AC and various topics

The AC replacement is a collaborative effort between us doing the demolition and other labor (wiring, drywalling) required to raise the height of our hall ceiling, and the contractor, Liberty Air, who's doing only the air conditioning and insulation related tasks. It's gone surprisingly well, despite some frayed nerves from working in the heat and general YUK that comes from living in a mess where this ancient insulation and decades old dust and various pest remnants is blowing through my house. I know we've had raccoons and rats during my tenure here.. who knows what else made its home up there. Tomorrow they should be able to finish the wiring and plumbing and ducting to have it all hooked up. We won't fire it up though, until the hall ceiling is in place, so as not to suck all that nastiness above into the nice clean ducts. The new unit is slightly smaller than the vintage '82 unit it replaced, but the outdoor unit is enormous. All aluminum, no copper joints, so high efficiency ratings. One, maybe two more nights with window units. Here's a few photo galleries:

Day One





Day Two

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Tomatoes: I've given up. Only the cherry tomatoes have produced, and not very well at that. I'm not sure if they had too much sun or too little sun, or too little water, or what. We had 2 good tomatoes for a capri salad, and that was it. Maybe next year.

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Neighborhood clinic: Chaz and I attended a neighborhood meeting for "Northpark Estates", one of the border neighborhoods of the proposed clinic. The opposition to the clinic is wisely focusing on the zoning issue. We've been pro-clinic and have contacted the county to that effect. The local NPR affiliate station, KUT has called Chaz to interview him as part of a story on the dust-up. We remain astounded that people don't realize that they're within a c*nt hair of being indigent and without health care themselves. This month GM cut retiree benefits and the retirees in these neighborhoods think that it can't happen to them. It's nuts. I'm having a hard enough time planning for retirement with rising fuel costs; I can't imagine being an aging boomer on fixed income and seeing energy costs cut deeper and deeper into the money I would use for health care or housing. This is a train wreck in slow motion.