The Case of the $700 Fried Lizard

 If you are a Texas homeowner the title may have already told you the whole story.

Last Sunday evening our air-conditioner quit cooling. We all encounter home problems like cranky ice makers or doors that stick.  Problem, yes, crisis, no. Broken AC’s in July in Texas are THE f ’ing crisis we all dread.   With a plea for help left on the phone of our local AC guy, Nita and I slept on top of the covers under a ceiling fan with another fan at the foot of the bed.

One of the reasons I love small town life followed: The AC servicemen showed up first thing the next morning. Probably didn’t hurt we’ve been going to church with the owner for 35 years. Anyway, his two very young and able repairmen checked this and that inside our blower closet and confirmed more than one electrical component was kaput. Next they went outside and looked in the house electric breaker panel. They called me to come look and shined a flashlight on the big double breaker that guards the AC from power surges from lightning and such. Behind the breakers I saw a brown lizard head on one side and his brown tail on the other side. That sucker was fried like a crispy taco, and in sacrificing himself to the gods he’d provided an arc that shorted out those critical inside pieces.  They replaced the failed components inside and I called an electrician—whose two sons I’d coached in youth soccer—who came over with one of those sons I’d coached as a kid, who replaced the shorted AC breakers and removed the poor old fried lizard. The $700 fried lizard.  But we slept under the sheets on Monday night and I was almost even smiling when I wrote the checks. Sometimes, quick, efficient service at any cost is what matters most. At least if you living through a Texas summer.

The crisis of the month aside, I now have a writer’s website.  I hope you will take a look at it. Here's the link: https://www.pmcbridenovels.com/

  The name of the website is ‘Swimming in the Light,’ which may not seem reflective of my Civil War novels, or even the flying horny toad dragon novel, but it is a theme in my last effort, Just To Be Fair. There’s a page on the website with a short explanation of why I chose that title. Hope you will read it, as well as reading Just To Be Fair.

Stay cool, it's only July and August is coming.  I know a good AC guy if you have your own fried lizard.