Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Fantastic day!
Yeah, yeah, another month has gone by. What can I say? It has been way too busy at work. It’s springtime here, and a lot of projects are on the go, and a lot of Boards really just expect that I can be at their beck and call, which is actually NOT the case. I have had to disabuse a lot of people of a lot of notions lately.
It is one fantastic day out there today. I’m in my office, of course, where it’s all air-conditioned and cool (read: unpleasant, because I’m wearing summer clothing, having dug it out of the closet after work yesterday, fending off tears of shame for having gained probably another five or ten pounds since last summer…), but it looks nice out. It’s sunny. People keep saying how warm it is, and how bright it is. I personally can’t wait to get outside. I know a lot of people like their air conditioning this time of year, and can’t wait to get it all turned-on and running so they can negate the pleasant effects of actual sun-produced warmth. I love summer. I live all year for the few months when I don’t have to struggle to stay warm. I have more energy and feel better when it’s nice out. I’m less tired. I can actually relax.
Rob, however, is not this way. Rob is one of these air conditioner people. Rob doesn’t like to be too warm. He says he has no way of cooling off, and is very uncomfortable. I understand discomfort – I have to live with it pretty much all year round. I am uncomfortable when I am cold. Sure, his argument is that I can put on a sweater and use a blanket, and he’s been very good about getting me electric blankets and heating pads and even the coolest heated mattress pad, that you can turn on one side, but leave the other off, because finally someone realized that not everyone can stand the same amount of heat being generated beneath them when they sleep… So I have all sorts of accessories that I can use to warm myself up. Rob has no way of cooling himself when he gets too warm.
The Fennec Fox, a desert fox, uses his very large ears as a cooling tool – he pumps blood through his ears, which cools his blood to be returned to his body a few degrees cooler (and they’re handy finding little prey in the desert). Rob has no such ears. The dogs pant rapidly when it gets warm, cooling the air they intake by approximately 25%, and they sweat a small amount through the pads on their feet. Rob doesn’t pant, either. Polar bears lie on the ice and submerge themselves in arctic waters. Rob doesn’t have a pool. Cats lick their fur, and when their saliva evaporates, they are cooled. Rob doesn’t lick his arms or legs, and I’m not too sure he could reach his back to lick that. Camels, with their long necks, long legs and tails radiate better because of their larger, more exposed surface area. Rob has a smaller surface area, comparatively (which is probably a good thing).
Rob has no physical way of cooling himself. To me, this suggests a problem. Either he’s more adapted to living somewhere colder than here, or there is something wrong with his internal cooling system. Even in winter, when it is cold out, he is often “too warm”. Of course, by the same token, I am always cold. When it’s +30C outside, I’m pretty happy because I can just sit outside and not be cold. Even down around, say, +25C, I’m fairly comfortable. Anything cooler than that, and I’m going to need a sweater, or a jacket, or a one-piece fleece and snowsuit when it gets really cold.
Yesterday afternoon and in to the evening, I was finally comfortable enough to wear shorts and a sleeveless top. I was so happy! It was fantastic! I was outside, moving around through the air (which is usually cool, but it wasn’t yesterday) and I wasn’t cold. Rob was outside, too, sweating up a storm, and he wasn’t comfortable at all. I don’t really understand this at all. We’re both people, supposedly with the same “set point” temperature (98.6F). How can I be cold when he is overheated? How can he be dangerously overheated when I am merely comfortable?
We measured our temperatures at bedtime for a while in the winter. His was consistently higher than mine. Mine was right around the right mark, while his was several points higher, even up to a degree or two. I have no idea how to help him. When he puts the fan on, I get cold. I mean, I’ll survive, I won’t die or anything, but I get a sore throat overnight. Anyone with cooling ideas should comment to me as soon as possible, because it’s nice out again today, and I’m not looking forward to having the house air-conditioned!!
***
More trailer woes… After having wrangled with the dealership about our trailer order, and then having a resolution that I could live with, the dealership has now cancelled our order entirely.
Rob wrote an e-mail to the manufacturer asking whether they could confirm what options were on our trailer order – like extra insulation, heated/enclosed water tanks, colour, etc. The manufacturer customer service people passed his e-mail on to the local rep, who responded and told him that the colour was all set. No mention of anything else. However, he also sent, by fax, a copy of Rob’s e-mail to the dealership. The general manager snapped. He called Rob up and told him there was no way he’d continue to deal with us if we were going to be this picky. He told Rob to just come and get our deposit back, and that he wouldn’t sell us a trailer.
