-5° here this morning when I headed out. On the news they screech constantly about wind chill so much it's sometimes hard to gather what the actual temperature is going to be. Another similar day in store tomorrow than a gradual improvement as the week goes on.
As long as my car starts OK that's my main concern, and my trusty beater Dart fired up fine this morning. The interior warmed up within 10 minutes or so, and I made it to work.
Its battery gave up the ghost last year one morning when it was something like -10°, and we'd had wet snow a few days earlier before the arctic cold rushed in, so the hood was froze shut. For a few days afterward it was sunny and I was optimistic the sun warmed the car enough to melt some of the ice, so I could break the ice off enough to get it open, and it did. Then I had to go to 3 stores including 2 Wal Marts before I found a battery in stock correct for the car.
And a couple times this year we've had little "nuisance" snows when it was bitter cold, which resulted in the roads being wet with melted snow mixed with salt. The salt spray whitewashes my windshield but the washer gets frozen, so I end up almost "driving while blind" to work. Last month some of the spray looked wet enough I thought I could clear the windshield with the wipers, but they just smeared it making my visibility worse. I fought with it a few times as I proceed on my 27 mile trek to the office, to no avail before arriving, where I tossed snow on the windshield and used the wipers to clean it for my drive home later. That weekend I went out to check the washer, and noticed the salt and wiper action a few days earlier had actually put some light wiper scratches on my windshield!
In 40+ years of winter driving challenges, that was a first for me having salt scratch a windshield.
Cold and even snow bum me out a little, but "this too will pass". It's having car issues in the middle of winter and trying to work on the car out in the driveway that really make this time of year miserable.