Just a few weeks into the pandemic and lockdown, I started the project of giving my backyard a makeover.
- I dug a fire pit in the middle of the yard, and surrounded it with gravel to make a cool sitting area.
I tuned up all the landscaping, added new plants, and trimmed back the overgrown hedges for the first time in years. I wasn’t satisfied, though, so I added a 10 by 15 movie screen to the side of the house, so that we could watch movies by the fire! This was a huge hit for the kids, and remained so until the weather turned, and the need for air conditioning returned. There is something about the sound of a crackling fire that can add ambience to a movie, but alas, the sound of an air conditioner isn’t the same. First of all, cooling dissipates so quickly outside that you can barely even feel it when we use the portable air conditioner. Second of all, the thing is insanely loud, nothing at all like a fire or a space heater. Why are space heaters so whisper quiet and these cooling units so blasted loud? We tried using the AC once or twice, but it just disrupted the movie and wasn’t as much fun. Until the cold weather returned, we just watched movies inside, in the comfort of the central A/C and waited until we could get back to the fire. The portable air conditioner worked great, it just was never intended to be used in the open air like that.
Leave a Reply