Ups and Downs

I came home to a hot house...VERY hot.  The humidity is awful, with this storm system trying to move through, and for some reason, the house was WAY hotter than normal:

86 may not sound like much, but it is HOT and STICKY in here.  My first thought was, "Why didn't we leave the attic fan on, like we usually do?" 

I was putting some things away, and told Monica to turn it on.  She reported back, "Mom (this sounded more like MOOOMMMMMM!) it doesn't come on, it just makes a low sound."  Ah crap.  It had been on all day, but not working.

Yeah, I know there's paint on the bottom of the switch.  Let it go, will ya?

I called Kevin and told him about it.  He was bummed.  I said, I wonder if we burned it up?  He got more down.  Then the part of me that is my father said, "Hey, it's JUST a fan.  How tough could it be?  We'll just look at it and fix it.  No biggie."  He didn't sound convinced, but then he said, "Maybe it IS just a belt or something, I'll look when I get home."

We had to unload 4052 blankets from the closet, where the attic access door is.  The girls helped me move them all to the guest room.  We have a LOT of blankets, but we finally got them out so I could climb up into this dusty hole.

Here is blanket mountain.

I was SO relieved to find this.

A very worn, very dirty, very broken belt.  PHEW!  With any luck, Kevin can get one on the way home and we'll be cool again.  By the time I climbed out of the attic, I was quite hot and sweaty and dusty. (sexy image, huh?) I stepped outside to let the impending storm cool me off.

The wind is cool and wonderful, and the thunder sounds great.  I am ready for a storm, but it doesn't look like we'll get much of it. 

While I was cooling off, I strolled around my flower bed, and cheered up at this sight.

How pretty are these? 

And THAT, folks, was my first 15 minutes at home.  What further adventures will this evening bring?  Stay tuned to find out.