The top of the freezer opened today and -10 degrees felt balmy after those days at 40-50 below. My truck is much happier now, and toodles down the road just like it is supposed to. Minus 40 degrees seems to be the temperature where the hydraulic fluid in the clutch starts to congeal, which means that shifting gears is a real adventure that can take 10-15 seconds--a long time on an icy road.
When it's that cold it also feels like the truck is leaning BACKWARD when you are driving FORWARD, as if it has a mind of its own and it would much rather go home and rest than drive into town. I can sympathize, but you can't let the weather keep you from doing the things you have to do!
A friend of mine got his truck back from the mechanic during that cold spell. Thinking that they would do Bob a favor, the mechanic had his car washed, and had it for him all shiny and wet when it was done. Bob and his wife drove the car home, parked it in front of their house, slammed the doors and went inside. The next morning Bob went to start it and realized that a nice, shiny wet car in -54 (he lives in a valley) means a frozen SOLID car! No amount of tugging was going to get the doors open! The mechanic's "gift" had turned their Nissan into a nice, shiny yard ornament.
He did get it open this morning when the temps came up a bit. If that hadn't happened, he'd have to have gotten out the parachute and the space heater and gotten it open that way.
I tried to write about Stevie today and only succeeded in crying a lot, and writing very poorly, in the most wooden sort of way, a narrative of his final hours. I felt just like my truck did at -48. Froze up. Congealed.