Man. I called the guy back, to see if I could do damage control. He wouldn’t answer my calls, so I called the local rep to see what he could do. He said he’d talk to the guy and get him calmed down… and when I finally talked to the manager the next day, he was still super-pissed and wouldn’t listen to me at all. He said we’d just nit-pick the trailer to death, and he didn’t want to deal with that. Yeesh.
So Rob and I talked about it, and I tried to find the same trailer from the same manufacturer for a similar price, to no avail. Apparently, the next closest dealer for those trailers is in Innisfail, which is about 45 minutes drive from here, and they just couldn’t touch the price. I think the dealership we were dealing with figured out they weren’t going to make any money on the deal. They are bad people over there. And if you ever have occasion to shop for a trailer, our very bad experience was with the guys who rhyme with Schmunridge RV.
We actually went out shopping for another trailer, again. It wasn’t a horrible experience, but it took a lot of time. We looked all around and established a price range, and checked out our second-best picks from the RV show back in January. And then, pretty much the very next day, Rob was informed by his work that his job was going to be dissolved, and relocated to the East, and he could either go back to being a customer service agent on the phones, or find something else.
Which all means “cut in pay” (unless he finds something better).
So we revised our trailer shopping criteria. We decided we don’t really need bunks, because we don’t have kids at the moment, and we’ll get something now that we can use and enjoy for the next five years or so, and if we have to trade it in after that to get something bigger when we actually have a family, we’ll do that. No big deal, right?
More trailer shopping. Shopping, shopping, shopping. They all start to look the same after a while, you know? We did see a couple we really liked, and one fit the price range and was actually a great deal and a very nice trailer, so we ordered it. Yay. Of course, no one knows when that will come in, either.
Thank goodness the weather has been nice lately so we can do yardwork and gardening and whatnot. Rob built me an excellent garden fence, out of chain-link, and it’s great. I got everything ready for planting and seeded lettuce, carrots, and some flowers. I think it’s going to be fantastic this year – it already looks good. The grass is pretty dead in the back yard from the dogs trampling over it, but we can’t do much about that… The garden is on track, I have some potted plants out now, and the place is looking pretty damn fine now, if I do say so myself.
Here’s to more good weather!!
It is one fantastic day out there today. I’m in my office, of course, where it’s all air-conditioned and cool (read: unpleasant, because I’m wearing summer clothing, having dug it out of the closet after work yesterday, fending off tears of shame for having gained probably another five or ten pounds since last summer…), but it looks nice out. It’s sunny. People keep saying how warm it is, and how bright it is. I personally can’t wait to get outside. I know a lot of people like their air conditioning this time of year, and can’t wait to get it all turned-on and running so they can negate the pleasant effects of actual sun-produced warmth. I love summer. I live all year for the few months when I don’t have to struggle to stay warm. I have more energy and feel better when it’s nice out. I’m less tired. I can actually relax.
Rob, however, is not this way. Rob is one of these air conditioner people. Rob doesn’t like to be too warm. He says he has no way of cooling off, and is very uncomfortable. I understand discomfort – I have to live with it pretty much all year round. I am uncomfortable when I am cold. Sure, his argument is that I can put on a sweater and use a blanket, and he’s been very good about getting me electric blankets and heating pads and even the coolest heated mattress pad, that you can turn on one side, but leave the other off, because finally someone realized that not everyone can stand the same amount of heat being generated beneath them when they sleep… So I have all sorts of accessories that I can use to warm myself up. Rob has no way of cooling himself when he gets too warm.
The Fennec Fox, a desert fox, uses his very large ears as a cooling tool – he pumps blood through his ears, which cools his blood to be returned to his body a few degrees cooler (and they’re handy finding little prey in the desert). Rob has no such ears. The dogs pant rapidly when it gets warm, cooling the air they intake by approximately 25%, and they sweat a small amount through the pads on their feet. Rob doesn’t pant, either. Polar bears lie on the ice and submerge themselves in arctic waters. Rob doesn’t have a pool. Cats lick their fur, and when their saliva evaporates, they are cooled. Rob doesn’t lick his arms or legs, and I’m not too sure he could reach his back to lick that. Camels, with their long necks, long legs and tails radiate better because of their larger, more exposed surface area. Rob has a smaller surface area, comparatively (which is probably a good thing).
