For a while my wife and I felt like the traditional “fish out of water.” We were city folk, trying to fit into rural small town life, and it took a little getting used to! Thankfully, the locals were all very kind people, even if a bit rough around the edges, and after a while they grew to embrace us and make us a part of their community.
Like I said, it was a little rocky at first, especially that first big crisis we encountered, when our home HVAC system broke down.
My wife tried to find a phone number for an HVAC repair service, but this far out in the country there was no such business! Instead we went to the only business in town that sold air conditioners, which was the small hardware store next to the gas station. They sold the small, portable kind of air conditioners, along with space heaters, and that was the closest thing to an HVAC shop she could find. Of course she didn’t want to buy a little unit, she wanted to track down someone who could get our central HVAC system back up and running. The man who ran the hardware store said that there were no certified HVAC repair techs in the town, which is why most people relied on the smaller units. Although we didn’t want to do it, my wife saw the sense in not putting up a fight, and just settling for the small AC unit for now. One day we could get the central HVAC fixed, but for now this would do.