oh, for the simple days of beetles, where first it was a simple knob to
control the heat.

and then, complication and machinery set in: TWO levers!!! oh, fie, the
shame of it all.

then the 1968 buses came out ... with THREE LEVERS!!! oh horrors!

and when the Vanagon arrived, what did it have? FOUR LEVERS!!! oh, where, oh
where will it end? will the 1995 Eurovan have SIX LEVERS????

personally, after many years of learning, i got to where i kinda got used to
the leverage i had over the hot/cool air. :)   in my 80 vanagon. but in the
88 bus, something is hosed differently, and i can't get cool/outside air
through the little side vents anymore ... only heat comes out there. i guess
they decided to try the honda trick of defrosting the vent windows.

oh, well.

one of these days, i'm gonna have to take out my center heater/vent control
dash appliance-thingie (the big bunch of crap in front of the gearshift lever
...AWK! i said it again: LEVER!) ... to cure a wind-whistle. it seems that
my little fresh air flap gasket has committed rotterdam upon itself and
un-mathematically come apart (dis-integrated). and guess what folks? you can't
get to it from the outside on an 88. :( if i'm lucky, i can put it off for
another five or six years.

joel