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"Hey! I know, let’s go for a drive in a car that was born and raised in southern California when it just might dump snow."
"Great idea! Have you prepared your car for winter yet?"
"What’s that?"

Everyone knows where this is going so I will get right to it.

Yes. We all went for a drive just as it started snowing on Saturday morning. We wanted to go somewhere and how bad could it be? The first hint came from the dog. She didn’t think it was a good idea and turned around to come back in right away. She could sense something was coming.

The snow came down so fast that the road disappeared immediately. Forget finding the center line. I couldn’t find the curb. To add more fun into the mix. It was COOOOOLD and the snow began to ice up the windshield. But that’s what wiper fluid is for, right? But not when it’s a block of solid ice somewhere under the hood.

Must be one of the winter prep things.

When we finally got home (with 2 jugs of -20° F rated wiper fluid and a bag of salt), we played a new game called "find the driveway under the snow without falling into the ditch). Marker poles anyone?

Must be another one of those winter prep things.

The wiper fluid jug said to drain all the non-winter fluid out first which can’t be done in an 18° F garage so I cleaned the windshield for 3 minutes to drain it out. By the time I was done, smart California boy had frozen over the entire windshield and passenger door.

Between then and now, a winter storm, with lovely lake effect snow, froze the 3 inches of snow already on the ground then gave us 4 more inches on top it. Today I tried to drive a car up our long inclined driveway 4 times before sliding off the road completely. My five-year old was laughing hysterically and my wife held up a score card.

I got an 8.