Who Put Snow on My Car?

Since it’s $100 or so a month to rent a garage space at my apartment complex, we park our cars outside all year long. In the winter, this means the usual New England ice-scraping before work.

This morning, for the first time of the season, my car had about 3 inches of snow on it. I considered being grumpy about this, but discarded that idea, because grumpiness requires lots of energy to be done correctly, and I hadn’t had any coffee yet.

Instead, I let Jon get into the car. Usually I pull the “Oh, honey, I’m pregnant, snow will kill me” routine, which works, because who wants to be responsible for killing a pregnant lady because they are too lazy to do some minor task? But today, I gave him a break and started wiping off the car.

Don’t tell anyone, but this is actually pretty fun. As long as it’s not water-soaked snow that is cold and miserable, you essentially get to play with snow for 10 minutes. You’re not sitting in a freezing car waiting for it to warm up, and you get to throw stuff around without hurting anybody and therefore avoiding those inevitable assault charges.

Also, today I found my fuzzy red earmuffs, which meant my head didn’t hurt because of the cold AND looked pleasantly stylish and bright. There are few situations that earmuffs don’t improve, those being weddings and strip shows. Not only do they muffle sound, but they serve a function and keep your ears warm.

Plus, the snow was relatively light, with no ice coating the windows underneath, and very little actual effort was required. And, I didn’t step in any of those nasty hidden snow-covered puddles that go through to your socks. (I haven’t had winter boots for years, which is sad, but not life-threatening.)

The only negative to sweeping snow off your car in a crazed frenzy is that sometimes you end up wearing a lot of it and you don’t have time to change. This can be avoided by brisk hopping up and down and much flailing of arms, which only adds to the enjoyment of the experience. Don’t forget to do this, or you’ll be soggy all day and no one will like you.

Unless, however you have snazzy red earmuffs, in which case, you’re gold.