We need a new air conditioner in the living room. For the past few summers we’ve just taken it for granted that every few days we would mistakenly use the microwave in the kitchen while two air conditioners were on at the same time, and blow the circuits, and have to go over to the basement in the next building to reset the main circuit breaker. We had an electrician in at some point to see if there was anything we could do to get more electricity into the apartment, but he told us that it would be a very extensive and expensive job, because he’d have to first get more electricity into our building overall and only then focus on our apartment in particular. So we accepted our fate and tried harder to remember to turn off one of the air conditioners before using the microwave.
This summer, though, the power kept going out even without the microwave, or any other possible source of trouble. It didn’t happen as soon as two air conditioners were on at the same time, and it only happened when one of the air conditioners was the big one in the living room, so at first we weren’t sure what the problem was. The worst problems came during the hottest week, when the local electric company was using brownouts to manage the higher than usual usage, so, we realized, each time a brownout happened, and two air conditioners were on, and one of them was the air conditioner in the living room, we lost power.
But knowing that we had no way of fixing the problem, except to sit in the heat with no relief, was not comforting. After blowing the circuits three days in a row, Mom decided that the problem was probably coming from the big air conditioner in the living room which was getting old. She reached out to a friend of my cousin’s, who happens to be an electrician, and was told that, one, older model air conditioners are less energy efficient, and two, as air conditioners get older they use more power. She suggested that we get a newer, more energy efficient one, and, hopefully, that would solve the problem.
So we ordered the new air conditioner, and we hope that once it’s in place we won’t have to traipse outside and into the next building and down to the basement to reset the circuit breaker in the heat of the summer. And who knows, we may even discover that the new air conditioner will even allow us to use the microwave every once in a while.
The problem is, it costs money. And we didn’t have this on our list of expected repairs for this year. Nor did we have the faucet in the bathroom sink on the list, or the new car battery, or the higher cost of groceries, or the latest federal court decision that might mean I have to go back to making regular payments on my student loan, on top of the medical loan.
One of my projects this summer has been to educate myself about all of the bills and home details Mom has been taking care of for so many years, so that if, God forbid, Mom can’t take care of things, I will know what to do. This idea came up as a result of Mom’s second hip replacement, and the heart scare, and a very, very gradual realization that I am not a teenager anymore. I took the project seriously, and in my turtle slow way, I filled a binder with files for each category of responsibility: the car, the apartment (including the mortgage and maintenance and insurance), the appliances, the monthly bills, etc., and I was quickly overwhelmed by how much money it takes to just to keep things copacetic. I have a whole folder on what to do if different appliances and fixtures and furniture break down (with phone numbers for repair people and warranties and preferred brands), but this past month has made it clear that no matter how organized I try to be there will always be unknown costs that pop up. And you know what I can do about that? Nothing. Except raise the dose of my antidepressant, when necessary, and trust that I will be able to figure it out when the time comes.
I just want to say: Phooey. This adulting stuff really sucks. I give it one star, at most.
If you haven’t had a chance yet, please check out my Young Adult novel, Yeshiva Girl, on Amazon. And if you feel called to write a review of the book, on Amazon, or anywhere else, I’d be honored.
Yeshiva Girl is about a Jewish teenager on Long Island, named Isabel, though her father calls her Jezebel. Her father has been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with one of his students, which he denies, but Izzy implicitly believes it’s true. As a result of his problems, her father sends her to a co-ed Orthodox yeshiva for tenth grade, out of the blue, and Izzy and her mother can’t figure out how to prevent it. At Yeshiva, though, Izzy finds that religious people are much more complicated than she had expected. Some, like her father, may use religion as a place to hide, but others search for and find comfort, and community, and even enlightenment. The question is, what will Izzy find?
rachelmankowitz 