How do you know it's going to be a hot day?

When it's 80 degrees at 7:45am. I will admit that I am getting used to the heat, and I am a little worried that I will be cold when I go home and want to wear pants the whole time (since I already start putting on pants when it's less than 80, but that's mostly because it's in the evening, and if we're going somewhere, it's probably to an air conditioned restaurant, store, etc., and the worst thing in the world is being freezing cold while trying to eat your dinner). So, I guess we'll just have to see.

Tomorrow is my birthday, which I am quite excited about, although not for the reason you might thing: I have the day off! Since I scheduled my vacation in February, long before I had actual plane tickets, I just took the whole day off. Technically, I could have worked in the morning before the flight, but there are lots of things to do before we leave, and it is my birthday. The exciting note is that I got an appointment to get the Saab inspected, instead of waiting for a gazillion hours at Jiffy Lube downtown, which we did the last time. The place I'm going to is called "European Performance," and they have a significant number of Porsches in their parking lot. I tried the "lower class" West German Auto Repair first (and by lower class, I mean VWs, Audis and Volvos, so not exactly a Ford dealer or anything), which is across the street and about 100 yards closer to our house, but they didn't have any slots open on Friday and suggested I try European Performance across the street. I have to tell you, these people were nice. I think that's why I like driving a Saab more than say, a Focus - those Saab mechanics are the nicest people I have ever met.

Maybe you get a little more respect when you drive a car that, when new, would have cost more than I make in a year, let alone what a new one would cost now (probably 2x as much as I make in a year). I don't know what it is, but I've never met an obnoxious Saab mechanic or salesman, and I've been to a lot of Saab dealers in my day. If they recognize that you have some knowledge about cars, they will explain it all to you if you want, and if you have no knowledge (like my mom), they just write it all out so she can show it to my dad (which she likes, because she doesn't have to listen to it, and my dad likes, because he doesn't have to figure out what she's trying to say). In any case, I've been to a few Toyota dealers in my day, mostly to test drive cars, and even though Camrys are "The #1 selling car in America," I'm not all that impressed with the dealerships. Not a nice bunch. I thought the whole, "talk only to the man" thing was dead, but that was quite naive of me to think, now wasn't it?

Anyway, the people at European Performance sure helped me out. I guess they don't normally make appointments for inspections (people just drop off their cars in the morning), but when I explained that I really couldn't just drop it off, they got me an appointment right at 9am. And, I'll be supporting a local business instead of a chain. Maybe they'll let me test drive a Porsche while I'm there. Probably not :)