Dan is the man today

I love my mechanic Dan. I want to bake him cookies, maybe even a pie. (I'd have his babies, but I'm really done with that and it would be weird.)

What brings about such devotion, you ask? Several reasons but the latest is AIR, GLORIOUS AIR! -- as in AIR CONDITIONING.

The air conditioning in my van has been dying. It's been ugly. Actually, it's been hot and sweaty and just unpleasant. I leave nothing in the car and leave all the windows open so it doesn't get too hot. I aggressively pursue shady parking spots (My apologies to the lady with the perfectly good working air conditioning and the tinted windows in the Expedition at the Kaiser parking lot last week.) and generally just live with it.

Fear of how much it was going to cost kept me away from Dan. 

Well, yesterday was the day we gave in and took the van to Dan and he fixed it. Life is good -- gas is down to $3.69 a gallon and I've got working AC. Pile the family in and let's drive around until that sucker feels like a meat locker! (OK. Not really, but you understand the feeling, yes?)

Today, I left things in the van that I had to lock up. No windows down. Several sunny hours later, I just hopped in, cranked up the AC and oooooh it felt gooooood. 

Worth every penny...