Nest

Y’all.  I’m writing a whole post about a thermostat. This ranks right up there with the “you know you’re old when you rant about gas prices”  line of thought (and we just won’t discuss how often gas prices have been discussed of late).

It is mid-April, and here in East Tennessee that means it is practically summer. Days in the 80s, flip-flops and shorts are in full swing. And of course, so are air conditioners. Last week I kept noticing that our AC was not behaving, and assumed it just needed some seasonal maintenance since the unit was only nine years old. #riiiight. I can’t fully explain what went wrong -something about a copper wire, a hole in the unit, and leaked gas. All I CAN explain is the part about needing a new unit.

Sigh. #yayadulting

So along with our shiny new HVAC, we decided to get one of those programmable thermostats. You know, the one you can control with your phone, that knows when to start cooling the house down and/or warming it up. What you may not know is that in order to OPERATE this fancy thermostat, you actually need a physics degree. And one in organic chemistry. And 20years experience as a developer or coder.

The first day, Bill and I stood in front of it. We pushed the center. YAY! A response. We assumed it was touch screen. Oh wait, not so much. We kept pushing the center. Nada. Then by sheer accident Bill touched the side and oh! It turns, and holy MOLY look at all the different screens! Whoa! It knows what time it is! And what the weather outside is!

I’m not making this up. These are the words that were coming out of our mouths. You’d have thought we had just woken from the Stone Age. Also, none of you are allowed to comment about the fact that we CLEARLY did not even open the instruction manual.

Well then Eileen and her BFF came downstairs. They’re 9 and 10, they have iPods and tablets and are expected to turn in their homework in PowerPoint format. But a thermostat that senses motion and lights up when you get close to it – well golly gee! Those two were enamored.  And of course could not keep their hands off it.  And then Eileen managed to turn on the HEAT. Did I mention it is in the 80s here? In perfect unison, her BFF and I yelled at her – mom voice and all – “EILEEN!” It then took the three of us a solid five minutes to figure out how to get it back to the cooling mode.  And we were incredibly proud of our team effort.

Eileen was then irked with me when I told her she could not download the app. Good Lord – I can just see us coming home on a sub-freezing day and the house is set at 60degrees.

Fast forward five days, and we’ve settled in pretty well with our Nest. We still get a little thrill of excitement when we walk by it and it lights up.  When I’m home alone, it kind of feels like I have a little friend hanging out there on the wall.

As far as I know, we’re not due for any other new appliances. So if you have your heart set on another appliance post any time soon, I curse you!