At The Mercy Of A Landlord

DD#1 has been staying at my house for a month. It is not by her choice, but by necessity. The a/c in the house she has rented went out and, although the unit is still under warranty or maybe because it is under warranty, she had to wait for a part to be ordered and to be delivered. They finally called yesterday to tell her the part in question had arrived.
"Oh, did it just come in?" she asked.
"No, it came in last week, but the owner was out of town and we had to wait for his approval," they answered.

DD#1 and her boys moved here from Alaska just over a year ago so they are not very tolerant of Central Texas temperatures which have been hovering near the century mark. Thus, the visit with me where I maintain a household temperature that reminds them of their northernmost home.

Today is "fix the a/c day" and I have volunteered to be on hand to open the house so DD#1 doesn't have to take off another day of work. You know the drill, "Wait for us, we'll show up sometime between 9 and 5." DD #1 managed to negotiate little better time so I have only had to wait an hour.

The sad part of this is that as a renter, she apparently has no rights. She and her sons could not tolerate the 90+ degrees of the house and the owner / rental co. are not obligated to reimburse her for the month she could not spend there. They did, however, continue to charge rent. The owner / rental co. are not even out the cost of the a/c repair since it is under warranty. I wonder how highly principled the owner is. Each of has a price on our integrity, is his price one month's rent? Fortunately, our 3 generation living situation has been rather pleasant.

I was reflecting on my years growing up in Texas' heat and humidity. How did we survive? I think it was because we were not accustomed to a/c everywhere we went. The heat and humidity were debilitating, but we coped by opening all our windows to let the breeze blow through, running fans, closing shades to keep the sun out, and drinking plenty of water. As the sun set, the neighborhoods came alive with families gathering outside on the steps and porches of their houses, waiting for kitchens and bedrooms to cool before bedtime. The racuous sounds of children playing hide and seek in the twilight hours heralded the silence of nights, unbroken by the clatter of air conditioners. It was an interesting time but I wouldn't trade it for my climate controlled living environment now.