JAN: I like to create characters who are sleuths, but I'm not much of sleuth in real life, at least not when it comes to any kind of mechanical mystery.
When we came home from a weekend of island breezes on Martha's Vineyard,to a airtight house and an air conditioning that wouldn't flip on, my solution was to wait until the morning when I could call "the air conditioning guy."
But while I went off to buy groceries, my sleuth husband lit his pipe and did his Sherlock Holmes thing. After determining that all the circuit breakers were okay, he wondered what else could cut the electricity that wasn't getting to the thermostat. Little tiny teeth that's what.
Anyway, when I came home, he was quite excited to drag me up the attic (you can't believe how hot it was in 80 degree weather) and show me how the squirrels had not only eaten through the wires, but also turned the air handler unit into a clever place to store acorns.
Sherlock fixed the problem -- luckily, in this heat.
Apparently, it was an excellentyear for acorns and a tough one on air conditioning units.
