I Was Victorious!

Today's winter storm has changed our surroundings into those of a winter wonderland. Too bad it's too late for Christmas. All day I have been trying to be positive about the weather. The cold weather of winter is bad enough; snow & wind & freezing temperatures just add insult to injury. I left for work this morning in my warm green sweater & brown leather boots intending to be ready to tromp through the inches of snow. I got to work just fine but when our customers started adding orders on like crazy I had my first moment of chicken panic. We had two runs that needed to go to customers 60-80 miles north of here. No way was I wanting to go on either one of those deliveries! My boss is a very kind man; my co-workers must be desperate for overtime. Two of them agreed to work a long day & take those deliveries while I made the drops here in town. I can handle town driving in the snow because there are no ditches for me to end up in. So I made my deliveries around town, confessing my sin of fear all along the way.
After work I got my own car all cleaned off (no small feat b/c it had been snowing ALL DAY!). I have learned the value of a windshield scraper with a long handle. Those short handled little guys do no good at getting the snow off the hood of your car. I ended up scraping it off with my arm. COLD STUFF! Thankfully when I finally got in the car I realized that the gas gauge was on empty before I set off for home. I drove right over to the gas station, pulled my hood up over my head & prepared to pump gas in the freezing wind. I pulled the little lever to open the gas door & discovered that I had a problem. The little gas door was frozen shut. *sigh* I was tempted to just climb back in the car, head for home, praying for the best. But my MacGyver spirit rose up within me & I started digging around in the car for something I could pry on the door with. All I could find was my short handled windshield scraper. It disappointed me yet again b/c it's scraper was really too fat to fit in the crack around the little door. Hmmm...I started rummaging again. There was guy gassing up a big box truck on the other side of the pump & I almost asked for his advice. That kind of thing never really works out for me though. Usually the person I ask for advice looks at me like I've got a third arm growing out of my head before muttering an answer that I can't understand let alone use to help me. So no asking the stranger for help. More rummaging. Finally I decided to try using my parent's house key. It's a big, sturdy, long key so I started chiseling away at the ice filled crack around the door. After several freezing minutes of totally scratching my car to bits, I finally got it open! Sweet victory!
So keep blowing, you mad winter wind! All I need is a key & I can tackle anything you send my way!