Monday, December 13, 2010

It's Cold Outside

OK, it's the coldest day this season so far, and I was unprepared. I have been consistently wearing a heavy coat, gloves, and a warm hat while outdoors for the past several weeks; but not today. Let me give a run down of how unprepared I was.

1) last December I bought a Dodge Challenger. I found out pretty quickly one of the design flaws. Don't get me wrong; I love the car, but let's face it; every car has design flaws. The Challenger door frame doesn't go over the top of the window; similar to how convertible windows are, but it's not a convertible. Because of this, to create a good seal, the window automatically lowers a quarter of an inch each time you open the door, and raises back up when you close it. The flaw comes in when ice prevents the window from lowering. You can pull the door open, but it won't close. In the past, I've used a hair dryer, but it always takes too long. I need to buy some deicer, but I haven't. Now usually, I can avoid this problem by backing into our driveway the night before. The sun usually melts the ice on that side of the car by the time I have to leave for work. Today, it's overcast, and really cold, so that wouldn't have helped. So, today's solution, since I didn't have time to deal with it, was to drive my old truck.

2) My warm hat was accidentally left in the Challenger yesterday, so no warm hat for today.

3) I'm usually very hot natured; I get hot really easily. Because of this, I haven't bothered to get my heater fixed in my truck. It broke several years ago, and it just didn't seem worth it to bother. However, my air conditioner went out this summer, and I had it fixed. While it was in the shop, I asked them to diagnose the heater problem. It wasn't worth the $900 they wanted to fix it; especially when it's not a daily driver. Today it would have been nice to have.

4) I was so concerned with remembering to take the trash out, and my routine was off due to the cold. Ironically (I think) this caused me to forget to put my warm coat and gloves on. I do have a sweater and a sports jacket on, but it was still a long, cold drive.

5) My truck is almost out of gas. I didn't have time to stop on the way to work, but I will have to on the way home; in the dark, on a day that is not supposed to get above freezing. If I'm smart, I'll remember to take a lunch break away from work, and get gas then. At least it will still be daylight, and maybe a little warmer than if I wait until sundown.

2 comments:

amy said...

I wonder where you could get a warm hat.

Roy O'Dowd said...

No clue. I wonder if there is an outlet store nearby.