Whew. My male ego *almost* just took a serious blow.

[Ben E Lou]

Around 6 years ago, we had a new HVAC system installed in our home. We've never had any problems with it, up until yesterday afternoon/evening. SWMBO came home from work, and the house was quite chilly. She didn't think much about it, but well before the time I got home from a high school football game at around 11:30, it had gotten chilly enough that she had checked out what was going on, and discovered that the LCD display on the thermostat was barely visible, and that the air conditioner was running non-stop, despite the house temperature being well below the thermostat setting. So, at that point she starting turning the breaker off, then turning it back on when it would get too cold. Rinse. Repeat. I came in and took a look at it last night, couldn't figure anything out to do, so we put two blankets and a comforter on the bed, and went to sleep. (It is just too danged warm and humid at night down here to sleep with the AC turned off, and we didn't want to have to keep getting up and down all night long every time it got too hot/too cold.) Well, we both woke up this morning with sore throats from the cold, and concerned about our AC unit having run all night long, so I called my friend who owns an HVAC installation and repair business at his home, and asked if he might be able to send a repair tech over to take a look on a Saturday. Cleve told me that he didn't have anyone, but that he'd come take a look at it personally after lunch time. Well, I just got back from doing the Tucker pre-game devotion, and decided to look at the thermostat one more time myself...

...and that's when I noticed the little line in the plastic where your fingernail goes when you open the battery slot that up until then I didn't realize was there.

Yeah, the two AA batteries that must have come with the unit 6 years or so ago were corroded pretty badly. I replaced 'em, and called Cleve and told him "Don't worry about it, man. I figured it out myself. I've got it working again" Fortunately, he didn't ask me what was wrong.

SWMBO looked at me and just started laughing, then said, "I can't imagine you standing there next to Cleve when he opened up the thermostat and put two batteries in it for you. He would NOT have let you live that down. You'd have been the laughing stock among the dads at football practice last week." Yup, she's dead right, too. That one was REALLY close. Cleve is one of the salt-of-the-earth good-ol'-boys who hangs around the sidelines at Tucker football practice with around 20-30 other men tellin' stories, spittin', and generally looking like abominations to yankees, homosexuals, and liberals. (Well, maybe liberals might like us because we ARE friends across racial lines...) It would NOT have been fun at practice next week. Whew, that was a close one.

[gstelmack]

This is almost enough for me to want to create a fake login under the name "Cleve" and post here...

[PackerFanatic]

Haha...close call there man. Way to be on the ball

[MizzouRah]

Was that Cleve Cubby from the clubhouse boards?

[kcchief19]

This seems like an appropriate enough time for me to come out of the closet about something ...

When I was 18, I started to pull out of the driveway and noticed a huge black spot on the pavement where the backend of my car had been parked. This concerned me greatly, so I made arrangements to get a ride to work from the mechanic and see what was wrong. That afternoon, I call the mechanic and they tell me the car is ready to go, everything is fine and it won't cost me a dime. Beautfiful!

I get to the mechanic and walk in and tell them I hear to pick up my car. The guy at the counter pokes his head in the garage and yells, "The Celica is here!" Next thing I know, all of the mechanics I know who work there come in with grins on their faces. I ask what's up and they all start giggling. Finally, one of them says, "Do you remember anything about a bottle of root beer?"

Flashback two weeks. I was in high school speech and debate and had just missed qualifying for nationals. After the final round where I got knocked out of local qualifying, I announce that I'll be holding a golf tournament the week of nationals for anyone who didn't make it. We ended up getting eight guys together and playing a two-day tournament. I lined up "sponsors" by getting as many free things as I could from different places around town. I got some cool golf stuff from Southwestern Bell where my mom worked, some tote bags and other freebies from the radio station I worked at and other stuff. One thing I picked up was a free two-liter bottle of root beer -- don't remember where it came from.

We had overall prize packages plus some long drive, putting and closest to the hole contests. I won one of the long drive contests where the prize was the root beer. I put it in the truck of my car and forgot about it.

Well, two weeks in the back of a car in the Missouri summer in late June and early August does bad things to root beer. It thickens considerable -- to the consistency of oil -- and becomes very gooey -- like oil. Eventually, the carbonation causes the bottle to rupture and it slowly leaks out. If it's in the truck of a car when it ruptures, it will eventually leak out the bottom of the car.

The guys admitted it took them about 10 minutes to find it. They thought it was odd where the "oil" was leaking from so they put it on the lift to take a look. There was "oil" all over the back end, and that seemed odd as well. The eventuall identifed the source of the leak and saw it was com from the trunk. Once they took it off the lift and saw the root beer and the mystery was solved.

I still have friends and family who refuse to let me live this down 15 years later.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

The guys admitted it took them about 10 minutes to find it. They thought it was odd where the "oil" was leaking from so they put it on the lift to take a look. There was "oil" all over the back end, and that seemed odd as well. The eventuall identifed the source of the leak and saw it was com from the trunk. Once they took it off the lift and saw the root beer and the mystery was solved.

I still have friends and family who refuse to let me live this down 15 years later.

Well, to be fair it took the experts 10 minutes to figure out, including putting it up on a lift, so I wouldn't feel too bad about it...

[Rizon]

My AC was "broken" for a couple years, and I was too lazy/didn't want to pay money to get it fixed.'

One day I was bored and decided to take a look at it.

Someone stole my fuses from the box. Replaced the fuses, on came the AC.

Woops.

[Dutch]

AC's take batteries????

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Dutch

AC's take batteries????

Not the AC, just the little box on the wall that contains the thermostat.

[ISiddiqui]

Wait, you are one of those guys that stands on the sidelines at high school football practices?

...

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Wait, you are one of those guys that stands on the sidelines at high school football practices?

...

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showpost.php?p=878595&postcount=51

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by Rizon

My AC was "broken" for a couple years, and I was too lazy/didn't want to pay money to get it fixed.'

One day I was bored and decided to take a look at it.

Someone stole my fuses from the box. Replaced the fuses, on came the AC.

Woops.

AC in Antartica? I never would have thought it was needed there, damn global warming....

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showpost.php?p=878595&postcount=51

I've having flashbacks to "Varsity Blues" .

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Not the AC, just the little box on the wall that contains the thermostat.

Thermostats need batteries?!?!?


Guess that's one of the things you never learn in apartment living...

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

Thermostats need batteries?!?!?


Guess that's one of the things you never learn in apartment living...

Not mine. But I think mine is from the 70's. Mine also is sitting at 85 degrees right now, and I know it's not the warm in here.

May be time for a new one.

[AZSpeechCoach]

What's up KC NFL buddy?

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Next up... You need to put gas in the car or it no go.