I’m one of those people who is easily shamed, if I’m being honest with you. I’m prone to red faces and nervous sweats, sour stomachs and sleepless nights of kicking myself for something stupid I said or did. It sounds bad and it is… but to be fair, I mostly impose this guilt on myself. I tend to be a perfectionist, and I take failure quite hard. That’s why it’s been six months and I still haven’t forgiven myself for the stupid decisions I made regarding my home AC unit, not in the least. You see, I had grand plans of being a responsible home owner when I first acquired my place. The idea was to take proper care of the building and appliances, including the central heating and cooling system, so that my humble abode would last forever! In practice, however, I completely failed my indoor air conditioning system. After that, the central cooling system also failed me. I realized one day that the AC unit wasn’t running, and no magic combination on the thermostat was helping to bring it back to life. I called my local HVAC company and asked for immediate HVAC service, which they were happy to provide for a large sum of money. When the cooling technician arrived, it didn’t take him long to figure out the problem with my AC unit… the air filter had never been changed, and it caused the fan motor to burn out. When he presented me with the disgusting, busted air filter and told me that was the problem, my only response was, “what is that?” Like an idiot. The shame I felt when he told me about routine HVAC maintenance may never fade.