It’s hot in Alabama.  Driving around on the asphalt would be completely unbearable (made worse by the complaining kids and nagging spouse).  Texas is just as bad, but I don’t think I would get quite as desperate at the Texas man who rigged his car with a window air conditioning unit.  My pride wouldn’t let me get by with it.  It would be too much like having your broken window covered with a garbage bag and duct tape.

The air on our family car did go out a few weeks ago.  It’s a fairly new vehicle, so the only thing it could be was the Freon – right?  So very wrong.  The mechanic tried to contain his grin when he told me that I needed a new compressor AND that it would cost over $700.

There goes the summer vacation, but since we were going to drive, no air would keep it from being much of a vacation.

I was tempted to grin and bare it for the rest of the summer.  How bad could it get for just two more months?  The next week was paced with 100 degree weather.  Try doing that in a van with no air.  The next morning I had the car at the grinning mechanic’s and he has us ready to go by the end of the day.

Going without air conditioning for that short amount of time makes me wonder how any one could survive without it.  I remember going to Canada a few years back and seeing car lots that advertised “cars with air.”  Is it possible that luxuries become so engrained in our lives that they become necessities?