The van is back and, for all intents and purposes, appears to be fixed.

I drove it from Norman Chrysler to an ice cream shop, from there to PetsMart, from PetsMart to Olive Garden and then all the way home without so much as a hiccup. (You'll remember that when we drove it up there to drop it off it died about halfway there as we were going down the highway.) Additionally, I sat in our driveway with it running for at least fifteen minutes because I was locked out of the house and waiting for Robert, who'd stopped at the grocery store.

Can I get a 'hallelujah'?

I am still tempering my enthusiasm, as I've been burned so many times over the past three months that I just don't want to be disappointed again. So, while things look good, I want to drive it for about a week with no further issues before I really let my hair down and party. But the situation appears promising. I went so far as to call and make an appointment to have the XM installed which Robert bought me for Christmas. I'm also going to spend some time this weekend getting the poor thing cleaned up. It needs a full wash, detailing and some shampooing done to the carpet. It's needed it for a while but I wasn't about to waste time fussing with it when it was going to be out of my possession indefinitely.

By the way, want to know how much it cost me, out the door, to pick up the van? $14.56. That was because, somewhere along the way, some nimrod managed to break one of the knobs off my air conditioner and I asked the guys in Norman to fix it. The knob was $13 plus tax. That's it, folks. I'd like to take a moment to point out that the first place we had the van here in town tried to replace the computer and happily charged us $900 for it (which we will be getting back from them post-haste). And don't EVEN get me started on the fools at Dodge here, who apparently couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel, much less figure out that the computer was still under warranty. You know, for all the trouble this caused me, the lesson learned is one that's been driven home to me countless times in the past few years: everything happens for a reason. Now that it's all said and done I'd much rather have had the van gone for a while and ended up not paying to have it fixed than have had it back months ago and paid out of pocket. Perhaps one day that lesson will actually sink in and I'll stop flipping out over everything.

Shuh....and monkeys might fly out of my butt.