I’ve never been a big believer in superstitions or the like.Black cats and leaning ladders have never given me thatback-of-the-neck hair-raising effect.

Now if you had asked me if I believe in Murphy’s Law, whichstates “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,” then I wouldhave to say maybe.

Case-in-point: This past Sunday morning around 2, I wasgradually awakened by the slow trickle of sweat down the center ofmy back. Just another hot flash I thought. It will pass.

By 2:30 a.m., the heat had not abated and I sat straight up inbed and looked at the clock wondering what was going on. Thiswasn’t just your typical hot flash.

I have central air in my more than 100-year-old house and Ishouldn’t be this uncomfortable – hot flashes or not.

I got out of bed and tiptoed to the living room to check out thethermostat – 79 degrees. That couldn’t be right. I usually set thethermostat down to 72 at night. My first thought was someone hasbeen monkeying around with my A/C.

So I touched the temp button and it glowed in bright blue – 72degrees.

So I tiptoed to the dining room window, where I have a greatview of my outside air conditioning/heating unit. I really don’tknow what I was looking to find, but I confirmed that the unit wasstill out there, which means to me – it ought to be working.

I tiptoed back to the living room and turned the unit off andgot back into bed with intentions of calling the repairman at thefirst sign of daylight.

Well, sunlight came and out of politeness I actually waiteduntil 7:30 a.m. to make that call. To my surprise, the repairmansaid he’d be out in just a little bit.

Wow, what luck, I thought.

My air conditioning had to go out on what was going to be thehottest day on record so far for 2010. I just hoped it wasn’tsomething we’d have to order out for in order to fix.

By the time the repairman came to the house at 10 a.m., thetemperature in my home had risen to 84 degrees. By the time therepairman found the problem, repaired my unit and left at 11 or so,the temperature was up to 87 inside.

As luck would have it, a small capacitor had gone out. Somethingvery easy to replace, the repairman said. Once he located one, hehad it installed and my unit was blowing cold air once again.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Cold air = comfort.

Ironically, my husband, grandparents and I were just talkingabout how spoiled to air conditioning we had all gotten duringlunch the previous day.

Back when I was a kid we didn’t have air conditioning in ourhome. I remember many a summer night with my bed pushed next to anopen window that held a box fan. Air conditioning was a luxury.Even having a box fan was a luxury.

When I got to be about 8 or so, my grandparents got a windowunit for their living room, but they only used it on the veryhottest days of summer. I spent many hot summer nights on theirliving room floor asleep under the blowing cold air.

Murphy may have had a hand in this episode – who knows? Buthere’s hoping your air conditioning is working correctly as we gothrough the Dog Days of Summer.

And how was your week?

Graphics and Systems Director Tammie Brewer can be reached atThe DAILY LEADER at (601) 833-6961 ext. 144, by e-mail attbrewer@dailyleader.com or you can write to her at P.O. Box 551,Brookhaven MS 39602