Oxford Pt. 3 (includes summary of my AC saga)

Wednesday was my first day at work. It was nothing spectacular as I was just getting paperwork done and making some basic (and simple maps). I got in at around 9 and left around 1. I got health and life insurance forms filled out chiefly and tried to get accustomed to the system at the office of where files are, what I need to do in certain situations, et cetera. It was much like the first day of class in college. The next two days he was out of the office, but left me stuff to do. The next week was the same, except the Bay St. Louis office (one person) was in town. She comes up for a week once a month apparently. That added some excitement, but otherwise everything was normal. This week, Mike was out most of today (Tuesday) and will be out all day tomorrow (Wednesday) again, at the coast. I’m not sure if this barrage of meetings is normal or if it’s unusual. I mean, I think he’s going to be in Hattiesburg interviewing a person to fill another position with the company on Friday in conjunction with another meeting in the area. He seems like a busy guy.

The first day after work, I got home and realized that my AC didn’t seem to be blowing cold air. I let it run for a while because it was, after all, 100+ outside. After a little while, I came to the conclusion that something was out of whack, and reported it to maintenance. This was about 1:30 or so. About three, I feel some cool air coming out of the vent in my living room while I was lying on the couch taking a nap. (If you’ve been here, the AC vent in my living room is position in relation to the couch that the air pours right onto it towards the outside wall. The next day I again got home at around noon and it wasn’t blowing cold air anymore. So I again reported it to maintenance. Then it blew cool air again. Friday was the same story. A few minutes later, the maintenance guy knocked on my door and explained the problem to me.

Apparently there is some sort of major Freon leak in the line. They tried a fix on it and would see if it would work over the weekend. It did, and it worked on to about Thursday with no problem. It goes on like this all of last week. It goes bad, they come out and fix it. Apparently they are trying to isolate the problem. Thursday and Friday of last week they shut power in the building for some reason and it apparently trips the Freon tank hooked up to my unit outside to turn off and it gets to be 85+ in my apartment because, well, it’s hot outside and my AC isn’t blowing cold air. They come back each day and get it pumping cool air again.

Yesterday I got home, and it was blowing cool air, but not a lot of it. I report it before the office closes, then go out to get a hair cut. I come back with dinner, eat it, and about 7pm the maintenance guy knocks on my door and explains the status. Apparently some piece of the unit that costs $700+ has gone bad and will have to be replaced. He said that he has been working most of the day on AC units in the complex (I figure HVAC folks are making a lot of money during this heat wave). So at least I have a status update. I really can’t complain because when it doesn’t work, I’m not at home, and when I get home and it’s hot in the apartment, I report it and they get out fairly quickly to work on it and it’s plenty cool by the time I go to bed. It’s just frustrating. I’m sure I’m not the only person dealing with it. I also pointed out some of the other maintenance problems I have, but he said the apartment was so backed up with AC issues in the complex, that they’ve had to prioritize, which is just as well. That the vent fan in my main bathroom is on the fritz too is of MUCH less importance to me than getting my AC working in this blasted heatwave. That’s just a bit of an eyesore, versus something that could, in theory at least, endanger my health.

One more post will include impressions of Christ Pres, and Oxford in general (both good thus far). That will probably be the final post about my first few days in Oxford and I can get onto a “regular” posting schedule.