Frost, again

So my plan was to update you all on my exciting world of reading every Monday. So here's this week's update: I finished reading Justine, which I didn't really enjoy, and I've been busy reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Enjoy probably isn't the right word to describe this reading experience, but I ran five miles this morning before work, so my brain isn't managing to think up a more appropriate word. However, for your benefit, I'll clarify. The story is engaging, it's keeping me entertained, and I really think Lisbeth rocks. I mean, she got shot in the head and lived. So, I'm enjoying myself.

But, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, I'm not going to focus on my reading this Monday, but instead on the fact that for the second time in three days, there was frost on my car! (It may have been there all three days and I just didn't get up early enough on Sunday to notice it.)

So, for the first time since I've lived in San Diego, I've had to warm up my car in the morning. Not only was it 39 degrees outside, but I'm not sure where any of our ice scrapers are. I know we own about six dozen of them, but none of those are in my car. They're probably up to no good with all of the umbrellas that we own that have been hiding from us since we moved to California.

I bought my first car in the summer of 2000. It was a used, teal-colored Toyota Corolla. A good friend of mine named it Millie. It was the middle of some sort of heat wave/drought, which seems to hit New Jersey every summer, and I walked into the auto parts store and asked to buy an ice scraper. I'm pretty sure the guy thought the heat had gone to my head, but then, responding to the strange look he gave me, I informed him that I was moving to Montana in a week, and the first snow was likely to occur on September 15 (I think it was actually the 23rd that year).

Somehow, over the next several years, I acquired more ice scrapers. Maybe they make good stocking stuffers? I don't know, but what I do know is that this morning, I could have used one. Fortunately, I bought my most recent Toyota Corolla (blue, and still un-named), in Oregon, where, I was informed, they install larger-than-standard heater/fan/vent systems (I'm totally on top of all of the technical auto-mechanical lingo), to help with the constant wetness that goes on in the Pacific Northwest. So, the good news is, that it took all of about 17 seconds to melt all of this wimpy California frost!

Take that, mother nature!