Driving lessons

I have a book in my head (actually I have a few, but this blog is only about one of them) called Driving Lessons: What I've Learned About Life From Time Spent in My Car. It's about - you guessed it - things I've learned about life from time spent in my car.

This morning, I learned two more lessons:
1. Windshield cleaner fluid can and will freeze.
2. Turning the heat on full blast will help thaw the resulting ice on the windshield, but only after it warms up a bit. In the meantime, the cold blowing air will freeze the driver.

I ran a quick errand before 8 AM today, and it was VERY cold. My windshield was a bit foggy, so I made the mistake of attempting to clear it up by using the cleaner fluid. Bad idea! I ended up with a frozen mess which was even harder to see through than the original fogginess. I had to keep driving, so I thought I would turn on the heat and put it on the windshield vents only. The theory was that I wouldn't freeze myself, but of course the car was so cold that the air coming full blast out of those vents was frigid. It shot up the inside of the windshield and right back at me. It was an extremely cold drive to the Variety Store.

When I got home, I invented a new term. I said it was "stupid cold". I'm not sure what, exactly, I meant by that (maybe so cold that your brain freezes and you become stupid), but it struck me as funny and therefore will probably stick.

It has been (as I'm sure you've guessed) very cold here for the last few days. Yes, I know that if you're reading this in Minnesota your idea of cold and mine are not the same. Regardless, it has been very cold. I think temperatures have been hovering at or slighly below freezing (certainly below during the overnight hours), but what made it really awful was the wind chill - the last two days were very windy.

Here's the photographic evidence!

Ice on my windshield after my ill-advised attempt to use the cleaner fluid:


Ice in the outside shower:

(it was dripping because we had emptied out the line in advance of the freeze)

You know it is cold when...gloves suddenly appear on the checkout counter at the Variety Store:

The guy in the picture is Tommy Hutcherson, owner of the store.

Stay warm, wherever you are!