Aaron Ewer

In this part of the country, August will be the hottest, with high humidity and temperatures that can range from the upper 80’s to triple digits. Last year there was a full week of temperatures that topped 100 degrees and very little rain, which brought about water shortages in various parts and an outcry for fans and room air conditioners for the homeless and disadvantaged.

This year we have been lucky to have most days in the 80’s and only a few in the 90’s. At the moment it is 92 degrees with dark skies and the stillness in the air that precedes the summer thunder storms. The hot weather doesn’t usually other me much, but the air conditioning in my car has gone out, making the commute a little uncomfortable.

I took the car to my mechanic and had him run a check on the A/C system. That set me back 4 hours and $80 for the diagnostics and a squirt of freon. But the truth is, the condenser is on its last legs and my mechanic says I need a new one ASAP. He says he can’t even guarantee that the air conditioning compressor will last the rest of summer. But hold on to your wallet, folks - the estimate for him putting in a new one is $1,800.

This sent me right to the internet to check out the prices of an a/c compressor for my car. Found a site with a handy search tool and I went right to the page with information on the BMW AC compressor. Now that I see the cost for just the compressor runs about $500 I’m not so worried about the repair estimate. But this also gives me the information I need to go back and haggle with my mechanic to get the price down.

If you have any tips on shopping for a/c compressors and getting them fixed, give me a shout. For now, I’ve found a decent web site for parts pricing and that’s worth checking out if you are having the same problems that I’m having.

Sitting at a stoplight down in the Land of Excess, all of a sudden there was a lurch forward as somebody ran into the back end of my SUV. I was at a complete stop and the guy behind was slowing but I have no idea why he rammed into me.

Jumped out and ran to the back to look at the bumper and see if there was any damage. Thankfully, I have a trailer hitch and heavy duty bumper on mine and there was not even a tiny dent on my vehicle. But the other guy’s entire front grill had collapsed and popped loose. Lucky his airbags didn’t go off. Even luckier, neither of us was hurt.

It’s been a while since I went into a Harley Davidson dealership and looked at a bike. They are still an elusive dream for a lot of middle aged boomer guys, and Harley Davidson is really playing up to their fat wallets. There is all kinds of gear and accessories heavily logo’d for the new rider to spend money on.

The home base for H-D has always been Milwauke and now they have opened a new museum. Anyone with an interest in the story of America’s bike tradition will probably enjoy this. There’s a great video on the new museum from the Chiago Tribune web site:
H-D Video

Our CEO is a high profile man who travels most of the time. His life is truly a series of airport to hotel to board meeting to airport type of days. He flies all over the country 5 days a week but insists on being home with his family on the weekend. If he absolutely cannot be home on the weekend he often arranges for his family to be flown out to wherever he is meeting so they can have some short trips away and spend time with him. I admire his resolve and dedication to his family.

Last week he was supposed to fly back to Nashville from a Las Vegas convention. The flight was supposed to stop in Houston, but with such bad weather, his flight was diverted to Arkansas. With it being so late and with the really bad weather, he couldn’t find another commercial flight to get him home for the final leg of his trip. I overheard his secretary begging the travel agent to find a way to get him home, and what they ended up doing was chartering a private plane from Arkansas to Nashville.

He sang the praises of the charter service called Wing Aviation when he came in the office the next day. He says the plane was first class equipment, the crew was top notch and they got him home safely and quickly. What more could you ask for? Thank goodness his secretary and the travel agent were resourceful enough to search for and find the keywords airplane charter Arkansas to find Wing Aviation’s contact number and get him home that night.

Since the wife has to lay off caffeine for a few days while she battles a bladder infection, we’ve been trying to find something for her to drink besides water. We got the brainstorm this morning to head over to the local Sonic Drive In and she ordered a watermelon slush. That really hits the spot when the temperatures outside hit into the 80′2 or 90’s, and today we with 84, last I looked.

I love the Sonic Drive In for the basic hamburger and chili cheese dog kind of quick meal, and the types of beverages and multitude of flavors is awesome. It can be hard to make up your mind just which one you want to order!

I wish we had Sonics when I was a kid, but I never saw one until we moved to Tennessee back in the 90’s. Witht he Sonic version of a drive in, you pull into a stall and stay in you car, then order through a car-side menu and speaker system, then a carhop brings your food out to the car. Some of them still have carhops bring the food to your car while skating on roller skates. That’s a lot of fun - reminds me of American Graffiti.