How Cold is It?

You may have seen it on the news: an arctic cold front is moving/moved through the northern states of the US last weekend and temperatures dropped to -15 degrees Celcius and below. To illustrate how cold it is, here is a little story: I flew to Minnesota to join Jia Nin for Chinese New Year. I parked my car near the airport at an open-air parking lot. When I got back this morning, the doors on the driver's side were frozen solid! The lock won't open, the windows won't wind down. The cold wind blowing on that side of the car caused water vapor to condense on the mechanisms and froze everything into one immobile piece of metal. Luckily, the passenger side was warmed by the sun and was operable. By the time I drove from the airport back into Ann Arbor (a 35min journey), the car had warmed up sufficiently that the door could be unlocked. Moral of the story: when living in temperate climes (i.e. you get winter), there are many more excuses of not going to work other than "car battery died". (grin)