We had a central air conditioner installed this past weekend. Our furnace died about three years ago. It was a year of failures. We were having a Christmas party at our house. Lots of people generating lots of body heat. No one noticed that the furnaced had ceased functioning. I was not too concerned as long as there were people to heat up the house.

People left. Damn. I had to tell Janet. She would have figured it out anyways. We live in a 100 year old house. There is no insulation in the walls, except on the third floor which we renovated when we bought the house. The temperature started dropping slowly overnight. Winter decided to rear its ugly head with one of the coldest weeks of the season. Diana lent us a space heater which was moved from room to room. The fireplace helped a bit, though fireplaces tend to draw heat out of the house.

We found this guy name Amit who owns a company called NASA Heat and Air Conditioning. I have no idea what NASA has to do with it, and how he gets away with using that name. The furnace was installed within the week restoring heat to a very beleaguered family.

Janet decided that this was the year we would install air conditioning. I am not a big fan of these things. They suck power and give you colds. People tend to keep the temperatures way too low causing a shock the system when you go outdoors. We have promised ourselves to avoid those issues.

We have just had a heat wave in Toronto. Daily temperatures in the low C30′s. The problem has been though, that night temperatures have not dropped making the situation far worse than the daily highs would indicate. The city kept issuing heat alert advising anyone with a chronic condition to stay indoors. That is me this year. We sprung for the AC.

Amit tells us that we may be disappointed with the effect of the AC on the third floor where our bedroom is. Old house, old vents badly installed. We are lucky. The third floor is cooled down sufficiently for us to sleep in peace. We open the windows which might defeat the purpose of the AC. We like open windows in the summer. So much more pleasant to sleep that way. Heat rises, and we are on the third floor. The open windows should not affect the AC any.

We have set the thermostat at C25. We will monitor things and see what the best temperature is for our comfort.

Amit warned us to not react to the heat with a keen jerk reaction. The heat will pass. We have lived in this house for 11 years without AC, why now? The house tends to heat up toward the middle of July. We have fans everywhere to cool us down. We suffer through the months of July and August before things cool down in preparation for the coming winter. So why now, Amit wants to know.

We tell him about the cancer and the need to pacify the chronic sufferer. We have this conversation on Thursday afternoon. The AC is installed on Saturday. He would have installed it on Friday, except it rained making it impossible to do any work. He is a charming and accommodating man.

The installation is done in about four hours, as promised. We sit and chat for a short while. He tells me I should look up Swami Ram Dev who teaches people breathing exercises that have produced miracle results. Do I speak Hindi? The good Swami has a show on television. Among the many languages I speak, Hindi is not one of the preferred. Look him up on the web. He is amazing.

My car wash guy wants to know how I am. Now my furnace and AC guy is trying to help me as best he can. How amazing is this world and the people within it.

I have said this before, and I will say it again. The support from all sides has been amazing. The sources of the support have been amazing as well.

I went to get the car washed the other day. Let me know if I have told this story before. This is one of those drive though joints with surly men who dry your car at the exit. You have to get out of the car and the chain mechanism in the ground drags your car through the wash. Our Mazda 3 has windshield wipers that react to water on the windshield. They come when it starts to rain and turn off by themselves. Wonderful technology. I have to always remember to switch them off.

I got out of the car. Somehow the seatbelt caught my colostomy bag and ripped it off. Needless to say, a mess, on my hands, my shirt, my pants. Pretty much everywhere. There is guy who guides you to drive the car to the chains. He also sprays the car to loosen the grime in preparation for the wash. I am always amused that they only spray the drives side. The passenger side obviously does not get as dirty.

He did not even flinch at the sight of the mess. He immediately pointed his hose to the gutter and told me to wash my hands. No fuss no muss. Much appreciated. I went inside looking for a washroom. There were two reserved for the staff only. The girl at the counter was not much help. Sorry, staff only. I lifted my shirt to show her the damage. She did not hesitate and passed me the key to the washroom. I cleaned up and went back out to talk with her. She had reacted so quickly and again without appeared grossed out by what she had seen.

I thanked her for the keys and her lack of reaction. Oh, she say, I volunteer in an old people’s home, see this all the time. How are you, she continues, looking just a bit concerned.

As I said, support comes from the most unlikely sources.

Thanks to all.