Security Tip Saturday

This info really doesn't fall into the "security" category; it's more of a "safety" nature.  But it's my blog and I can make the title whatever I want. 

Yesterday, we had our first snow and ice storm of the winter.  It was bad yesterday afternoon on the trip home from work, as anyone that had to drive home yesterday will agree.  SH normally can get home in 20 minutes, and it took over an hour.  Diva Stacy's trip home from downtown usually takes a half an hour, and it took her 3 hours to get home.  Yep, it was that bad.  Here's some advice from me to you on how to make a trip home in snow and ice more mangeable. 

First of all, go to the drug store or dollar store and buy a cheap plastic spray bottle, and fill about 2/3 full with good old rubbing alcohol and fill the rest with water.  Spray it on your windows, windshield, mirrors, and windshield wipers and the ice will come off effortlessly.  That's what saved me yesterday.  Freezing rain was coming down on my trip to work yesterday, and as soon as I parked the car, I sprayed it down with my alcohol. At about 1:30, I went outside to check and ice was on the windows but it came off with minimal scraping.  As soon as I cleared the windows et al, I sprayed it again.  When I left work to go home, once again the ice came off easily.   I'm glad I thought to spray the wiper blades; I heard lots of reports last night from friends whose wipers froze up.  Spray around the door of your car, too. 

Second, keep a broom in your car during the winter; preferably one with a long handle.  Use this to brush snow off of the roof of your car.  Once again, I heard reports last night of windshield wipers that quit working because when the car would stop, mounds of snow that had been on the roof of the car slid down the windshield, bogging down the wipers.  

Third, and this probably should be first, make sure you have a decent, sturdy ice scraper.  I saw a couple of coworkers yesterday afternoon trying (key word) to scrape the ice off of their cars with a credit card.  

 Fourth, and once again, this might need to be first, for goodness sake wear some snow boots in weather like this, or take them with you if it's supposed to snow later in the day.  I saw only a couple of people with proper winter footwear on yesterday.  You don't need to worry about being a fashionista when there's snow and ice in the forecast; you just need to make sure your feet stay warm dry and you don't fall and break a hip.