Sorry it’s been a bit since my last post, much has happened. I want to finish out the lovely day I started talking about though.
I had packed a (now slightly squishier) lunch, so I didn’t leave my office building that day. All of my scheduled clients called to reschedule, of course, so basically it was a “talk to the other 4 people that made it in and catch up on paperwork” day for me. When it was time to go, I did my best impersonation of a polar explorer and went to the parking lot. I put the key in the door of the car and turned the lock, almost. The key went in, but the lock did not move. I moved to the passenger door and tried it again with the exact same results. A coworker came by and asked what was up, when I explained it, she produced a cigarette lighter and we attempted to heat the key and insert it into the lock, but to no avail. The lock remained frozen in place. I returned to my office and phoned my father. He did the rather still quiet slippery drive into town and a badly bent key and a can and a half of de-icer and we were still no closer to entering the car. He drove me home and back to work the next day. The car locks were still frozen. A coworker drove me to a auto supply store around 10 am, where I purchased two small cans of lock de-icer. I squirted some de-icer in the driver’s side lock and tried the key, It turned easily. I then went to the passenger side, but just used the key, It opened also. The sun had been shining directly on the car. I put some de-icer in anyway, hoping to get rid of any remaining water in the lock.
I knew that car had a habit of the doors freezing. It is older and the gaskets don’t seal as tight, but in this case, the cylinders in the lock froze. That has happened to me before, and to make matters worse, this was an older GM product that uses the smaller keys with the teeth only on one side, making the lock entrance very small. We haven’t had much snow in the last 6 years of so. I think 2003 we had at least one larger snow. I used to keep lock deicer in my pants pocket all winter, my old mustang occasionally had a lock freeze. I also kept de-icer on hand, but was lulled into a false sense of security. I currently have a can of de-icer by my front door and a can of lock de-icer in my pocket. I keep a second can of de-icer and a second can of lock de-icer in my desk at work. It has snowed at least 3 times since my adventure. We had snow on Christmas, snow the following week and it snowed yesterday and today. There was accumulation with all of the mentioned snows. We also had a snow, where it snowed, then rained and washed it all away on the same day. I haven’t needed my arsenal of ice weapons yet though.
