Perfection, Enemy of Good

In the continuing tales of Dodgy the van, a case of mistaken identity bears fruit, chilling the southern heat.

Dodgy’s journeys have not been the easiest, and with each mechanical trial arises a new quest: to find a mechanic that will actually fix Dodgy’s problems. For most people, a matter of a broken brake light or air conditioning unit is simply remedied by a trip to the nearest mechanic, yet Dodgy has already visited three mechanics. After the second explained that our business was not worth the time and effort it would take to find replacement parts, he referred us to a shop specializing in car electrical work. Despite both the mechanic calling ahead and us scheduling an appointment to drop off the car, we found ourselves cajoling Mechanic #3 to take on the project.

It wasn’t until a few days later that the oddity of the situation sank it. Odd, that Mechanic 2 should so ardently recommend a shop whose specialty appeared to be car radio systems. Odd, too, that Mechanic 3 didn’t even remotely recognize the name of Mechanic 2. And odder, still, that when we called the electrical shop to learn the progress of the car, they knew of no dodge van at their location.

One thing we know for sure is that people do not forget about our van. Dodgy could no sooner hide from attention than an owner of a Lamborghini could park in a lot without taking two spots.

That is when we reexamined the name of the recommended specialist and that of a car radio dealership sharing the same initials and general location. Yes, with time running out before we were back on the road, we had taken Dodgy to the wrong location.

But here, truly, is the kicker: where two mechanics had failed, this car radio installer succeeded. Rather than being held up by concerns of finding the right parts and factory approved settings, he rigged up a new switch which we could use to turn on the air conditioning and attached a lever to pull to turn on the ventilation. Is it pretty? No. Is it perfect? No. Is it good? YES! We have air conditioning and anything else is trivial.