It was so hot this past weekend it seemed the only things that fell were the temperature records across the Bay Area! Not having AC, we resorted to different ways seeking relief.
We took the kids to Sandra’s place for swim & BBQ to start the weekend. Good food, cool water and great company– a great way to cool down. Unfortunately, it would be the last good idea for the weekend. 🙂 You can read a bit about evening on the Jarvinen’s & Truong’s websites.
Having much fun, we allowed the kids stay up way past their bed times and didn’t head back until 10 pm. On the way back, we heard weird thumping sounds while driving. I didn’t think much of it figuring that we were hearing because with the kids napping and radio turned off. First bad idea. A few minutes later, the rear tire blew up. After pulling the van over to the shoulder, I went out to inspect the damage & was surprised to see how little of the tire was left. The tire literally blew off the wheel. We placed a call to AAA after deciding it was too dangerous to change in the spare on I280’s narrow shoulder. We didn’t get home until midnight.
Sunday morning, I woke up early and headed to Fry’s to buy an air condition unit, thinking I’d beat the crowd, little did I know… The first bad sign was when I saw an empty floor in the appliances section which was filled to the rim with AC’s only a few weeks ago. Looking around, I saw a long line of people so I figured that’s the line for AC’s. Several other people were rushing to beat each other to the line. As I walked to the end of the line, I was a bit amused. I’d only expect a line like this when the PS3 or Wii game consoles come out later this year. Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess… When I got to the end of the line, I asked a guy in front of me whether this was the line to buy an AC. The guy goes: “Oh no, this is the line to get on the waiting list to buy the AC’s on the next shipment!” “What!!!“, I thought (and cursed). No longer feeling amused, I quickly returned the cart and left the store. Crap!
Realizing how this endeavor had suddenly become a more daunting task, I then headed to Lowe’s & Home Depot. No luck, both stores sold out. The guy at Home Depot practically laughed in my face when I ask him if he had any in stock! Lowe’s had a big red sign “All AC & Fans SOLD OUT!” Grudgingly, I went back to a home full of hot air and cranky kids (and wife) with rosy cheeks, empty-handed! Bad idea trying to buy something everybody is desperately after. 🙁
As a last ditch, I placed an online order for an AC unit when I got home, fully aware that the few days of the shipment will be painful. Bad idea. Everybody was shopping online as well. As of today, costco.com is yet to process my order, no doubt they don’t have any units in stock either. Crap, again!
Desperate to escape the heat, Suzanne & I decided to take the kids & their grandma to the theater. The only kiddie movie playing was Over The Hedge, which Katelyn & Allison already saw. But they’re more than happy to watch it the second time. I discovered later that the AC’s in the theaters were broken. Fortunately, it was still comfortable for everybody throughout the movie. Almost a bad idea…
As we left the theater, we hit the heat again. We decided to take the kids to a nearby ice cream parlor. Bad idea… The place was packed with people trying to escape the heat. Gave up, we rushed the kids into the van, cranked up the AC and headed to the mall. Another bad idea… Once entered parking lot, we quickly gave up. It was obvious, we weren’t going to find parking easily. I was glad we didn’t enter the mall though after hearing a co-worker describing how crazy Valley Fair was this past weekend.
We decided to drive to Santa Cruz beach. Okay, yet another bad idea! Highway 17 was packed, bumper to bumper. Along the way, the highway was littered with over-heated cars. I’m not exaggerating. The situation was not much different from disaster scenes on CNN where Floridians rushing out of the Keys, trying to escape a hurricane. We decided to keep going anyway since the kids were comfortably napping. The trip, usually takes 30 minutes, turned 2 hours long. At least, it was 2 air conditioned hours.
The weather was quite pleasant at this beach town when we got there, a good 20 degrees lower I’d say. By this time, the kids woke up and were hungry. We decided to head to the Boardwalk for some fun & food. Bad idea. The streets were packed with cars heading toward the Boardwalk. After some time driving around and not finding parking, we gave up and headed home, content that at least we spent the last 3 hours comfortably in a van with AC cranked up. But, I’d used up half of a gas tank in the van.
As you can see, it was a weekend of many bad ideas… 🙂
This past weekend, our family went down to LA. While we were there, we took the kids to Pharoah’s Lost Kingdom in Redlands. The place is a huge: rides, miniture golf, games and a water park. It was a hot afternoon, so the kids spent all the time in the kiddie pools. Katelyn & Andre were hitting the water slides non-stop, while the younger kids, Allison & Justine, spent most their time in the wading pool & float around the lazy river.
