Time for our annual home repair SNAFU!!! HVAC this time...(FIXED! Now I'm cold!)

I got some pictures of my wife working on the AC unit outside. I know, I know. Pics or it didn't happen, right? Well, here ya go!

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This is what we found when we opened the panel on the outside. YUCK!

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A closeup of the capacitor and the crud on it.

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What these pictures don't show is what sent one of our other neighbors, an actual HVAC tech and not the office manager like my wife, running away. There were a few other things inside this panel that we cleaned out before we started poking around.

Last year, while walking past the AC unit outside, we smelled something dead but could never figure it out. Well, we did today. These were inside the electrical panel. Not sure if they got fried, or what, but it was a momma snake and some babies. Emphasis on the WAS!

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So, that's our fun for the evening. Tomorrow, when the supply house opens, we're gonna get a new start capacitor and see if that fixes anything. If nothing else, it'll at least look better than the cruddy thing we've got now! I hope my wife is there when the old capacitor is discharged before removal. I want to see the look on her face when it pops! I'll update more when we have a little more info. Thanks for all the suggestions!