Friday, we had a visit from an air conditioning repairman. His name was Dan Thomas. Since he was younger than me (no gray hair) I resisted the urge to ask him if he was related to Marlo.

Dan did an assessment of our AC needs and then he, Patti and I sat down at the table for him to let us know what needed to be done and what the tab would run us.

When I meet with people like Dan who have very specialized talents, I will ask questions like the following: What is the most unusual service call you’ve made? Have you done work for any celebrities? Part of this is to get to know the person a little better, but over the years, I have found these folks have great stories to tell.

Recently, Patti and I were interviewing movers in Austin in preparation for our move from Austin to Chicago a year ago March. One mover we interviewed told us that he had moved Sandra Bullock’s stuff once. He said that she was very active in the move, took charge herself and did not pass the effort off to an underling. The mover said that she was very nice to them, brought them great food during the breaks, was very personable to them and paid attention to the entire effort from start to finish. He said the crew was impressed and amazed at how much attention she gave them on the move.

So, Patti and I hear stories like this often.

Dan’s story was a little different. He told us about some of his interesting assignments, and, as evidence, he recalled a service call he made in San Angelo, Texas before he moved to Dallas.

Dan got a call to go to a doctor’s house to find out why the AC was not working. When he got to the house, the doctor met him. Dan introduced himself. The doctor said his name was Dr. Alan Whozits.

As the doctor showed him around the AC compressor and other pieces of the AC machinery, Dan said, “Alan, what about …?

Before he could finish, as Dan recalls, the doctor said, “Dan, please call me DOCTOR Alan. I’ve gone through all the education, I’ve worked on hundreds if not thousands of patients and I deserve the ‘doctor’ designation.”

He didn’t skip a beat: “Well, DOCTOR Alan, you can call me DOCTOR Dan because I’m the guy who has had countless calls fixing air conditioners just like yours. And I’m the guy who’s gonna fix yours.”

Dan said that after that day, Alan always used him for his work and they became good friends. Dan didn’t say whether Alan was his doctor there.

As Dan was telling this story, I just smiled and smiled.

See, we don’t need Robin Williams or the Saturday Night Live crew for our humor, it comes to us from all sources, many times our spouses, our kids, pets, relatives and friends. But the bottom line, if it helps us to laugh, it helps to live life to its fullest.

Thank you, Dan!