Ok, so I live in Vermont. It gets cold in Vermont. You'd think after being born and raised here, I'd be prepared every year.

Nope.

This season brings below freezing temps and random snowfall. It also brings random issues with my car that only happen in the winter.

I drive a 2002 Chevy Impala that I got from a used car lot. It has just over 207k miles on it now...in essence, I guess I'm lucky it runs at all. But winter brings about an issue with this car that I forgot about until this morning.

I over slept, and took too long to get myself prepped up for work, so I didn't have proper time to warm the car up-- I scrapped the windows just enough to see and was off. As I drove, the windows fogged over more, so I stopped at a gas station to try and wash the windshield with their sweegee thing. I ran into someone I worked with at my last job and offered her a ride up the Mountain. When we got into the car... the problem presented itself once again...

when it's really cold out, my car refuses to shift. It is not a transmission issue, as one might expect. It really is as simple as letting it warm up enough to prevent the shifting issue. Well, we sat parked at a gas pump for over twenty minutes and the effer still woulnd't budge! So I did what any self respecting person would do in the situation...

I called my dad!

He told me "Remember, it does this-- just let it warm up!" When I told him it had been for like half an hour, he asked "Do you have coolant in the car?"....yup. I was out of coolant. So my heater wasn't working, my car wasn't warming up, and I sat there with my freezing pal for nothing. I ran into the gas station, spent more than I should on a container of coolant, and popped the hood.

Of course a friendly fella came to help me and my pal with the coolant. He felt no shame in telling me everything wrong with my car, but I nodded and smiled because he was nice enough to do the coolant for me. Most people would just look and keep going, so I was gonna at least appreciate him being there!

He filled up the coolant, told me I needed to get my transmission checked out, and left as I said "Thanks so much for your help!"

We got in the car, and BAM-- it was warm, and shifted like buttah.

I dropped off my friend, and drove up to the staff parking lot of my job...

....and noticed my gas tank was on empty. I was sitting at a gas station for half an hour and didn't get any gas!

Thankfully I work at the top of a mountain and pretty much coasted to the gas station after work, but hey-- what  way to bring in the holiday season.