Jillian, for her general contentedness (at least compared to Wesley) is a nightmare to sleep next too. She makes more noises than anything that small should. The only thing I can think of that comes close is a puppy. How when they sleep they squeak and snort. Jillian does this in spades. In addition to squeaking and snorting she also squeals, coughs, whistles, snuffles, snores, gurgles, mews, sneezes, yelps, yips, and generally breathes loudly. She has that kind of mucusy breathing you find in Pugs, with their snorting and sneezing. During the day she seems mostly quiet, but at night it is quite the ruckus. Last night we were trying to decide if one or both of us would leave the room to sleep. Of course, last night she didn’t feel much like sleeping at all so I got to take the 2:30a-4a shift. We bounced, sang songs, shooshed, and swayed. I didn’t get much sleep but I feel much closer to her than I have since she was born. This is the first time I really felt like I was able to sooth her and help Amber get some sleep. I’m sure I’ll get more opportunities for sleepless nights.
The mosquitos in our backyard are simply terrible. They are fast, aggressive and plentiful. The neighbors say they haven’t ever seen them so bad. I suppose it is because of all the rain we had this year. The mosquitos are different than the ones back home. Unlike most things in Texas, they aren’t larger. They are simply much more aggressive, yet flighty. They are hard to smack, because even while sucking you dry they’ll take off if you make a swing at them. There are so many that you can literally get covered, especially any exposed skin. Wesley spends a good chunk of his time outdoors whacking his arms and legs and yelling “SHEW!”. I’ve done what I can: kept the grass mowed, removed standing water, cleaned gutters, etc. But so far, nothing has really worked. So in keeping with US government policy I’ve made a threat meter. It doesn’t solve the problem, but it does make you scared. The terrorist threat level equivalents are in parenthesis.
Level 1 - Jillian (Green): No mosquitos. Go outside and play. Even Jillian is allowed outside to enjoy the warm evenings. [Note: We'll probably never see this one]]
Level 2 – Amber (Yellow): Some mosquitos, but not many. Amber will come outside for more than 30 seconds. [Note: We've never actually seen this one, but may some day. Sometimes Amber ignores the threat level and comes out anyway]
Level 3 – Wesley (Orange): Lots of mosquitos. The average person runs indoors or for the deet. Wesley is tough and determined so he stays outside. Much shewing occurs. [Note: Fairly common level in midday and on deck.]
Level 4 – Joshua (Red): Good God, lots of mosquitos. Only Joshua will go or remain outside. Even then it is for short periods, usually to do chores. Mosquitos cover you like bark on trees, only bitier. [Note: Most evenings and almost all the time in the grass. Westnile is almost imminent]
This morning, after a hot humid night, I pulled the inside coil apart and saw a solid block of hair, lint, and nasty blocking the coil. It looked like one of those dryer filters where you pull it out and think “Huh, I could make a sweater out of that”. I started pulling it apart by hand, but it was taking too long and the dust was just too nasty to keep breathing in. I ran to Home Depot and picked up some wire brushes and dust masks among other things.
Now a normal person, in the Texas summer heat, would have called a HVAC company to come out and fix the problem. Now, I’m clearly not a normal person. First, I wanted to figure it out myself. So I searched, read, poked, disassembled, speculated, and tested. Second, I’m cheap. It is a weekend and I didn’t want to pay extra fees to get prompt service. Plus, depending on the problem I could fix it myself. Otherwise, we could wait it out. At least I would have something to do (poking, testing, etc) while the weekend melted into a weekday.
So four to five hours of hand cleaning and I got the thing cleaned up. I pulled out two ounces of dust/lint. Normally the tech would have pumped out the freon, pulled the coil, cleaned it in acid (as I understand) and reinstalled. All in all this is probably better, but costs several hundred dollars. And as I’ve mentioned I’m cheap (frugal if you prefer, but cheap is easier to say).
So now we are set at 78F (cheap again, it costs about 6% more for every degree you go down below 78%). Plus compared to the sticky 93F it was today it feels pretty good. I think it hit about 88F in the house. We actually had the windows open for a time this morning. Now we have been running the A/C for about seven hours without any icing up either inside or out. I did clean the outside coil as well, though it was in far better shape.
The picture on the top is the before. Solidly blocked. The picture on the bottom is just before I had finished. Same part of the coil, only now you can clearly see that it is actually made of metal.
A/C unit froze up today. Not good. We noticed that the temp was heating up in the house and that the A/C unit wasn’t running. I flipped the breaker and it kicked back on, but when I went outside to look at the coil and condenser iand the copper pipe entering the coil was really iced up. The whole pipe had about 1-2″ of ice on it. It was only set to 75F and it was only about 88F outside. I thought the inside portion was making a bit of noise last night. Now I’m worried. Gonna get hot in here.
I’m doing research now as I let the ice melt. I’m finding mixed info online about it. Wish I could get a hold of my Dad. But he hasn’t got a home phone, no internet access, and mediocre (at best) cell coverage. So its now 82F in here. I’ll bet it hits 95F inside.
The ceiling fans are spinning so fast we might just take off. Updates to come, I’m sure.
Update 5:20pm: Both coils are deiced (the inside one was a brick of ice). It got up to 86F in the house (downstairs, upstairs is hotter). I’ve got the A/C running again and it is cooling okay right now. We are down to 83F after a half hour or so. I think the inside coil is icing again, but can’t really tell with the panel on. The install leaves something to be desired. The air traveling over the inside coil and to the ducts travels through, not sheet metal, but cardboard and a ton of metalized tape. I’m pretty sure it isn’t code. I had to cut it to get the panel off. Right now I’ve got a 22 degree difference between intake and air supply duct, that is supposed to be right. More details here:
Update 6:10pm: Added photos. 82F inside.