Tonight, we in the Wachdorf home are immensely grateful for our friends Mike and Susan Newnam, who came over today to help us fix our swamp cooler, the evaporative cooling air conditioning system that is extremely popular in the Southwest in spite of the fact that it is very susceptible to getting clogged up by dirt, which as everyone knows, is very rare in New Mexico, the high desert.

Ranting aside, we've been very uncomfortable in our house lately because our swamp cooler has gradually been decreasing in its cooling abilities, and most evenings before the sun would set, our living room would reach a cozy 85 degrees. As new homeowners, we were hoping that the "Ignore it and hope it will go away and not cost you $500" method would be effective, but eventually, we had to admit that it was broken. We were resigned to calling the handyman, who would charge us the aforementioned $500, and then we remembered that we know Mike and Susan. For those of you who don't know Mike and Susan, trust me when I tell you that they are the most competent couple you will ever meet. They build furniture together and recently built a workshop the size of a small home in which they house every power tool known to man. And they are also exceedinly generous with their time and advice. So today they came over and Dan and Mike climbed up on the roof and Mike showed Dan how really, the tubes in the swamp cooler were just a little clogged up, and cleaning them out is no big deal. Susan washed off our filter, which I'm told was covered in some really nasty gunk.

So tonight, we bask in the cool coolness of our living room and are thankful for Mike and Susan. If you're nice to us, we'll ask them how to fix problems at your house, but at the rate we're calling them, they're likely to change their phone number soon.