I went down to my car this morning at 7:45 to find an icy surprise—both my driver’s side and passenger’s side doors were completely frozen shut. After awkwardly tugging on them for a while, I decided to crack open my hatchback, crawl through the car to the driver’s seat, and kick out the door from the inside. Now that I was able to get the car started I went about scraping the layer of ice off the windows.
I got to UMBC in time to see the bus pass me by in the opposite direction, so I opted to drive in to work—unfortunately I had to get gas first. It’s a good thing I did, too, because the Tercel got terrible gas mileage (only 24 mpg) over the past several weeks and the tank had a lot less gas in it than I thought. My gas gauge doesn’t exactly work properly, so I estimate based on my typical mpg and how many miles I’ve traveled. Clearly this system is flawed in that suddenly poor mpg messes everything up, and could have left me stranded halfway to Baltimore in 17 degree weather.
My arrival here at work was later than I expected, but luckily I finally have the kind of job where the exact moment you step foot on the premises is more or less inconsequential.
Good luck to everybody toughing it out for the inauguration today. I’ll be watching the same feed you will be, only from the relative comfort of my desk. The difference between us, though, is that you will get to say that you were there, and for that I envy you.