I didn’t really go out this past weekend. It was mostly inclement weather and I had some work to do. The rain was particularly bad on Sunday. As soon as my alarm went off Monday morning, I was instantly cold. Usually thats a hint thats its quite cold outside because there is a window in the basement that keeps opening and we can’t seem to keep it closed. It makes for a chilly winter. I was running on time when I walked outside and heard an ice scraper scraping away at the windshield of one of my roommates’ cars. It instantly occured to me that I did not go out all weekend and it is now 10 degrees farenheit. (32 degrees is the temperature at which water freezes for those on the Centigrade scale.)

I tried my remote starter and my car wouldn’t turn over and start. I put my key in the lock and tried to unlock the door. When I pulled the handle, the door wouldn’t budge. I tried the passenger door and the key wouldn’t even turn in that lock. The tailgate was frozen shut, no matter how I tried to open it. At this point, Eddie had come over and helped me with all of these doors. I’m started to panic a little because if I don’t get to the Braintree parking garage by 07:20 EST, the garage is full and I have to head to the Quincy Adams T Station and fight through a great deal of traffic to park there. Eddie suggested getting some hot water and pouring it over the door. In my panic, this sounded like a viable option. At that moment, any suggestion would have sounded like a viable option. So I went inside and got some steaming hot water in a glass and brought it outside. As I poured some of the water on the frame of my driver’s side door, I watched it instantly freeze. In effect, leaving me worse off. Not realizing I had gotten some water on my glove, I tried to wipe at the window. Instantly, my glove was frozen to the window. Flabberghasted, I had the option of leaving the glove on the window for the rest of the day and hope it wouldn’t get lost as my car heated up on the way to the T station, or just pulling and praying it didn’t rip the glove. Still in a semi-panicked state, I pulled quickly on the glove and it broke free without any visible damage. However, in my rage of irrational fury, I took the glass with the hot water still in it and splashed the rest of the water across my windshield. I realized immediately what I had done as I watched another thick layer of ice form on my windshield. -_-

This was not turning out to be my day. I went back inside, semi-defeated, in order to regroup and think of another strategy. Around that time, I remembered my mother had gotten me some lock de-icer as part of a big bag of practical gifts for Hannukah in 2004 and it was still in my room. I ran downstairs and grabbed one of the cannisters and rushed outside back to my car. One spritz in the lock and my key turned just a bit further. Just enough though, that I heard the door fully unlock and with a quick tug, the door opened. I started my car and sat there for about 30 minutes waiting for the car to heat up. After a while I decided I could wait no longer and grabbed my ice scraper. I went to work quickly and furiously on the windshield. Fortunately some of it had started to melt, not all of it though. For that reason, my wrists were in a great deal of pain for the next day and a half.

When I drove into the Braintree parking garage 45 minutes late, I was astounded to see that I could not only get in, but there were so many open spots that I didn’t even have to park on the roof. It was Martin Luther King Day and I had no idea. So the day turned around after that, even though it seemed like we were the only company working in the state that day.