2 DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS

   It was two days before Christmas.  It was snowing: a wet, heavy snow.  The kind of snow that turns the roads to slush and then to ice.  I pulled into Barnes and Noble to find Val a last minute gift.  As I entered B&N the snow slowly turned to sleet.

   You know it takes at least 90 minutes to go through even a small B&N.  In this case, it was 2 hours 15 minutes.

   When I left, the slush had turned to snow.  The snow to sleet and the sleet to ice: about 1" of ice.  On the road.  On my windshield and on my car handle.  You know that my passenger-side car door has not worked for  well over a year and the only way into my beloved Buick is through the driver-side door.

   Well I got out to my car and pulled the door handle AND NOTHING HAPPENED.  Well here it is.  I am increasingly wet and icy and ... very cold.  Without thinking about the fact that ice is all over everything,  I give my door handle one more pull and with mighty moose muscle ... breaking the door handle off inside the door.

   I stood there in non-belief and stared at my hand that held my door handle.  At that I heard a small car horn and I looked up to see people with about 15 skis attached to the top of a rented KIA hatchback.  Very politely the (presumed) wife rolled down a window and said, "When that happens to us we pour hot water over the door."  I held my door handle up so that they could see the major problem.  She said,"Oh. sweety.  At least you will have one less problem."  I smiled.  Said thanks and watched the KIA slide up the hill sideways.

    Finally, I walked into a nearby Starbuck's for the first of 3 - 16 oz. cups of hot water.  Finally, I got the door unfrozen.  It was at this point I realized that I had about 20 minutes before the water I had poured to loosen the door and I did not have a plan to open the door.  My thoughts immediately went back to 8th grade when Mike Wilsey had shown me how to break into a car.  So I heated the trunk key with a borrowed cigarette lighter and found one of Marv's old screwdrivers.

   So here I was trying to remember the felony that Mike had shown me how to 40 years before when I became aware of blue and red lights whizzing around behind me ... and a cop standing behind me asking, "May I ask just what the hell you are doing sir?"
   "I'm breaking into my own car."
   "Sure you are."  I had just gotten off the shift from the photo I sent to you and didn't look like an upstanding middle aged pillar of society.
    "Your license and registration please."
   "Well here's my license and my registration is in the glove box  and I am getting really cold."
   "License and registration, now!"  and with that the door popped open.
   "How do you plan on starting this car?" 
   "With my key from the broken door on my car door than I broke off the handle to."  I showed him the blue door handle.
   "If you are a thief, you are the worst I have ever seen."

   Well at length the officer called for wants and warrants and the cop came back to the car smiling.  "Well this is one for the squad room.  Sorry for the hassle."

   He drove off and I wondered when my Dad left that screwdriver in my trunk:  seeing as he never saw my beloved Buick.