Tough couple days here too...thanks Ron

Just when you think things can't get worse (warning here folks) they can and do.  About 4 PM we lost complete power here.  It wasn't just us, but the entire area.  They'd been warning on the news since yesterday that we were dangerously close to have outages, and I can only assume that's what happened.  We went and sat in our 95 degree pool (outdoor temp gauge read 115).  Both my dogs are absolutely miserable.  Buffy's got a farm dog mentaility, so she's not as bad as Sassy.  Sassy's quite the princess and looks at you like "can't you do something about this?"  The power came back on a few min's ago, but with only the little room AC to help, it's gonna be a long, hot night.  I'm taking the day off to meet with the AC guy, but DH has a 24 hour shift to pull.  Thanks for all the "how to keep cool" tips.   I know I'll be testing out many of them tonight.

Ron - thanks for all your tips.  I think that between you and DH, we'd be just fine right now.  Not being able to buy any parts today hasn't helped though.  He tends to think like you though that we may need a whole new unit.    The guy who worked on it a few years ago was surprised at the size (small) and asked if it was able to keep the house cool.  It had been fine but now we realize it never shut off during the hotter days.  If we can get a new unit for a relatively decent price, we'll probably go that route.

It's going to be a long, warm night here, that's for sure.

This is a little late but still ... the company that makes the Canine Cooler also makes the Chillow - a LIFESAVER for me!!  I can't sleep directly on it like some can - instead I keep it under my pillow and when a hot flash hits I simply flip the pillow and have cool relief!

Forgot the link: http://www.soothsoft.com/chillow.html

Interesting that you posted that Lauri.  I think the Chillow would be perfect for me.  I can't sleep if my pillow gets warm.  I used one of those ice packs for back pain the other night and it helped a little.  I was trying to find something locally for the dogs yesterday and couldn't think of the name that pad that cools them.  Any thoughts on that?  The dogs are as miserable as the humans.  Moving from one tiled area to another.  I feed them ice all day and frozen carrots, but it only helps momentarily.

The AC guy was out this AM and said we need a whole new unit (outdoor part only).  It'll be about $1800 and hopefully they can put it in tomorrow.  The high today was 106 versus 108 yesterday [:@]

Our neighborhood gets a lot of power outages, and they never seem to be tied to anything like heat waves or winter storme.  They just happen for no apparent reason. I used to wonder which I hated more - losing power in the summer when we couldn't use the fans but at least we had daylight or losing it in the winter when we had to run around lighting candles at 5 p.m.  Now I know ... summer is worse.

Joyce

Joyce - my friend and I had this same conversation this morning (she's from the east coast and has lived thru hurricanes) about which is worse - the heat or cold with no electricity, and we both agreed, the heat.  It's much easier to keep warm in the cold than it is to keep cool in heat like this. You can light fires, a candle, etc. to keep warm, but there's not much to do to keep cool for any length of time.  I generally prefer summer over winter, but I'm realizing the benefits to the winter weather.  If I could have cold weather but with lots of sunshine, I'd be in heaven.