lucky day

As regular readers of this blog probably recall, our purple minivan is a car with a number of "issues". So many so that our mechanic told us we would need to take it to the dealer to have some of them fixed (specifically the problem with the air bag) before he would inspect it. Yesterday was the day of reckoning, so to speak, with the van scheduled for a 1pm appointment at MidState Dodge on the Barre-Montpelier Road. I called at 4:30pm to confirm how late they were open, and was told that they were STILL working on the van. Prepared for the absolute worst (what kind of bill do you get if the dealer has been working on your car for nearly FOUR hours!?!) I arrived to pick up the car. After signing a number of forms, the guy simply said "You're good to go." "Did my husband leave you with a credit card when he dropped the car off?" I asked, somewhat confused. "No, the air bag problem was actually a recall - no charge." Sweet Jesus. But it gets better. I thought, heck, if they were messing around with the electronics maybe they were able to exorcise some of the car's other demons. And they did - both the horn and the cruise control are functional again too. What our luck!