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This happens sometimes, and it's always a little surreal.
My air conditioner is a thousand years old. It came with the usual kit for sealing off the window so the cool wouldn't escape and the bugs wouldn't take refuge, but that kit required drilling holes in the window frame and anchoring the unit with big three-inch screws. I have Anderson windows in bulky plastic frames; I don't think drilling holes is the way to ride. It would make the landlord cross.
For the past several years, I've been closing out the window with form-fitting styrofoam blocks. This year, all the blocks were crushed, so I went off to the home store to get an air conditioner kit. I was directed to where the air conditioners sat in a big mountain, and before I could look around the area, one of the store clerks approached. "What can I help you with?"
"I'm looking for an air conditioner kit, to close off the rest of the window when I install the air conditioner."
He looked utterly bewildered. "Why do you need one of those?"
"My air conditioner is very old, and the old kit didn't work. I need a new kit."
Still bewildered. "Shouldn't your air conditioner have come with one of those?"
"It did, but like I said, it's very old and the kit that came with it is long gone. I just need to put something together to close the window around it."
"To seal the window, right. But don't you already have one? Wasn't it included?"
Sigh. "Yes. It was. But it didn't work. Now it is lost. Do you have anything to replace it? Preferably something that doesn't require power tools?"
Dubiously, he gestured vaguely at the rack he was standing beside, which was a massive display of EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED. It was such an ideal collection of parts that I even grabbed a couple of clean AC filters and one of those dust collector thingies. (The AC unit is filthy. Seriously. It looks like it was salvaged from a hoarder home.)
He was still sort of acting like I didn't know what I wanted, and I tried to put myself in his shoes...suddenly, light dawned. He was acting as if I were someone who had just bought a brand new air conditioner, hadn't read the instructions, and was now buying a bunch of parts I didn't need. (He must not have picked it up when I said I had chipped the air conditioner out of the Pleistocene striation.) I would imagine he's had several customers of the "Derp. Humid now. Need cool box machine thingy for window," stripe.
He didn't actually follow me to the register telling me not to buy anything, but he did seem sort of reluctant to admit that someone might actually purchase those products in parts.
And to be honest, I probably do have the original shutters somewhere. But they don't need power tools any less now than they did a decade ago. And I can't be arsed to look.
My air conditioner is a thousand years old. It came with the usual kit for sealing off the window so the cool wouldn't escape and the bugs wouldn't take refuge, but that kit required drilling holes in the window frame and anchoring the unit with big three-inch screws. I have Anderson windows in bulky plastic frames; I don't think drilling holes is the way to ride. It would make the landlord cross.
For the past several years, I've been closing out the window with form-fitting styrofoam blocks. This year, all the blocks were crushed, so I went off to the home store to get an air conditioner kit. I was directed to where the air conditioners sat in a big mountain, and before I could look around the area, one of the store clerks approached. "What can I help you with?"
"I'm looking for an air conditioner kit, to close off the rest of the window when I install the air conditioner."
He looked utterly bewildered. "Why do you need one of those?"
"My air conditioner is very old, and the old kit didn't work. I need a new kit."
Still bewildered. "Shouldn't your air conditioner have come with one of those?"
"It did, but like I said, it's very old and the kit that came with it is long gone. I just need to put something together to close the window around it."
"To seal the window, right. But don't you already have one? Wasn't it included?"
Sigh. "Yes. It was. But it didn't work. Now it is lost. Do you have anything to replace it? Preferably something that doesn't require power tools?"
Dubiously, he gestured vaguely at the rack he was standing beside, which was a massive display of EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED. It was such an ideal collection of parts that I even grabbed a couple of clean AC filters and one of those dust collector thingies. (The AC unit is filthy. Seriously. It looks like it was salvaged from a hoarder home.)
He was still sort of acting like I didn't know what I wanted, and I tried to put myself in his shoes...suddenly, light dawned. He was acting as if I were someone who had just bought a brand new air conditioner, hadn't read the instructions, and was now buying a bunch of parts I didn't need. (He must not have picked it up when I said I had chipped the air conditioner out of the Pleistocene striation.) I would imagine he's had several customers of the "Derp. Humid now. Need cool box machine thingy for window," stripe.
He didn't actually follow me to the register telling me not to buy anything, but he did seem sort of reluctant to admit that someone might actually purchase those products in parts.
And to be honest, I probably do have the original shutters somewhere. But they don't need power tools any less now than they did a decade ago. And I can't be arsed to look.
)
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