Who says it doesn’t get cold in Florida? Yikes! It has been darn chilly down here for the past two days. I come from New Hampshire so I know what it feels like to live in a place where the thermometer reads well below zero for days on end. I have used a hair dryer to get into my car before because the door locks were frozen. I know what it is like when you can’t wash your car in the winter and leave it parked outside because the door hinges will freeze shut. That is a typical winter in New England. You get used to it.
However, I never thought that I would spend the day searching for washer fluid that could tolerate temperatures below 32 degrees while living in Florida! Yesterday, I was on the hunt for washer fluid. We had purchased the normal blue washer fluid a few months ago without thinking that it would be of any great concern. We were running low and it was all they had at the gas station. Normally, our fluids get topped off when we have an oil change and we don’t even have to think about it but since I have gotten sick with Chronic Lyme Disease, I haven’t been driving much at all. I haven’t gotten an oil change in a long time and the poor car has been neglected. I am lucky that we remember to go out and start it every 7-10 days just so the battery won’t die!
That has actually happened once already, where I had to have the car towed to the dealership because even after AAA jump started it, the battery died again and could not be started a second time. That is a nightmare for another blog post so needless to say, I make sure to start the car on a regular basis now. Long story short… I was on the hunt for washer fluid yesterday. It took three stops to find the type that was made for cold temperatures. You would think that everyone in Florida was preparing for a blizzard or something. Every store I went to was cleaned out of washer fluid! I was stunned.
It’s kinda like what happens when we get a tropical storm warning and you go to the store looking for water, batteries, candles, weather radios and plywood. Good luck with that. There was a run on washer fluid yesterday. Geesh. I can’t imagine what would happen around here if they ever predicted an inch of snow. All hell would break loose. Criminy people, it’s just a little chilly for cripe’s sake. In a couple of days it will be back up to 70 degrees and we will be wearing our flip flops again.
So, I pulled into an Auto Zone and sure enough, they had Rain-X orange washer fluid right by the front door that would tolerate temperatures down to zero degrees. I guess that ought to do it. It was 46 degrees outside as I filled both of our cars with the washer fluid and it looks like we should be safe for the next two days of this “polar vortex.” Boy, that was a close call.