Mike Carter of Auto Air Conditioning

This is Mike Carter, auto air conditioning shop owner and mechanic.  His shop is on Marietta St. about two buildings down from mine.  He does everything over there himself, no help.  He's also one of the rare humans that I trust to go under the hood of my beloved 1984 CJ7.  He really knows what he is doing.  Living next door to him has allowed my understanding of how air conditioning works.

Air conditioning is a weird thing, most people think you add cold to the air with it but you don't, you remove heat.  Oh, if you ever take your car in to an AC place and they top off the refrigerant and then send you on your merry way, take your car to someone else.  Someone like Mike.  Mike knows (for the most part), that refrigerant doesn't just go away, unless there is a leak.  He will fix it, not just take your money for a top off, then give it back to you leaky.

Thanks Mike for the lessons you have taught me, you have been a great neighbor and will be missed.

Right after I took this picture he asked me if I moved some stuff.  He knew I moved that red hat and I happened to catch the moment he figured it out.  You can see the laser beam focus he has on the hat, and you can tell that he's thinking that something is off. He was right, I moved it to get some pictures of the stickers he has on the lid of the toolbox.

We all experience the same illusion when we walk into places like this.  to us it looks like the aftermath of a hurricane, and we all wonder how anything could be found.

The reality is that everything has its place and when it's needed,  Mike will make a bee line straight to it.  Calling out a part and watching him go straight to It would be a great parlor trick if his business was auto air conditioning / bar.  

O rings.  Mike uses a lot of these things, they fix a lot of the leaks that I discussed earlier.  Mike tells me that If we run our AC in the winter from time to time, it will lubricate these rings and keep them from drying out.

Upon inspection some things make it into purgatory, but, that is its place.