Yesterday found me back behind the wheel of my old car, cruising all the hell over the place. Not for fun, mind you. I had bid-ness to tend, and it took me to Holly-weird and The Valley, including points in-between. It was good bid-ness, so I didn’t complain. Not when I hit traffic, and not when I got stuck in hot.

 

Here’s what happened… I was adjusting the vent lever in the old Volvo and I felt something snap. This has never happened before, and somehow I knew it wasn’t good. It only took a few seconds to realize how right I was. It wasn’t good. The vent control had somehow broken and was stuck in hot. As in – the fresh air side of things was no longer accessible, and instead the heat from the car’s engine was pumping – hard – into the car. Ugh. I thought I could handle it. I rolled down the windows and opened both front wing windows for what some of us call 2-35 air conditioning: 2 windows opened while driving 35 miles per hour. It should have helped. But that hot-ass air floating up from the floor vent was killing me. So I did the only thing I could. I drove straight to my mechanic’s. He man-handled the vent’s control cable and locked the danged lever into fresh-air mode. And he didn’t charge me. Have I mentioned how much I love my mechanic?

 

I got back into the old Volvo and it immediately felt cooler. I drove home, comfortably, and all was well. Now that summer’s here (and it is), I’m thinking I’m gonna be okay, being stuck in cool.

 

Dear god – please don’t let there be a cold snap.