I already know that one of my Father’s Day presents is a nice warm L.L. Bean blanket. It’s not because I’m old and need a nap. It’s for watching TV at night in the summer. To keep our upstairs anywhere near comfortable for sleeping, our central air has to work very hard. This makes our TV room, which is one of the lowest rooms in the house, absolutely freezing.

My house has central air but we also have room air conditioners in two of the upstairs bedrooms because the central air is not enough to cool them. I think that the root of the problem is that our house does not have enough ductwork upstairs. My house was built in 1980. I wonder if the central air system was designed for 1980 levels of heat, which were lower on average, because it certainly can’t keep up with 2020 levels for the top half of the house.

I could be wrong about that, because I see climate change all over the place around me, and it might just be fatalism on my part. But I think I am at least partially right.