Last gasp

One day last week I got outside to drive the boys to school (it was drizzly and COLD) and found this on my windshield:It was ice - probably 1/8-1/4 inch thick. It had been raining all night and it was just cold enough to freeze when it hit the windshield.

I used to have an ice scraper. It saw lots of service in Washington, D.C. It was used several times every winter. It even got used in Houston. However, when we moved to Florida and I was switching vehicles, I tossed it. After all, I could say without a doubt that I would NOT need it anytime soon in Tampa, where once or maybe even twice a year, people tuck in their landscaping plants with blankets when it might drop below freezing for -GASP- several HOURS!!

Driving through our Tampa neighborhood, looking at all the plants lovingly tucked in for the night, I couldn't help but think of growing up in NW Montana, where it wasn't really considered cold until the thermostat was registering double-digit, negative numbers and plants that didn't survive the frozen winters on their own were quickly replaced with something a little more... well... low maintenance. Needless to say, I never tucked my plants in while we were in Tampa, but I must admit that there were a couple plants that got replaced that first winter, which was fine with me.

Anyway, back to my poor iced-in van... and me with no ice scraper. For the last seven years (five in Tampa and two here) I've used a card (driver's license, credit card, etc.) to scrape the frost off my windshield. It was a bittersweet moment as I whipped out my trusty FL driver's license to clear the windshield (after the heater had had a little time to work). I couldn't help giggling a little as I thought about the fact that FL driver's licenses in general probably don't often get this kind of abuse and this is probably the very last time mine will be used for this purpose.