The last few mornings I’ve let my vehicle warm up a little longer than I normally do. The usual 15 minutes doesn’t seem to cut it in this weather. It’s darn cold out there at 3 A.M.! It makes a guy wonder what it must have been like traveling back in the old days. There was no remote starter to warm up an open wagon and a team of horses for a trip into town.

I must admit, the cold weather doesn’t really bother me. I have a remote starter, so before I go out anywhere I give it a click and wait for my vehicle to warm up. On days like we’ve had recently I’ll hit it twice. Each cycle runs 15 minutes, so after a half hour my vehicle is guaranteed to be toasty warm, no matter how cold it is outside. I go from a warm vehicle into a warm workplace and from a warm workplace into a warm vehicle and back into a warm house. This guy doesn’t spend much time outdoors in the winter.

What does bother me is snow. I don’t mind a little bit, but I hate when you’re trying to drive around the city with two feet of snow on the ground. It doesn’t matter how efficient the city crews are at grading and sanding the roads, it’s still a pain in the a**! Traffic gets backed up. You have to drive well below the speed limit. Plus, you have to watch for the idiots who still think it’s July out there! I’m very happy with the little amount of snow that we actually have right now.

Give me cold weather and good driving conditions any day of the week.

In these parts, that’s about the best a person can hope for in the winter!