It is amusing to hear the reaction of friends and relatives to the recent snowfall. Some folks are aghast at the precipitation. They don’t care that it is usually warmer when it snows or that new snow is certainly prettier than the dirty, off-white and gray stuff that was covering our streets and sidewalks. There are people who just don’t like winter.
I’m not one of them. I’m one of the many Northlanders who are delighted to see the fluffy white flakes falling. Everything looks clean and fresh. Driving at night is especially lovely, with headlights creating sparkling diamonds on the newly fallen snow.
I do, however, have a winter pet peeve. I don’t mind the snow, but it irritates me that the engineers who design vehicles apparently all live in warm climates. I thought that Detroit was still one of the places where automotive technology is tested, but I’m doubtful. Anyone who lives in an area that gets sufficient snowfall—like the Motor City—would not build a car with windshield wipers like mine.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my car. It has heated leather seats, which are a wonderful winter luxury. It has well-placed cup holders and a good stereo system. It has room for all five of my grandkids and still gets decent gas mileage. It has Bluetooth, which means I can talk on my cell phone without having to hold the phone.
And a feature I really like is my in-dash back-up camera. I have always had a hard time judging how close I am to other vehicles when pulling into or backing out of a parking space. The back-up camera has saved me from parking three embarrassing car lengths away from other cars. And it makes getting out of tight spaces much easier.
Although it can be easily fooled. It alerts when I’m nearing tall grass at the edge of the road and it thinks a snowbank is a hazard. It was really confused yesterday when the snow had melted a bit off my rear window and trickled down the hatch. I started to back out of a parking space and the annoying high-pitched tone sounded. I looked carefully in the viewfinder and could see nothing. I checked the rearview mirror and side mirrors and craned my neck to look all around.
I couldn’t see anything behind me so I put the car in park and got out to inspect. I had to laugh when I saw the problem. The melted snow had created a tiny icicle. The little icicle was blocking the back-up camera. Since it was clear, I couldn’t see it in the viewfinder. But the camera saw it and did a good job raising the alarm. I flicked the icicle off and was able to get on the road.
I wish dealing with my windshield pet peeve was as easy. What is the problem? Anyone with an SUV has surely figured out my complaint by now. In fact, I think all makes and models have this same set-up. For some reason the windshield wipers on vehicles no longer rest on the window glass above a solid hood. In years past, there were little vents on the hood by the window, but that was it.
Now however, window wipers fold up on themselves and tuck into a vast reservoir on the hood. I’m sure the engineers have a good reason. It probably makes the car more aerodynamic and saves fuel. Or maybe the designer just thinks it looks cool.
But to someone who has to brush three to six to eight inches of snow off of her car, the metal pocket on the hood is an irritant. All of the snow that I brush off of the roof onto the window and the hood to be brushed off onto the ground seems to get packed in that windshield wiper garage.
I can’t use the brush to get the snow away from the windshield wipers. No, I have to flip the wipers up out of the way and then use the straight edge of the ice scraper to try to shovel the snow out. I say try, because it is a futile task. The ice scraper is not a mini-shovel, which is what a person actually needs to clean out the confounded crevice.
All I can do is scoop and brush it out the best I can and then turn the defroster up on high to melt the rest away. I have to turn up the heat too, because I’m wet and cold from the windshield wiper snow removal dance. Darn Detroit!
But it’s okay. In the grand scheme of life my windshield wiper pet peeve is pretty trivial. It’s a small price to pay to live in a winter wonderland. Think snow!
The snow doesn’t give a
soft white damn whom it
touches.
E.E. Cummings
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