As predicted, it did indeed snow on Sunday evening, so I was very glad we’d all made it back from the Cotswolds in time. When I woke up on Monday morning, I could tell from the quality of the light through the bedroom curtains that something wasn’t quite right. Then when I got out of bed and went into the bathroom, even though I didn’t have my glasses on, all I could see out of the bathroom window was white, which was snow covering the garden terraces.
Once I’d put my glasses on and opened the curtains in the living room, it didn’t actually look too bad. There was under an inch on the grass, and less than that on the drive. So, although the car was pretty well covered, at least I wouldn’t have to shovel the drive in order to get to work. There’s a lot going on at work at the moment (end-of-year-itis has struck again) so I really needed to get in to the office to deal with things. But when I went out to clear and defrost the car, I struck a problem. I simply couldn’t get in to it! The doors had frozen shut!
I cursed to myself, and fetched a watering can of hot water to pour over the door handle and along the door seals, and at least managed to defrost things enough to get the central locking to unlock. But I simply couldn’t open the driver’s door, no matter how hard I tugged it. I don’t know whether there was ice in the seals freezing it shut around the edges that I wasn’t strong enough to overcome, whether there was some critical part of the lock mechanism that was frozen in place, or whether ice/water had got into the electrics and made it malfunction. But I could not open the door at all. So that meant getting another watering can full of hot water, and pouring it carefully around the passenger door, to try to get in that way.That worked, and at least I had access to the car. Fortunately, I’m quite slightly built, and was able to clamber across the passenger seat to get to the driver’s seat, though I did give myself a fright by knocking the radio on button with my knee and suddenly having Radio 4 booming out!
I drove into work in a filthy mood, chunnering to myself all the way. And even when I parked in the work car park, I still couldn’t open the driver’s door. I had to scramble back over the passenger seat, trying to avoid doing myself a mischief on the gear stick. I spent most of the morning wondering whether I’d have to put the car into the garage to get looked at, and if so when I’d have the time to do so – I’ve had off-site meetings for three days this week, and work is really manic at the moment. I decided that I’d have another go at getting into the car at lunch-time, and try to sort out a mechanic if I still had problems. However, work is at the bottom of the hill, and was below the snow-line, being noticeably warmer than at home. The snow had all melted by lunchtime, and whatever the problem was had righted itself. The doors all unlocked without any dramas whatsoever. Phew!
I think I’ve had more than enough of the snow!
