Working in a restaurant during the summer months can be hot, hot, work. If you have spent 8 to 10 hours over a hot grill or a set of fryers day in and day out while the temperatures outside climbed into the 80’s and 90’s you would know what I mean. No matter how good the businesses air conditioning system is it simply can’t overcome the heat.

Where I work, our air conditioner is old and sometimes, cannot work to its full potential. The thing rumbles along, coughing every so often. A week ago, we began having a hot spell. Each day the daytime temperatures would hit the high 80’s to mid 90’s. Clouds, hung in the sky making everything muggy and therefore seeming much hotter than the actual temperature.

Our good old air conditioner did it’s best to keep up. Rumbling along for five minutes or so, then we would hear the eckeckeck, little cough it gives. All of a sudden, it gives a little cough, a high pitched whine that sounded something like ehhhhhhhhhhhhewwwwww and then dead silence.

We all waited it to start rumbling again, but the silence stretched into minutes and then into an hour. Deciding that the conditioner had finally given up the ghost we called our boss and reported the problem.

He came right out, checked things over, gave this and that a bang, and reported that he needed to call in a repairman. Meanwhile the two other cooks and myself continued working in the sweltering heat. We watched in horror as the temperature in our work area climbed to 105 degrees, then 110 degrees.

Like true troopers we remained at our posts, sweat dripping from our chins, and our shirts growing damper and damper.

By days end we all looked like we had been drenched with hoses.

Our boss reported that the repairman would be out the next morning to take a look at things.

That was a week ago Tuesday. It seems that there is some small part that hardly ever breaks down in air conditioning systems, that decided to break down in ours. The repair man did not have the part on hand and had to order it. We are still waiting.

Meanwhile we have been working in temperatures over 100 degrees each day surviving as best we can, but the heat has taken it’s toll. Tempers are fraying, people are calling in sick, making the rest of us work short handed, and as luck would have it business has been booming. (For some odd reason the air conditioner is the dining room is working just fine, and everyone comes in for lunch to escape the heat!)