Monday, July 18, 2011

5 years is a bit too long...

Once upon a time, in my day to day life, I learned something new. According to the Tiger (as he shall be called), he said he told me about this, and I allegedly replied with, "eh." My "oh crap" moment happened last Thursday. I am pretty sure I sometimes have selective hearing and that when this item was explained to me from all the wisdom of the Texas Blue Hair and the Feisty Shoe Diva, I knew this was LIFE OR DEATH! There is a filter that goes in the house for your air conditioner.

Did you know that? Because I sure as hell didn't know that. And yes, before you start to really get on my case, I know an air filter goes in the car. Do you know how I know that bit of information, because the mechanic with the name stitched on his shirt (probably named Buck) pulled out a filthy one and said, "this is pretty dirty, do you want a new one?" I of course, said hell no. I knew I could get it cheaper at the O'Reilly's or wherever my dad said it was cheaper. The point being, someone pulled it out of the car, lifted it in the air, so I could see it and said, hey this has to be changed or your car will blow up on the road, and the sky will fill with dust....

All right maybe not exactly like that, but upon being asked about it, I figured out this was something important.

So naturally the next question from the wise ladies is, "when is the last time it was changed?" Now, this was the first time I even heard about this oh so important filter, so I knew the answer would be...wait for it, get ready for the echo in a large cave... "NEEEEVVVVERRR!" The gasp was unbelievable and simultaneous. Then I got the lecture of why this is important. Even the cowgirl knew what it was and the flamenco dancer (the other 2 ladies I work with).

So I began my search for how to get a new filter. I text messaged the Tiger and screamed for help. I didn't know what this was, where it was and why I even had to change it in the first place and why this was never announced to me in home owner's 101 class.

Well unfortunately the Tiger bailed on me last minute like a typical man, so it was time for this girl to get down to the Home Depot and walk aimlessly around until a rugged man could ask me what I was looking for. Unfortunately, there were on a special end cap as soon as I walked in, and no rugged man could help me because the filter was starring me in the face. Dang it. This is what a new filter looks like, in case you are learning about this for the first time.
To my surprise, they were relatively cheap. For once, something that didn't require me to dip into my emergency savings account (like the stinking break pads). So then I had to figure out where the heck this went. I was sure it was the attic, which is 100,000 degrees right about now. Oh did I mention it's been 17 days with triple digit heat. Awesome. Perfect time to change this thing.


But to my surprise, I learned from my dear friend little mama, the vent was at the top of the stairs. HOORAY! This meant not sweating to death in the attic.




Now, the cowgirl told me to look very carefully at the old filter to see the arrow. This apparently deals with air flow or whatever. Well I can tell you I had to squint to see it because it was basically rubbed off. Do you know why? Well it's because I have NEVER changed the filter in 5 years, that's why!


Guess what? It was REALLY dirty. I mean layers of dirty, like my hands were black. I wish I could have taken a picture of my hands, because it would have made this story extra dramatic.


Here is the dirty filter...(Butch, my good kitty was supervising).





Pretty bad huh? Well lesson learned. Being the genius I am, I bought a 2 pack and even put in my calendar the next time to change it. It will beep a reminder.


The lesson to this story is this that older people know about anything and if you don't want your air conditioner to blow up and cost you $7,000.00 to repair, you will change out this important filter.


The End.