The Warm & Sunny South

After sweating through a non-air-conditioned Georgia summer, I was ready to enjoy a pleasantly warm, mild winter.  Unfortunately, one's expectations do not always match reality; it snows in Georgia during the winter, and when it's not snowing it's alternating between rain and freezing weather.  Doors frozen shut in the morning, sliding all over the icy roads, ending up in a ditch... nothing in my soft California driving experience had prepared me for this.  Here's a shot of the rear bumper after a drive home from work melted some of the trunk ice enough to form icicles.  One of the most maddening cold-weather problems the car had (aside from the nonfunctional choke) was the door latches' tendency to stick open in freezing weather, which meant that the driver's door would fly open during right turns unless I held onto it at all times.  Still, it always started, and its menacing bulk combined with my erratic Californy-boy-what-never-drove-on-ice-before moves kept everyone at a safe distance.