Chapter 3

The business had been good but to be expected, the temperature change occurring in the weather with it cooling down and winter approaching caused the calls for a/c service to slow down. There were a few calls for that but now the calls coming in are for the furnace heat was not working. The maintenance contracts along with new construction kept most of the employees working but admittedly this was the slow time of the year. Helen treated Dan as her son and was on his ass to take a vacation from the business during this slow time.

The winter coming weather caused the Board at the club to propose closing of the golf course to prevent damage to the course. This was voted on by the members and it passed overwhelmingly.

Dan was not against taking a vacation and seriously thought about what he could do. There were various trips, tours, or cruises he could take but the great majority of them had a single supplement which turned Dan off since he was tight with a buck. In giving more thought to the idea of what to do he thought of Pete Wilson who was a club’s golf pro at a club in Phoenix. Pete was the club pro here before he relocated for family reasons and he had been good friends with Dan’s dad. Dan still exchanged Christmas cards with Pete.

Dan gave Pete a phone call and could tell he caught him by surprise. After some chit-chat on how each of them was doing, Dan explained the reason for his call. He said he was looking for a place to take a vacation and was considering Phoenix since he had never been to that area. He asked Pete if he could recommend a place to stay.

Pete told Dan he would enjoy visiting here but said he needed to check on something and would get back to Dan later in the day.

He did call back that afternoon. Pete said there was a couple that he knew who were members of his club that were going to be leaving to go to Boulder, Colorado because their daughter was going to be delivering their first grandchild and they were going to lend her a hand. They planned on being gone for about one month. They wouldn’t need to worry about their fairway home if someone was living in it. With Pete vouching for Dan they agreed to rent it to him at a cost that covered the monthly assessment and the estimated utilities which was a bargain. Dan told Pete he would be hitting the road either Saturday or Sunday and would see him at his club.

Helen was genuinely happy to hear the news that Dan was taking a vacation. She told him not to worry about the business as she would take care of everything. He told he knew she would do that but he told her that he would do a skype phone call with her periodically just to check in on how things were going.

It was a fourteen-hour drive down to Arizona which Dan did by not killing himself and took his time to do this drive in two days.

Walking into the pro shop Pete warmly greeted him and they talked about what has been happening in their lives. Pete was interested in hearing about the club up north and the golf course. Dan told him about the three new championship tees and the two pot-type bunkers that were built. He said there was a rumor going around of there being some interest in the PGA wanting to hold a tournament at the club.

Pete gave Dan a map and the keys to the fairway home along with explaining a little about the area. He also asked Dan for a favor.

“One of my assistants, Karly Sanders told me yesterday she has been having an ongoing problem with her a/c and needs to call a repairman. You can’t imagine what they charge here for a service call. Since I knew you were coming I asked her to hold off her doing that since I thought you could save her a few bucks if you first gave it a look. Can you do that?”

“Sure, that’s no problem.”

Pete took the microphone that was on the counter and over the loudspeaker at the driving range asked that Karly come to the pro shop. He said she was giving a lesson and maybe hitting some balls.

In a few minutes, a young woman somewhere in her middle twenties came into the pro shop walking with confidence in her stride. She was of average height and weight with a slim figure which he could see by the shorts and pullover she wore. She had a pretty face and light brown hair that she was wearing ponytail style with the back of it coming out of her baseball hat. The smile on her face made her instantly loveable.

“What’s up boss,” she said to Pete.

Pete made the introductions. He indicated to Karly that Dan was a good friend along with him being an a/c technician and he would see if he could solve her a/c problem.

Dan could tell that Karly was a lady of few words because all she said was, “Great.”

Dan followed her in his SUV to her condo having some thoughts about her. He did notice that she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring but if she was golfing she may have taken it off. He was going to make it a point to find out her marital status and if she was seeing someone. There was always the question nowadays what side of the plate she swings the bat from? Maybe in Karly case he chuckled, it was on which side of the golf tee does she swing a golf club from? He was hoping she prefers men.

Taking his “go bag” from his SUV which he always kept there, he followed her into her condo. This bag contained gauges, a voltmeter, an amp meter, a thermometer, some tools, and a few other items. Dan asked her to turn on the a/c, He could see that the air output from the vents was substantially on the low side. In looking at the wiring in the unit, the blower was wired for high speed but high air output was not being produced. The filter looked to be brand new. He then thought he saw what the problem was.

Using a little socket set he unscrewed a lower panel to take it off. Once the panel was removed, he took out another air filter which was the permanent type filter that came with the furnace. This other slide-in filter he had previously looked at was an add-on that someone installed in a place where an electronic air filter could be installed. This filter inside the furnace was filthy and clogged which prevented airflow. Dan explained to Karly what he found.