It seems to happen at least once (or twice) each year: There comes a period of time where I’m slammed with something or another and it’s simply impossible for me to post new entries here.

This time around, it was helping my eldest daughter move halfway across the country to her new job, which involved the wife and I driving to where she lived (4 hours), then helping her pack up while simultaneously renting a Suburban to hold her stuff/furniture, then 1 full day (8+ hours) of driving the Suburban (me) and her car (daughter and wife) to the halfway point, spending the night there, then another full day (8+ hours) of driving to her destination.

Once there, it was time to unload her belongings, go off to buy items she needed, get a lay of the land, return the Suburban (thank the Gods for car rental agencies which allow you to travel half-way across the country and then leave the car you rented with them there!), and, finally, take a flight (3 and 1/2 hours long!) back home on Sunday.

The later point, the flight back, really makes one appreciate how good it is to fly versus drive such long distances!

Still, once again it seems like I can’t catch a break: My youngest daughter, who remained at home caring for the pets while we helped the eldest daughter, told us the brand new AC unit I spent some very hard earned money on was making strange noises.

That night, Sunday, the wife and I heard the strange noises it was making upon starting up. Then, I noticed that it was blowing air but not cooling.

To say the least, I was beside myself.

The unit, not quite a month old, was failing?!

WTF?!?

After one hour of it simply blowing air and fearing the worst and very strangely, the AC unit was suddenly working and blowing cool air?

WTF Redux?!

While no expert in AC units, I’ve had plenty of experience with them and it was, to say the least, very weird that the unit a) was making this very weird noise and b) not cooling for approximately an hour before doing so.

On Monday I called the people who installed the unit and arranged for them to come see it. Thankfully, they came relatively quickly and I told them what we experienced. He was also bewildered.

He checked the Freon and machinery outside before moving inside. He said everything looked like it was good. Then, he realized the problem…

What you see above is a “p-trap”. All sinks, bathtubs, toilets, and, yes, AC units have such things. The p-trap is used in the water exhaust of the above items. The point is the water comes down the tube on the left, hits the curved p-trap, and that speeds the water along to the right and out.

What the people who installed my brand new AC unit did was put a p-trap very near where the water comes out… and didn’t realize there was already another p-trap on the outside of the house and near the end of the exit line where the AC water is discharged into the lawn.

One can only have one p-trap per exit line. If you have two of them, the exhaust water gets trapped in the tubing between the p-traps and this can cause problems.

Like what I was experiencing with the AC unit.

Luckily, the fix was extremely easy: Remove the outside p-trap.

Whew.

Anyway, I’m still getting my legs back and am still very exhausted from the trip and the move.

I’m also very eager to get back to my writings, which I’ve understandably had to set aside for the past week.

We’ll be back to them.

As soon as today, later in the evening.