For the past few days, temperatures in Central PA (and much of the East Coast) have been in the mid-to-upper 90s with a fair amount of humidity. While the heat and humidity are rather oppressive, it’s easy to escape this deadly duo by seeking relief in an air-conditioned environment.

The apartment I’ve lived in for the past five years has had functional central air conditioning for all but five or six days: it was out for two or three days a couple summers ago and, as luck would have it, from about noon on Saturday until early Monday. That’s right: during the warmest weather we’ve had in quite some time, I was without air conditioning.

At first, I thought the system was struggling to keep up with the warm weather, as the air coming out of the vents was cool, but by no means cold. An hour or two later, I checked the temperature and it was, if I recall correctly, about 76 degrees. Not horrible, but a bit too high considering my thermostat was set at 70.

I decided to call my landlord and, again with my great luck, he was in New York City for the day. He said that one of his tenants in another town had a similar problem but reported it too late and it ended up killing the motor, requiring him to replace the entire unit. So, he suggested that I turn the AC off (!) until he could stop by on Sunday. It didn’t sound like I had any options, so I obliged.

On Sunday, he stopped by and checked the unit and saw that the wiring inside of it didn’t look right, but he couldn’t fix it himself; he’d have to check with his repairman who didn’t work on weekends (!). That meant another day and night of no AC. Fortunately, I was out of the house for most of the day because of church and a youth group event (tubing on the river and a picnic), but by the time I went to bed at 11:00 p.m. the temperature in the house was pushing 90.

Finally, Monday morning the repairman stopped by and took care of the problem. Fortunately it was just a problem with the wires, so, thankfully, the motor and compressor didn’t have to be replaced. I checked the apartment at 9:00 and the temperature was 80 with the thermostat at 68; I checked three hours later and the temperature was down another four or five degrees. By the time I got home from work at about 5:00 p.m., the temperature was a wonderfully cool 70.

Needless to say, I was quite thankful that the air conditioning was working again. However, during the almost 72 hours without it, I wondered what it must be like for people in the United States and other, poorer countries, who don’t have such amenities. I can’t imagine going to sleep each night during the summer with temperatures pushing 80. Though I didn’t like it at the time, I’m very thankful for all of the wonderful things with which God has blessed me!