Happy endings, and not the massage parlor kind - the Accord is driving like itself.
Dropped it off last night, picked it up tonight, SWMBO says it's working great. Owner called, the belt (he seemed to imply the counterbalancer but didn't say for sure) was out a half a notch - said it would be 100% better and it was. He was very apologetic... I don't want that same tech next time.