Year after year, my church hosts a shopping trip event for the ladies of the church and their friends.
- The goal is usually to give the ladies some time to enjoy themselves and go shopping.
It is one of the most popular weekends of the year. Everyone gets together in small groups and chooses the shopping destination of their choice. The entire crew, though, stays in the exact same hotel, and we have a meeting in the conference room on the first night to play games and answer questions. Normally, this meeting is the best part of the entire trip, but last time, it ended up being miserable. At the start of our meeting, everything was great. The thermostat was set at the perfect temperature, and the indoor quality of air was amazing. We were all having a great deal of fun. After a little while, though, we noticed that it was getting colder. The air conditioner must have been continuously running ever since everyone started the meeting. The climate control was fine while we were running and playing games, but once we stopped to focus on the more serious part of the meeting, the air conditioning was just overbearing. It was the middle of summer, so we were all dressed in light, summery clothes. Only a few of the older ladies had thought to bring a sweater. The pastor’s wife sent me to ask the front desk about possibly turning down the air conditioning. I went around to the front desk, but they told me that this air conditioning was at its normal temperature, and they were not sure they were authorized to adjust the thermostat. In order to turn it down, they had to call in a manager to get approval to adjust that thermostat. It was thirty minutes before we were free from the air conditioning!