Rob has no physical way of cooling himself. To me, this suggests a problem. Either he’s more adapted to living somewhere colder than here, or there is something wrong with his internal cooling system. Even in winter, when it is cold out, he is often “too warm”. Of course, by the same token, I am always cold. When it’s +30C outside, I’m pretty happy because I can just sit outside and not be cold. Even down around, say, +25C, I’m fairly comfortable. Anything cooler than that, and I’m going to need a sweater, or a jacket, or a one-piece fleece and snowsuit when it gets really cold.
Yesterday afternoon and in to the evening, I was finally comfortable enough to wear shorts and a sleeveless top. I was so happy! It was fantastic! I was outside, moving around through the air (which is usually cool, but it wasn’t yesterday) and I wasn’t cold. Rob was outside, too, sweating up a storm, and he wasn’t comfortable at all. I don’t really understand this at all. We’re both people, supposedly with the same “set point” temperature (98.6F). How can I be cold when he is overheated? How can he be dangerously overheated when I am merely comfortable?
We measured our temperatures at bedtime for a while in the winter. His was consistently higher than mine. Mine was right around the right mark, while his was several points higher, even up to a degree or two. I have no idea how to help him. When he puts the fan on, I get cold. I mean, I’ll survive, I won’t die or anything, but I get a sore throat overnight. Anyone with cooling ideas should comment to me as soon as possible, because it’s nice out again today, and I’m not looking forward to having the house air-conditioned!!
***
More trailer woes… After having wrangled with the dealership about our trailer order, and then having a resolution that I could live with, the dealership has now cancelled our order entirely.
Rob wrote an e-mail to the manufacturer asking whether they could confirm what options were on our trailer order – like extra insulation, heated/enclosed water tanks, colour, etc. The manufacturer customer service people passed his e-mail on to the local rep, who responded and told him that the colour was all set. No mention of anything else. However, he also sent, by fax, a copy of Rob’s e-mail to the dealership. The general manager snapped. He called Rob up and told him there was no way he’d continue to deal with us if we were going to be this picky. He told Rob to just come and get our deposit back, and that he wouldn’t sell us a trailer.
Man. I called the guy back, to see if I could do damage control. He wouldn’t answer my calls, so I called the local rep to see what he could do. He said he’d talk to the guy and get him calmed down… and when I finally talked to the manager the next day, he was still super-pissed and wouldn’t listen to me at all. He said we’d just nit-pick the trailer to death, and he didn’t want to deal with that. Yeesh.
So Rob and I talked about it, and I tried to find the same trailer from the same manufacturer for a similar price, to no avail. Apparently, the next closest dealer for those trailers is in Innisfail, which is about 45 minutes drive from here, and they just couldn’t touch the price. I think the dealership we were dealing with figured out they weren’t going to make any money on the deal. They are bad people over there. And if you ever have occasion to shop for a trailer, our very bad experience was with the guys who rhyme with Schmunridge RV.
We actually went out shopping for another trailer, again. It wasn’t a horrible experience, but it took a lot of time. We looked all around and established a price range, and checked out our second-best picks from the RV show back in January. And then, pretty much the very next day, Rob was informed by his work that his job was going to be dissolved, and relocated to the East, and he could either go back to being a customer service agent on the phones, or find something else.
Which all means “cut in pay” (unless he finds something better).
So we revised our trailer shopping criteria. We decided we don’t really need bunks, because we don’t have kids at the moment, and we’ll get something now that we can use and enjoy for the next five years or so, and if we have to trade it in after that to get something bigger when we actually have a family, we’ll do that. No big deal, right?
More trailer shopping. Shopping, shopping, shopping. They all start to look the same after a while, you know? We did see a couple we really liked, and one fit the price range and was actually a great deal and a very nice trailer, so we ordered it. Yay. Of course, no one knows when that will come in, either.
Thank goodness the weather has been nice lately so we can do yardwork and gardening and whatnot. Rob built me an excellent garden fence, out of chain-link, and it’s great. I got everything ready for planting and seeded lettuce, carrots, and some flowers. I think it’s going to be fantastic this year – it already looks good. The grass is pretty dead in the back yard from the dogs trampling over it, but we can’t do much about that… The garden is on track, I have some potted plants out now, and the place is looking pretty damn fine now, if I do say so myself.
Here’s to more good weather!!
