A breath of fresh air

I bought my daughter a present the other day.

It's not her birthday. And other than being recently promoted at her job, there's no particular achievement to be recognized. But I have a little extra money in my wallet, mostly because we're housebound and can find nothing else to buy but groceries, so I did the nice fatherly thing.

Behold the $49.99 Personal Mini Air Cooler.  I would tell you what brand it was, but from all appearances, Chinese manufacturers of cheap appliances don't believe in that sort of thing.

Like me, you've probably visited Amazon and purchased similarly made products from Wuhan-adjacent sweatshops. Unlike me, you probably haven't taken the time to savor the product packaging.

Upgraded wind speed with much joy.

Color.

Reducing Temperature.

Money Save/Energy Save.

Good to Health.

And my favorite, if you can enlarge the photo: KICTCHEN. By using IDI Mini cooler and enjoy cooking your delicacies.

You might be wondering why, after installing a $15,000 central air conditioning system in my 2 story house, my daughter's room doesn't get any cooling? 

I know my wife is wondering. And despite my many explanations including several viewings of the blueprints, she's still stumped. And still won't let it go.

Years ago, we added another floor to our ranch style California bungalow. Building three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It's all housed under -- I hope I get the architectural lingo correct -- a ridge vented roof. Meaning there is no attic, per se. 

The hallway upstairs has high vaulted ceilings, supported by steel beams. Additionally meaning, there was no way to install duct work to carry cool air from the condenser on one side of the house to reach the other side of the house, where my daughter's bedroom is situated.

If you're following along, that means the cool fresh air produced by the $15,000 a/c unit must travel, in a duct, two stories down the interior of our side of the house, transverse, in the crawl space, to the other side, and then rise back up the two stories to my daughter's southern exposed (hotter) bedroom. By the time it makes that journey it has lost all its palliative value.

I hope this unbranded Personal Mini Air Cooler will put an end to this ongoing discussion, with the unspoken, though clearly intentional, implication that I hired the wrong a/c guys and fucked up.

If it does, it could be the best $49.99 I have ever spent in my life.