Bitter cold

Bad: Today’s national weather was ice in the south, and eight inches of snow at -4 here in the middle, and similar nastiness up north. This means that Important Work People cannot fly in for an Important Work Conference this week. However, Local Important Work People will attend, so it was all hands on deck this morning. Or more precisely, all my hands were on deck, because the rest of the office stayed home.
Moderate: The drive in was remarkable. My dynamic stability light flashed madly during three episodes of near spinouts on the plowed but still snow-packed streets.
The highways were generally clear, though, and I got there and saw that mine was one of ten cars in our five-story parking garage. There was someone else counting the cars, and later in the day I saw that another person walked past every cubicle. I tell myself that means someone noticed my commitment. This is a lie I tell myself so I feel that I too am Very Important. (To be fair, other team members were flying on planes and joined me later.)
Good: Not only did the Mini brave the snow, it adapted to the bitter cold. I expected it to lose range: I’ve seen it take an extra 10% of power in the winter. But today? At four degrees below my thirty-mile round trip took half my fuel, not 30%. I read tales this morning of how they can still function at negative 40 degrees, but with a marked decrease in range. How decreased? I cannot do this word problem.
I’m home now, though, and the Mini is charging, so it can continue to do the same every day this week. I really do not want to be catering to the Very Important this late in the game.