The older the Trucker and his Passenger get, the more air conditioning is a blessing.
There is a down side, though. At night, when temperatures drop below our AC setting, it doesn't run. Generally this means I will wake several times a night, uncomfortably warm.
There are several solutions to this:
1) Flip the pillow and try again.
2) Turn on the ceiling fan above the bed.
3) Move to the sofa, which has a fan above it as well. The added bonus is distance from the Trucker, whose internal furnace always runs on high speed.
Number three is the most frequently used option, as that fan seems more effective. When our house was built in 2003, according to the Trucker's design, fans were installed in both the living room and the bedroom. However, a few years ago the living room fan gave notice, and the trucker replaced it. A better model, I reasoned, which is why it was more effective.
Somewhere around dark-fifteen this morning, an inspiration struck me. These are rare, but I do try to have a decent one every few months or so.
The inspiration? See, the newer fan in the living room has a neat little button on the side to reverse the fan blades. Left to blow air down, for the summer. Right, to blow air up, for the winter. My sleep deprived mind wondered, might the bedroom fan also have a neat little button, one that I never noticed?
When dawn arrived and the Trucker and I were functional, I posed the question. Never one to delay, the Trucker promptly stepped up and checked. Amazingly, the older fan DID have one of those neat little buttons!
He slid the button over, and started the fan. Immediately, the moving air around us was filled with flying dust bunnies, sailing across the room and dropping on the bedspread. Oops. After a quick intermission to run a dust cloth over the fan blades, we tried again. Now that it was established that the fan had two directions, which blew up and which blew down?
In short order it was clear. Our fan had been set on "up" since being acquired twenty years ago. A great accomplishment this realization, and it wasn't even time for breakfast. But that little button being unnoticed for twenty years? Oh, me.
The result of the early morning inspiration and the later morning experiment and cleaning session? The bedroom fan is now set to blow "down". For the last few weeks of summer, my nights will be somewhat more comfortable.
That's not to say I will get any more sleep. Because...what else in this house has not yet been noticed and put to its intended use?
