Sweaty

We are so freaking hot here, it is unbelievable. Our wimpy air conditioning has gotten even worse over the last month. Now we don't even bother running it at all because there is no point. We have had numerous technicians tromp through the apartment, had twenty years of dust blown out of all of the vents (at our own expense), installed ceiling fans (at our own expense), and sent a couple of really strongly worded emails to the rental agent.

We have heard all sorts of stories, from "it will be fixed on Monday" to "there is some cold air coming out." Chris finally snagged a true air conditioning guy, the same person who has been replacing units in this building for 10 years. He took one look at our units and said - yep. Those are 22 years old. They are highly inefficient, which explains why our aircon fees are 8 times higher than anyone else in the building yet we are still sweaty. Apparently everyone else in the building has replaced their original units, but not our landlord. No.

So we have four options.

1) Do nothing and be miserable this summer and next (and maybe longer, but that is a story for another day).
2) Buy new air conditioning units at our own expense (about US$5,000).
3) Try to convince the landlord to pay for at least a part of the replacement fee. He probably would cough up about a grand, but that still leaves a crazy chunk for us to pay for an apartment that we do not own.
4) Buy some stand-up air conditioning units which we could maybe move around the apartment as we got hot. Seems like a lot of bother though. And we already have a ton of ugly electric devices lurking in corners around here.

The bottom line, though, is that something must be done. Chris works out of the apartment most days, and he simply cannot continue in that sweltering office.

In more cheerful news, some good friends of ours are getting married in Tuscany next May AND WE GOT INVITED. To a three day celebration. In a castle. In Tuscany (did I mention?)