Today marks the deep freeze portion of Holiday Storm 2004. As I type this, it's a frigid 10 degrees on our back porch. The high today is expected to be 16. They're expecting 0 or below tonight - I sure hope Santa remembers to put on his long handles for his big trip.
Just as our city is not prepared for snow, they are not prepared for the cold temperatures, either. I use the term "they" because I do not include myself in this category. Here's a few cold weather lessons my family taught me at a early age:
Never let your car get below half a tank of gas in cold weather. This makes perfect sense to me - if I'd been on of those many unfortunate ones stuck out on I-64 Wednesday night, a full tank of gas would have been a God-send. Come to think of it, that's a good lesson for any part of the country - just think of the millions of people that were trying to get out of Florida and the Atlantic coast states this fall when all of the hurricanes were hitting.
Make sure you have at least one ice scraper/brush in the car. If you don't already have one, I recommend getting one those scrapers that has the built in glove. They are priceless when you're out scraping off the windows and windshield. Don't rely on using a credit card - most of them won't even swipe through the point of sale terminals at the store, much less be able to withstand scraping ice off a windshield.
Buy a pair of waterproof shoes/boots that you can wear in the snow and slush. If they have Thinsulate, halleluah. Yesterday during the shoveling and digging out, I would not have taken $1,000 for my pair of boots from Land's End. I can honestly say my feet were dry and warm all day long. During my trip home from work Wednesday in the snow and ice, I can't tell you how many silly people I saw out walking or waiting for the bus in tennis shoes. Most of them were PATs. If they can't afford some rubber boots, they could at least put some bread bags over their shoes.
Dress warm, preferably in layers. Get some use out of those sweaters and sweatshirts that take up space in our closets and drawers. If you ride anywhere with my Dad during cold weather, you'll want to be dressed inlayers so you can take some of them off because he will blast you out of his Blazer with the heat. You'll want to be able to strip down to the bare essentials if it gets too toasty in the car.
Now that I've given you winter weather tips, please drive safely, dress warm, and have a great Christmas Eve.
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