How to Survive Without an Air Conditioner

Our air conditioner bit the dust one month ago this week. GW and I are trying hard not to purchase big expensive things on our credit card, so we have endured the hottest part of the summer in a stucco house without a basement.

We have learned a lot of things concerning survival during the warmest part of the day.  There were a few items that we already had in our favor.
1. Three ceiling fans.
2. Three extra fans.
3. One big shady tree on the south side of the house.
4. Lots of ice.

Another thing we learned is that we probably have been using our central air way to much throughout the summer season.  Our house actually stayed pretty nice until the mid afternoon.  We made sure to close all the  windows around 10:00 am so we could keep the house as cool as possible for as long as possible.

One of the challenges were the little gnats that probably got through some of the screen windows at night.  Where ever there was a light on so were the annoying little insects.  Between 4:00 and 8:00 pm we had to make sure our shorts and cotton shirts were on.  I even had a little fan right next to me in the kitchen while cooking.  If ever I needed to bake it was only during the cool early morning hours.

I noticed our personalities were a bit frazzled during the late afternoon.  Being outside on the east side of the house was much more pleasant then inside.  Getting dressed was another interesting attempt.  Once the night cool breeze started to come through the windows we kept everything opened.  So off with the lights so you could change into pajamas and brush teeth without the neighbors even noticing.

Hopefully by next spring we will have our new air conditioner.  The fans will still be used at night with windows opened. Maybe we can learn to only use the central air during the afternoon.  We'll see.

I'm just happy to have survived one month of discomfort and lived to write about it.