Freeze!

UPDATE: Picture of Steve's temporary solution.

I have at least one friend who loves winter. She loves skating, snowshoeing, tobogganing, and just playing in the snow with her daughters. She doesn't mind bundling up in many layers.

Myself, I find winter beautiful, especially on a sharp, sunny day, and I don't mind the cold (especially as I seem to be equipped with my very own heat pump), but I think even my friend would agree that there is one aspect of winter that is a decidedly two-edged sword: freezing rain.

Beautiful scenery

Yes, it creates some wonderful scenery (and I sort of regret being too lazy to go out and capture some night-time pictures of the glazed trees, but the pizza was hot and the Chardonnay was calling), but it is treacherous.

On Friday morning, our little side-street was lacquered with about three inches of glistening ice, sprinkled with a generous continual spray of fresh drops. According to CBC, Ottawa police reported 69 collisions between 6 a.m. and noon Friday. I'm sure the insurance adjusters will be writing cheques for weeks.

And if your vehicle happens to be outdoors, you will find it encased in ice, as Stephen did this morning when he went out to start our van up for its weekly workout. The driver's door was frozen. Even after he chipped away the ice, it was immovable because ice had dripped down between the frame and the rubber seals.

So Stephen got tough and pulled out a crowbar!!! If I were facing this challenge, I might have been more likely to grab the blow dryer (or gone back to bed), but Steve is a manly man and grabbed the more assertive tool.

Then this happened.

Yah. That window is not supposed to open.

So even parked in our driveway, the poor vehicle didn't make it through the ice storm unscathed. We are not amused, despite Steve's expression here.

"Stuff happens."

UPDATE: Here's the temporary solution, until we can get the window repaired. Not bad, I think.

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P.S. This poor van. It most recently lost a wheel while driving on the freeway, but its stories of trauma go further back than that.

• One winter a snowplow skidded straight into the back of it, causing significant damage.
• A construction dump truck backed right into the driver's side door.
• It was rear-ended once.
• I once scraped the entire passenger side (and ripped off the mirror) while driving into our garage. 

Honestly, as with many an aging Hollywood star, I'm not really sure how many parts of this car are original issue.