bryant is no more.....

Ever been around somebody who was loud and obnoxious? Someone who showed up every day, did their job, but you never knew if they'd be there the next day? Someone who gave you a number of reasons to dismiss them from your life, but instead you let them hang around until they ended the relationship themselves? We had one of those situations happen to us as home recently.

Bryant was our downstairs heating and cooling system. No, we don't name appliances at our house. Bryant was the name brand. It was a construction-grade system that came with the house. About a month ago, the system sounded like a cross between a train and and airplane. It stopped doing vehicular impersonations and went to wildlife sounds. The bride said it sounded like an angry screech owl.

We had a company come out to tell us what was wrong with Bryant, like we didn't already know. We knew it was dying, we just didn't want to replace it. Not because we'd become attached to it, but because companies actually charge for new heating and cooling systems. (I know, strange, huh?) The technician told us how much it would be to fix the unit. Then he informed us that because a couple of holes in one of the components could cause carbon monoxide to blow into our house, he had to legally shut the system off. Come to think of it, I had been sleeping rather soundly over the past few days.

Bryant ceased to exist around 3:00 PM on Tuesday. The new unit was installed on Wednesday. It's quiet, it's efficient, and it isn't the size of a 1947 Buick.....