Postscript to the last Focking Blog

A few things have happened since the last blog, about a week ago.
There's a fair amount of good news.

• The laptop needed only a new power cord
• Poker be good
• The doorknob has remained intact

And, thankfully, the air conditioner has worked OK. I won't say it's working great, but it's definitely better than before.
Twice last week I called our warranty company, American Home Shield, and asked to speak to a manager about our ongoing A/C troubles. Twice they said one would call me back in 24 hours or less, and twice that didn't happen.
The third time I gave the receptionist a fire and brimstone speech, telling her the next call would be coming from my lawyer. This was kind of a bluff, since I had contacted two lawyers and they didn't see enough money there to mess with it at this point. Nevertheless, it did have the effect of getting me a prompt call back from a manager, who was quite courteous.
In fact, once I dropped the L bomb on them their tone changed 180 degrees. I have received a call from the supervisor at AHS for three straight days, asking if the A/C was working properly. Each time I said the same thing -- it's working much better than before, but the house temp during the afternoon is still 3 to 5 degrees hotter than what we have it set on. I understand that it's very hot outside but I would like to have someone confirm that it is functioning as best it can and that there isn't long-term damage from the terrible company First Time Heat and Air's incompetent work. And if there is, fix it.
Evidently, AHS called our second A/C company, All About Comfort, after each of their three calls to me. AHS wants someone to come out to our house, but AAC is surely sick of having to come to our house four times to re-do First Time's crappy work, so they blew them off. Finally I got a call from All About Comfort, and it was pretty funny.
AAC receptionist: "Hello, Mr. Franklin, I've received several calls from AHS about your A/C service but I haven't heard any complaint from you directly so I just wanted to confirm that everything is working OK.
I repeated what I said above, said I was happy with their service and sorry that they had to cover for First Time, but said I would like someone to come out and double-check everything since the warranty company was paying for it and since there was the 5 degree discrepancy on the temp.
Receptionist: "Well, you know it's very hot outside. Do you have the blinds open? The sun coming in can make it very hot inside."
Me: "Yes, we've kept them closed during the day."
Her: "Because, you know, here in our office we have the temp set at 70 and it was 81 in here the other day until I put a curtain up and now it's fine."
Me: "You work at an air conditioning company and they can't get the temp under 80 in the office?"
Her: "Ummm...It's much better now that I've put the curtain up. That's why I asked you about that. Maybe that's all you need."
One of their supervisors is coming to check on our unit tomorrow.

While things on the A/C front are hopefully (fingers crossed) looking better, our bad luck has not run out quite yet. I'll rank these new developments from least serious to most serious.

1. I was mowing our lawn and stepped on an uneven spot in the land. I've had a lot of ankle problems in the past, so this small bulge in the ground was enough to roll my ankle and send me right to the ground, where I took a couple of full-body rolls toward the street. The mower slowly starting coming down the hill toward me, but it hit the same bulge I rolled my ankle on and stopped. It would have been a pretty hilarious scene for someone driving by.
2. After a successful poker session, I was feeling pretty good as I left Riverwind at 1:30 a.m. Those good feeling were replaced by angry words when my car wouldn't start and I realized I was trapped at Riverwind at 1:30 a.m. Luckily my friend and superior poker player James was there to help. We tried jumping it but that didn't work. He gave me a ride home and tomorrow we will have the car towed to a garage where it will hopefully be fixed. 
3. Missy was fixing dinner the other night when she noticed that the gas oven she had preheated wasn't heating at all. She opened the door and stuck her hand in to gauge the temp when a fireball jumped out at her and slightly burned her arm. It also filled the house with gas odor. This despite the fact that the oven was not hot at all. More than anything, we were just scared. A guy came out but couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, so someone else is coming on Friday. Luckily, this is covered by our fantastically crappy home warranty.