I was a spunky, sassy mess, and when I spewed that crass expression, one hand would be on my hip, my middle finger in vast display, and maybe my tongue would be sticking out.
If the situation were incredibly sticky, I would call upon my big sister Anita as a backup.
She instilled fear in every boy, girl, woman, man, and dog. She grew her nails to be a better fighter. She was tough, stylish, talented, and well angry. “I’ll get my sister Anita to beat you,” I’d say confidently. But her three years older than me, she wasn’t readily available to protect me. Such was my childhood. There were so many things to be angry at in my side of town, you had to be tough to survive, and if life hadn’t pushed you to be, you had to act like you were. The streets were piranhas ready to devour anyone. With the odds against us, my sister became an a/c worker. If I looked up to her now, I worshipped the ground she walked on. Before long, she made it possible for me to join the cooling corporation where she worked as a cooling specialist. Before I joined, Anita would take me along during the air conditioning service. It was not long before I could carry out an air conditioning tune-up, and that was when Anita told me to apply for the job opportunity they had announced. We were both so excited when I got accepted. I did my first HVAC installation with my sister by my side. I remember telling her that our first new air conditioning system would be a ductless mini-split. True to my word, after a year of working together in the indoor comfort business, we purchased our first electric heat pump. A digital thermostat accompanies the quality HVAC to help with indoor comfort. It was not much to an outsider, but to us, it was everything. The number of hurdles we had to conquer to be a/c professionals was immense.