Paperwork: Yep, sure is a hot one today. Anyone want some Kool-Aid?

The day started as usual – hot and humid. A pattern I will call The Summer of 2025.

It was early Sunday. Our air conditioner kicked on. My happy button triggers every time that happens. It had been happening a lot.

“Yesss, it’s still working,” I’m thinking ... and wondering when it will not. The air conditioner is old. I could hear the AC fan whooshing, but something was wrong. Then the alarm went off. That would be my wife.

“It’s not working,” she declared. I could sense her terror already. “We have to fix it. Now.”

I was thinking we’d call our AC guys on Monday. She was clutching her phone. The only action quicker, maybe, would be a 911 call if the house were on fire. Which, in some ways, apparently it was.

Sunday would mean overtime rates. Didn’t matter. But there was a problem. The number she called was not working. I tried on my phone with the same dead end.

“I guess it will be Monday,” I’m thinking, but not saying aloud. The wife, however, had already found a way to text the company our SOS and alert them that their phone line was down.

Soon she got a call back. They were so grateful to find out about their phone and would dispatch a repairman immediately. It was not that immediate, but somehow, testing the limits of human endurance, I assumed we’d survive.

I began to worry less about my wife’s slow cooking and more about the expense. I began digging through files for the history of our air conditioner. I feared the whole unit needed replacing.

Arrgh. I found it. Our unit was more than 23 years old. Then I really began to sweat. (Ha. Just kidding. No one was sweating. Yet.)

The repairman arrived with a smile. (Clearly, he could fix anything.) I’m wondering if he has a new AC unit in his van or if we’ll have to wait. The wife had already mentioned staying somewhere else ... with air-conditioning.

He was having a slow day, then suddenly job calls started popping. (That happens when your phone starts working again.) Finally, he opened up our AC unit as I told him it was very old.

“Looks like you need a new capacitor,” he said. Everything else looked good. A happy ending. Our house became a home again, where human beings can eat and sleep and play. Crisis averted.

But here I am, telling this tale of horror as a reminder to myself and perhaps many of you. Yes, take a moment to recall what we call the good old days.

I remember many hot summer days when any cool breeze in the house came through screened windows. Large fans worked pretty well. You just had to sit in front of them ... all day.

Oh, I do recall feeling the heat. But I was a kid. The little fans were fun. You could get up close and talk through them. Made a funny voice. After a cold glass of Kool-Aid, I’d run back outside to get another blistering sunburn I would enjoy peeling later.

Older folks tended to sit around fanning themselves with little paddles and talking about the weather.

“Yep, it’s a hot one today,” they’d say. Yep, today I’d say the same thing. Hot and humid. Right now it’s 91 on my front porch ... in the shade.

So (add another yep) I’m inside, and my AC just kicked on. Still working. For now.

• Lonny Cain, retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter for The Herald-News in Joliet in the 1970s. His PaperWork email is lonnyjcain@gmail.com. Or mail the NewsTribune, 426 Second St., La Salle IL 61301.