swamp coolers

Around here, we don't have regular air conditioners, just these swamp coolers that rely on water to be pumped into them. Well, yesterday 2 of our 3 coolers weren't working. My neighbor, D, had volunteered to come over and look at them, but I didn't really want to bother him, so I decided that I would fix them myself before he came over...I can be self-sufficient.

I could see exactly where the problem was. There are these clear plastic tubes that carry wter from the water pipe into the cooler, but they were filled with leaves and things. I figured that all I needed to do was take that tube and clear the stuff out, then the water could flow again and the problem would be solved...right? I had several thoughts running through my mind, but one of them was about turning off the water. How the coolers work is, before you turn it on, you have to turn on the water pump for at least 10 minutes. Since you have to turn on the water pump before you use the cooler, I figured that meant that if I didn't have the water pump turned on, things would be fine.

So I went out on the balcony with my gerber tool and went to work. I detached the plastic tube and no water came out so I figured I was good on the water issue. I pulled out the leaves and stuff, only to be sprayed down with water. Apparently you DO have to turn off the water. Problem was that I had no idea how to do that and I was wedged between the cooler and the railing to the balcony...I couldn't really do anything about it but try not to get it in my mouth! I finally got it to where it wasn't spraying on me, but off the side of the balcony and into my landlord's patio. I looked for a way to turn off the water but couldn't find it and, by this time, the landlord's family was all in the hoosh looking up at me like I was crazy. So I had to go next door and get D and ask him how to turn it off.

He came over and fixed it up in no time. He was not impressed with my idea of not turning off the water. He was, however, impressed with how far I'd gotten in the process by myself and by the fact that I actually had brought this fancy Gerber tool with me. Thanks Dad!!!

While we were out on the balcony a bus full of young guys drove by and they were all yelling inappropriately, nothing abnormal or anything. But D just looked at me and said 'do you ever just want to yell back 'Umak! Umak!?' Meaning 'your mom!'. I was in the mood to yell it, but couldn't stop laughing long enough to do it. Maybe next time!

Hope ya'll don't mind lots of stories and few pictures. I still don't have the official govt permission to be taking pictures and the Internet still just isn't up to par when it comes to loading pictures...although I was able to buy a cd last week from itunes and it took less than 2 hours to download, so maybe we're moving up in the technological world!