So close yet so far

You know what they say about the best laid plans...

So today was supposed to be my big homecoming.  After staying at my parents' house for over a month (thank you, Mom and Dad), I was actually pretty excited to get back chez moi and spend some time dusting off cobwebs and getting back into my space. 

The only other big plan for today was meeting family in St. Cloud for my grandpa's birthday lunch.  As my house is "on the way," I decided that I would go up a little early with Lena and get her situated.  It was the big try-out for her as a free-range pooch in my house as I always feel terrible that she has to stay in her kennel while I am out. 

I arrived home fully expecting the air to be a bit stale.  Throughout the major heat waves we have had, I have not thought it wise to attempt to run my A/C as there would be no one staying in the house to appreciate.  Besides the spiders.

So, when I came in, one of my first steps was to get that started.  The room temperature was at 77 degrees.  Not terrible, but not livable for me.  So I set the temp to 70 and turned on the system.  It roared to life, and I was comforted by the fact that within a minute, the room temp had dropped to 76.

Once I had Lena secured with a fresh Dingo and "Rocky & Bullwinkle" playing on the DVD, I took off.

I returned home a few hours later to discover that Lena had survived the time alone, the DVD was done playing, Lena had piddled upstairs and that the room temp was 79.  All in all, nothing disturbed me quite as much as the temperature.  The system was clearly still running, and air was coming from the vents, but it did not seem to be dropping in temperature.

I decided to drop the set temperature to 65 and take Lena for a walk.  It was actually nicer outside than inside.  I suppose you are now wondering why I would not open a window.  Simple.  All of my windows face west and I have no cross ventilation.  Plus, I wanted to make sure that the A/C worked as my dog would be staying in the house all day tomorrow.

After the walk, conditions had not improved; in fact, it was 80 on the temperature gauge.  I took the next step and called my parents to see what advice they could offer.  I checked the fuse box as I had been told there was a power outage in my neighborhood last week, but that looked fine.  I checked the fan on the A/C unit, but it was moving. 

At this point, my only guess is that air is being moved and recirculated, but not cooled.  I put in a call to the local A/C repair company, but they are not open on weekends.  I then repacked my bags and took off with Lena for my parents' house once more. 

This time around, I only brought enough clothes for three days.  Hopefully the A/C guy will call tomorrow and the fix will be quick and relatively cheap/painless.  If not, I am afraid that I will be imposing on my parents for a bit longer.  While I certainly appreciate their hospitality, the amount of dusting and general cleaning needed at my house is starting to make me nervous. 

So if any of you are A/C experts or have experienced this yourself, feel free to offer advice.  I did take a look at the unit and the connected wires, but it appears that it will need someone of a higher skill level than I to remedy. 

At least this means that Lena gets to stay at the house and take her bathroom breaks off leash, so it's nice for her.  And it gives me more time to get to the grocery store so that I will have something else to drink in the house besides old juice...