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[snowystingray]

Generally speaking, I enjoy having my computer area in the more remote reaches of our home. A garage in its early days before being converted to a rec room back in, err, the 70s or so, this room is where I spend about 90% of my waking hours when I'm at home. In addition to playing host to my desk, it also has the laundry area, the only chore in which I take true delight (I actually had a lengthy conversation with my boss over lunch yesterday about the therapeutic qualities of folding bedsheets); the exercise equipment, which I not-so-secretly haaaate and resent but still try to utilize on a regular basis; the second TiVo, which I usually dominate as to not get reprimanded for recording oodles of ridiculous programming on the living room television. Because it's on the other side of the house from everyone else, I don't have to worry about waking anybody up when I stay up late watching TV/movies. I've managed to create quite a comfortable little niche for myself. Until... NOW! (Oh, come on, you knew this story couldn't have a happy ending!)

I came home from work yesterday to discover that the ancient relic of an air conditioner out here (separate from the rest of the house back from its garage period) has ceased to function. In the middle of summer. In the middle of Florida. In the middle of Swampy Sticky Humidity Land. Joy.

I mean, okay. I know life without air conditioning is possible. Theoretically, anyway. Maybe. So I've heard. Sigh.

I feel like this is some sort of karmic payback for my antisocial tendencies or something. "Oh ho, Bethany! So you think you can avoid all human contact? Even from your own family in your own home? I will soon have you crawling back for the sweet, sweet release of cool, refreshing air flow."

However, I am not so easily had. To compensate, I've got an area fan running full blast about a foot from my face (already have both ceiling fans on). It's been working pretty well, as long as I don't move to far away from my computer (which, ha, who am I kidding -- why would I ever be tempted to do that?); except because it's positioned around the side of my desk right next to the CPU, every time I walk back into the room I just hear this loud, whirring WHOOOOSHING sound coming from my computer and have a split second panic where I think my computer fan is going to explode before I remember that, oh yeah. It's coming from the fan that I want to be running on high.

Fandom stuff that I've been valiantly keeping up with despite the heat:
-New Middleman! My usual viewing buddy, my sister, is on vacation for the next few weeks, so I instead wrangled my mom and brother into watching with me. And, well, word to the wise: never watch TV with my family.
Mom: Ooh, look, it's Chrissy!
Brother: Who?
Me: You know... spawn of the Seavers!
Brother: Uhhh??
Me and Mom: *harmonizing* Show me that smile again [ooooh show me that smiiiile!!]... Don't waste another MIIIINUTE on your cryin'!
Also, gosh, I can't even measure how many warm fuzzies I got from this episode. Guuuys they make me so happy that it almost makes me sad (don't get canceled, show!). Also? Best line ever? "Muscle memory, BITCH!" (Mom: Is this show on ABC Family??! Me: Ohhh yeah. Can ya dig it?)
-SG-1! Which... I have somehow started watching. Er. Yeah, I know. I think I blame the fact that there's no new SGA this week, coupled with the S1 marathon of SG-1 on SciFi tomorrow. What better time to catch up, I ask myself? Really, though, I feel like this is the sort of show that I'd rather watch in random, out-of-order spurts because I think if I sat down and tried to watch it all straight through from start to finish I'd get too bogged down by 214 episodes sweet Mary mother of God. Plus, even from my smattering of episodes viewed over the past few months, I already lovelovelove Jonas Quinn and have adopted him as my Official Gay Boyfriend and I don't think I could sit through five whole seasons waiting for him to show up. That said, I feel like I need at least some foundation of show mythology so I can vaguely puzzle out what's happening in any given episode I happen to flip through. I've already gotten pretty good at properly placing them in the show's chronology based on opening credits, Amanda Tapping's hair, etc., but I still do a lot of bzzuhwuhhuh? over Goa'uld/Ori/Anubis/whaaat I have no idea. So backstory first, Jonas Quinn later!

ETA: Oh, and the beautiful irony about being stuck in the sweltering heat? I think I'm starting to get a cold. *cough cough*

Comments

[jume.livejournal.com]

my friend and her sister used to have their bedrooms in a converted garage and all they had were fans :| Needless to say, we didn't spend much time in there during the day.

Now, she and her other sister share a converted enclosed porch!

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a real upgrade for your friend, ha. XD My mom has actually talked about turning this room into a porch... it has some serious roof leakage issues that we've had fixed several times but, at this point, seem to basically boil down to, "Either replace the roof or get used to it leaking." So my mom's solution is just make it a porch and then nobody will care! Good problem solving, there, Mom. ;)

[stellypippin.livejournal.com]

How cool that you have your own little heaven! Wish I had that in my house that wasn't just my bedroom, lol

But hope you don't get too hot in Florida, although I don't mind so much the humidity over there, unlike over here where it's a dry, desert heat, lol

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

Hee, I was just talking to arcadiaego about the dry vs. humid heat debate, and how people on each side always think that the other has it better! I'll admit that I do my fair share of whining about how much worse the humidity makes it... but, really, I guess it's just more of a different sort of climate than "better" or "worse". I actually used to live out in California when I was younger, so I do understand the absurdity of, "Oh, but don't worry -- it's a dry heat!" when it's like 100F outside. Oh, yeah, what a comfort. *eyeroll* My grandmother still lives out in Orange County, though, and she's never had an air conditioner in her home... which I thought was completely bonkers and incomprehensible until I stayed with her for a few weeks over the summer. While obviously the heat is uncomfortable during parts of the day, I think in some ways it feels more manageable because without as much humidity it's, like... truer to the actual temperature, you know? So when you're out of the sun -- either in the shade or after dark -- and you'd assume that it'd be cooler without all of that burning heat of direct exposure? It actually is cooler! Whereas here it's like... the warm gooey air... spreading everywhere... augh. And the temperature totally lies; our "feels like" is generally about 10F higher than the actual temperature. Of course, the lingering warm air is not without its perks; while staying with my grandmother, I remember I would always have to pull on a jacket and zip up warm the second we were out anywhere as it started to get dark. So it's like carefree summertime wanderings of the beach... and I start freezing because I'm a big ol' baby who whines about how hot it is but then dies of cold as soon as it drops below 70F. :P Talk about being ultra-climitized, yeesh.

(...And, yes, I did just waste an entire comment analyzing summer temperature trends.)

[stellypippin.livejournal.com]

LOL - you're better than any weather forecaster I've ever seen, lol