THE AIR CONDITIONING IS FIXED. THERE IS, IN FACT, SALVATION FOR THE SONS OF MAN.

I booked a visit from the HVAC guy anytime between 8 am and 8 pm. So I was pleasantly surprised when the guy came at 9 am. tl;dr there were three things wrong with the system:

(1) The air conditioning unit outside was covered in crust and gunk, so it couldn’t properly vent hot air. It needed a thorough cleaning.

(2) The capacitor was dead. Possibly I caused this by leaving the air conditioning on after it died on Wednesday. The theory is that it kept trying to work over and over until it blew the capacitor. I ran into the electrician from the floor below us, and he said he could hear a breaker(?) repeatedly starting up(?) from our unit last night. (Any inaccuracy in relaying this statement is assuredly due to me, not him.)

(3) The refrigerant is leaking. This has apparently been a previous/ongoing issue. The guy found green dye in the system, indicating a previous repairman added dye to trace a leak. There’s enough refrigerant for now, considering we’re at the end of the season, but it will eventually need a top-up. (can they fix the leak? questions I should have asked) Anyway I booked a follow-up in six months for them to check the air conditioning, and the heating and plumbing while they’re at it. A price premium for People Who Are Bad At This Kind of Thing.

But yeah, for now, it’s fixed. The relief was near-instant; somehow, 84 with the air conditioning working feels so much better than 86 with none. The temperature decrease since then has been gradual. It’s 5 pm and we’re only down to 77 degrees. I guess it’s the same old jank system as before. Well, that’s fine. I’ll take it.