had failed to examine the environment, including but not limited to safety equipment, ladders, guardrails, and warning signs. 

While dad and I froze our collective buns on the roof, Shelby and Stan poured literal and figurative sweat indoors. We don't work on Sanyo mini-splits (which look a lot like hotel room air conditioners) very often, and they're compact and complex. Because of this, the installation was a bit tricky, not at all helped by the 90-degree server room. To imagine this, first find a small room/large closet in your home. Fill 80% of the room with high-power computer processors. If you don't have processors handy, you can substitute them with a bread-making kiln or a fire-breathing dragon. Once you have sufficiently roasted the closet, carry the youngest child of your home above your head and mount him/her to the wall. Cover your fingers in grease and refrain from making any marks or smudges on the child, who just happens to be wearing all-white clothing. 

The top piece, the coil/air handler, hangs on the wall inside and spews cold air. The bottom piece, the condenser/compressor, sits outside and spews warm air. (All air conditioners do this, including window units.) This was refreshing to all parties involved, bringing comfort to Shelby and Stan and causing Dad to exclaim that he has never, in his 35 years of installing air conditioners, turned one on to warm himself up. 

I truly love the variety of my line of work. I get to meet friends, customers and strangers (technically there is no such thing as a stranger, only potential customers) on a regular basis, I get to help solve problems while providing comfort. 

Reading what I've just written, I now see that my job description is alarmingly similar to that of someone working in a rest home.  

Ah well. Another day, another dollar. I'm excited to see what this new year brings by way of surprising work.