Gllen has been really excited about a new hoodie arriving in the mail this week. It's his "Grinding Sweater" as he calls it. He likes to put up his hood and zone out on code. As of yesterday, it still hadn't arrived... Then, this afternoon, I got this IM:
gllen: got my hoodie
it's awesome
but wish it was not so hot
me: I am not going to be convinced to turn on the air conditioner because you want to wear a hoodie in the summer.
We are in serious tropical heat wave right now. Walking outside is like wading through soup. It's been downright miserable.
Unless you're Gllen...
A few weeks ago, on a balmy 75 degree night, Gllen decided he was hot and wanted to turn the AC on. A gentle breeze was drifting through the house and I told him that I didn't think we needed to, and I would rather save money and have it off.
He stormed off in a huff.
A few moments later, I noticed that Gllen was walking back and forth from his office to the kitchen a lot. I got up to investigate and almost ran into him as he came out of his office carrying a bunch of computer equipment, sweat dripping from his brow and a snarl upon his lips.
I sidestepped quickly and he moved past me with the brevity of the enraged. He was carrying all of his office down to the basement.
I didn't comment, and in fact, stayed out of his way until he was completed and had finally stopped shuffling around down in his new lair. Finally, I dared to set a toe into his territory.
As I rounded the corner to view his new set-up, he grinned at me and cheerfully said, "Hi, Gerf!"
So, he's been happily abiding in the basement for the summer, and probably through the winter. He's completely oblivious to the outside temperature, wears a sweatshirt every day and I've even caught him blowing warm air into his hands occasionally.
I see less of him, but, he's a lot happier when I do catch him. It's amazing to remember the old apartment and the dance of the air conditioners, servers and power surges.
Today is a little soupy out, so I decided it would be the day to try out our central air... since we purchased the home in December, we had no way of knowing if the AC worked or not. We had to have faith that the previous owner hadn't misled us....
When I approached Gllen, I casually threw it out there, "Hey do you want to try out the AC today?" He nodded, still looking at his computer. "Ok," I responded, "You go shut windows."
It was only then that he looked up from his monitors with eagerness and a grin from ear to ear. "Really?!" I smiled back.
I fired up the unit from the control panel in the hallway. After a few moments, cool air started pouring through the vents. Gllen and I visited each room and felt the vents and danced with excitement.
Best decision ever. I am so glad we found a house with central air. I am now looking forward to a summer of happy Gllen, instead of sweaty "don't touch me" snarly Gllen.
And I got lots of hugs today.
