State of the irregular
Apr. 11th, 2009 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularSo, what's the what with the me? (And more to the point, who cares? But I digress.)
Getting air conditioning in an apartment in Athens isn't as simple as getting a window unit. Most windows in apartment buildings here aren't built along those lines, and anyway, "window units" aren't found for sale here. The most common air conditioner is a two-piece "split unit" or packaged terminal air conditioner, and it's more of a general climate-control unit, handling cooling, heating, and de-humidifying. (Reminiscent of the old Steven Wright joke: "I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier, turned them on in the same room, and had them fight it out.") The exterior unit does the cooling, and cool air gets piped to the interior control unit. The system actually operates with a remote control, and is somewhat more sophisticated than the wall or window units I've seen stateside. It's possible to do things like set a timer so that the A/C will turn on half an hour before I get home in the evening, or set it to maintain a specific temperature (instead of guessing via a manual power control dial), or set a "sleep" mode where the thing will reduce power gently over time as I sleep, turning off in the morning.
Given the levels of heat I dealt with last summer, the thing should be a boon. Only downside: they had to put a hole in the wall to pass the duct through.
More immediately, I fly out to New York on Monday morning. It's Orthodox Easter week, and the office is generally slow then. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both days off at the office, so it's like I'm taking off a week and a half instead of two full weeks. The first week is booked up with medical appointments and the like, and then I can start relaxing and enjoying myself. Next Sunday, I'll see a game at the new Yankee Stadium. Looking forward to seeing what it looks like; the old Stadium had a lot of grandeur to it, but it suffered from its makeover in the seventies, and it was literally starting to fall apart. Besides, it's the team that makes the place special. Although I'm glad they didn't resort to selling naming rights.
Then more rest and relaxation, and a flight back to Athens the following Friday, hopefully with batteries somewhat recharged.
Oh, that reminds me. Need to charge batteries for things like the laptop and the MP3 player...
Getting air conditioning in an apartment in Athens isn't as simple as getting a window unit. Most windows in apartment buildings here aren't built along those lines, and anyway, "window units" aren't found for sale here. The most common air conditioner is a two-piece "split unit" or packaged terminal air conditioner, and it's more of a general climate-control unit, handling cooling, heating, and de-humidifying. (Reminiscent of the old Steven Wright joke: "I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier, turned them on in the same room, and had them fight it out.") The exterior unit does the cooling, and cool air gets piped to the interior control unit. The system actually operates with a remote control, and is somewhat more sophisticated than the wall or window units I've seen stateside. It's possible to do things like set a timer so that the A/C will turn on half an hour before I get home in the evening, or set it to maintain a specific temperature (instead of guessing via a manual power control dial), or set a "sleep" mode where the thing will reduce power gently over time as I sleep, turning off in the morning.
Given the levels of heat I dealt with last summer, the thing should be a boon. Only downside: they had to put a hole in the wall to pass the duct through.
More immediately, I fly out to New York on Monday morning. It's Orthodox Easter week, and the office is generally slow then. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both days off at the office, so it's like I'm taking off a week and a half instead of two full weeks. The first week is booked up with medical appointments and the like, and then I can start relaxing and enjoying myself. Next Sunday, I'll see a game at the new Yankee Stadium. Looking forward to seeing what it looks like; the old Stadium had a lot of grandeur to it, but it suffered from its makeover in the seventies, and it was literally starting to fall apart. Besides, it's the team that makes the place special. Although I'm glad they didn't resort to selling naming rights.
Then more rest and relaxation, and a flight back to Athens the following Friday, hopefully with batteries somewhat recharged.
Oh, that reminds me. Need to charge batteries for things like the laptop and the MP3 player...
