My Ice Cubes Hero

It's hot in South Florida. Not that it isn't hot pretty much year round here, but June is a sweltering month. I know the rest of the country pants in August, but here, by August we're caught in such a whirlwind of what's coming off the coast of Africa in the form of low pressure systems, it's hard not to be thankful for just plain summer days. But in June, it's hot.

So you can imagine how disappointed we were when the freon in my very old car breathed it's last. Rob checked in on how much the old coolant costs and we both bit our bottom lips and said, "Well, at least there's the Saturn." Then the day came when the a/c in the Saturn seemed a little warm. It huffed a couple more weeks and then it was gone. Rob investigated and discovered that the problem was equipment oriented this time. So here we were with two cars lacking a/c and a baby that on occassion actually had to leave the house. And when he did, his soft baby hair stuck the the back of his head in sweaty ringlets.

We are determined not to increase our debts, but this was a problem that could not wait for our ship to come in. I didn't even want to think about what an a/c repair was going to cost us. Rob, the optimist, was thinking about how to fix it...how he would fix it. A new compressor came from e-bay, another strange shaped piece from the discount auto store, several cans of coolant, a noisy, borrowed thing-a-ma-jig to blow all the air out. He worked all weekend (including a Friday) and told me how when he was finished ice cubes would come flying out of the vents. He put everything together and was covered in black streaks as he watched the meat thermometer stuck in the vent. The temperature remained steady - nearly 120 degrees.

You'd think he'd be discouraged, but then maybe you don't know Rob. He set back to work and redid some of the work he'd just done and this time it worked! The thermometer got down to 39 degrees. It was so cold I had to turn the vent off. We laughed at how the baby would think he was in the wrong car. But two days later the temperature went back up.

So, he redid some of the work again - still optimisticly talking about the ice cubes I'd see. It's been a week since he fixed it. I'd forgotten how amazing air conditioning feels! I am so proud of him!

It is kind of funny to be married to such a optimist. It really highlights my own negativity. Actually I never thought of myself as a negative person, but compared to Rob...in a way, there are times it is annoying for some one to be so positive. There are times I want to wallow in my own negative feelings, but Rob's optimism is why our car is cold on hot June days like today.