Bad news bearers

I remember it as a sultry July day in Madison about four years ago when I went to Sears to buy my first window-unit air conditioner.

It was long overdue. We had a 6-month-old baby, and the extreme heat and humidity had us concerned, as new parents so often are.

So I handed over the cash to the helpful Sears clerk, hefted the big box into the back of my car and then hauled the new machine up to our second-floor guest room.

I feel it necessary to point out here that I was tired (as new parents so often are) and hot, both of which could have contributed to my being not necessarily on my game.

At any rate, I got the window ready for the air conditioner, hoisted that thing onto the ledge (remember now, it was humid and my hands were slippery) and watched as my $90 air conditioner dove for the bed of lily of the valley two stories below. I managed to grab the power chord as it trailed out the window, but it slipped out of my grasp.

The first sound I heard was the thud. The second was my wife running to check on my safety — she had heard the thud too, just after seeing something large fly past the dining room window.

That was the last window unit I bought. Two months later, we invested in central air.

For me, that air conditioner was, quite literally, the one that slipped through my fingers. And while it matches neither the size nor the scope of the “ones that got away” described in this month’s “Sometimes a Bridesmaid” feature, I see the telling of that story as my small way of balancing the ledgers with the contractors who chose to share their heartbreaking experiences.

While I was disappointed, I didn’t then, nor do I now, view that plummeting appliance as an indictment of my lack of mechanical prowess (although some might argue to the contrary). By the same token, the contractors’ stories listed in the following pages shouldn’t be seen as comments on their overall quality or qualifications.

Every contractor loses out on projects, and, if the 30 or so calls I made to companies around the state are any indication, almost every contractor has a good story to tell. I heard of cars breaking down on the way to the bid, bid documents turned in minutes past deadline, multimillion dollar hard bids missed by a couple thousand dollars and one project selection many years ago that came down to a literal coin toss.

I can’t argue with the builders who chose to keep their stories relatively private. But, speaking as the owner of a badly dented yet serviceable air conditioner, I still can’t help but see the value in a good story that ends badly.