I know why Memorial Day weekend is a huge kick-off to the summer. The temperatures in New York have gone up, and humidity is now sticky and dense. The old gum on the sidewalk is gooey again, and the rank smell of the subway stations is a little bit worse. Ahh summer in the city.

To comabat the heat in our little apartment, Angie and I installed our air conditioner. Since most of the buildings are old it is hard to find central air anywhere, and even the fanciest of old New York apartment buildings have an eyesore a/c unit sticking out of the windows during summer. Ours is by no means attractive, but essential for the summers here. Of course the worst part about the looks of this machine is the items used to jerry-rig it to the window.

When I first arrived at the apartment, I saw the machine wrapped in a black garbage bag hiding out behind a chair. On top of it were two pillows and three cans of Campbell's chicken soup. I thought the soup and pillows were left by a previous tenant, and they were hidden there until someone decided what to do with them. Angie didn't know what the pillows were for, but I learned on Saturday that the cans of soup were meant for the air conditioner.

Angie and I hefted the dusty, heavy machine to the window where it would take up residence for the summer. I'm sure you have a basic idea how this works. The bulk of the square contraption hangs outside of the window, while the the window itself holds it in place. Since the weight of the unit is oustide we needed to place things under the a/c to keep it from breaking the window and falling to its death. This is where the cans of soup come in. I guess food storage is important for more than just curing hunger in times of famine. I put the cans under the a/c but there was still a large gap between the cans and the a/c. So we stopped our labors to figure out another plan. Angie decided to go to the hardware store to get some wood to put under the machine instead of the soup.

Later that evening, after a hot afternoon we put the a/c back into the window. Angie had purchased cans of fruit which were larger than the soup cans. She also bought three 2"x4" pieces of wood, each about 8 inches in length. With the a/c unit in place at the window, we slid the wood under it. There was still a gap. We next tried the cans of fruit...no luck. The soup and fruit cans and one piece of wood were still insufficient. Finally we came up with the combination: two pieces of wood on top of the soup cans. Even with the wood and cans firmly in place, the job was not done. The a/c unit was not as wide as our window, so we had to close the gap before we invited in every bug in the neighborhood. I imagine that's probably what the pillows were for since I've seen pillows used in other winows. I've also seen plastic, wood, and paper. Angie decided to use fun foam. She likes crafts, and luckily had some supplies. We decided on the blue foam (our other choices were red and yellow), and she hammered and taped the foam into place.

It's ugly, but the idea of it is way more attractive than three sweaty girls with frizzy hair.