Hot Under the Collar

We found out why our air conditioning was costing a fortune last summer while barely cooling the house. Back a few years ago, Mr. Cranky was raising birds and had most of them in the garage. Then his breathing got bad and he wasn't able to keep up with cleaning up after the birds. Then the rats moved in to feed on the seed droppings and steal the birds' water. Mr. Cranky was up in the attic recently and found that our air conditioning ducts are full of holes. We've been cooling off an uninsulated attic and wondering why the bills were huge while the house was still warm. Now it's time to patch the holes before we can afford to run the A/C again. Praise God we found the damage before it got too hot around here, so we still have time to fix it before we both melt into puddles of perspiration. How anyone survived in Florida before air conditioning was invented is beyond me.