Slushy first winter fails- 6 Degrees of Carbonation

Slushy first winter fails- 6 Degrees of Carbonation

Slushy first winter fails- 6 Degrees of Carbonation

Midwest winter is a new reality for us.

These cold temps remind me of our first winter here, and how much we didn’t know. Or example, a story we like to call 6 Degrees of Carbonation: Our introduction to winter.

Being from the warmer West, there was no inner voice telling me it was unwise to keep canned beverages in the car overnight. It seemed clever to keep it in the car.

That way, it would be nice and cold to drink the next day.

Clever. 6 degrees outside.

Things you don’t know you don’t know about winter fails

The morning was already heavily planned out, precise times would be required, and I was ready. We needed to be at the orthodontist on time, but my husband called and had forgotten his wallet…could we bring it on the way?

The kids went outside to scrape the icy windows and start the car for me while I gathered everything to hit the road. They came running back into the house.

Mommy, the Dr. Pepper exploded and froze all over the inside of the car!!!

Surely they were exaggerating, I thought.  Wrong.

Apparently, when the temps drop below freezing, cans can explode covering almost every square inch of the car in frozen slushy soda.

When I say the whole car? I am not exageratting. 

You can see a bit on the front window in this picture. The entire back window was covered as well. The roof, the floors, the seats, the side windows. Covered.

soda explodes all over car and freezes

Try  not to laugh at this winter fail

I was stunned that one little can could accomplish so much chaos.

Stunned, I almost started crying, having no clue how to clean something like this up. We had to leave right away regardless, so we tried to wipe off the seats a little. But our butts got wet and dirty.

We quickly found that despite it being 6 degrees outside, we couldn’t use the heater. When we tried, it started melting the ceiling slush. Drip. Drip. Right on top of us.

When we finally got home that day, it took an incredibly LONG time (and some bribery for the kids) to scrape, vacuum, scrub, and pick up those pieces.

Then I had to come out (remember how cold it is) and use carpet cleaner, trying to spray OVER my head and attempt to scrub the upholstered ceiling.

If it hadn’t been so overwhelming of a job, we might have laughed our way through it. Actually, we did laugh a little. That and crying seemed our only options.

Besides, if we cried the tears would have just frozen and caused more trouble. Lesson learned. No cans in the car.

Cool temps don’t equal cool drinks. But it can equal some very cold people driving in the slushy car.

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.- Victor Hugo

Suggestions for laughter

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8 Comments

  1. Oh dear, that doesn’t look fun at all. I think I’d be crying too. The closest I’ve come to this was champagne exploding in my freezer. Those two don’t go well together either.

  2. Oh no. I didn’t know that either, I guess I’m lucky it didn’t happen to me. Most of our mishaps have been unanticipated tangles with the various varmints and critters that lurk around our backyard, looking for a chance to invade our home. We’ve had quite a few of those hard lessons.

  3. Oh my. This is the funniest thing I have ever read. My daughter just asked me, “Why are you laughing so hard.”
    So sorry for the mess you had to clean up. I didn’t know that would happen either.

  4. Oh my gosh this is HILARIOUS! I seriously laughed the whole way through, although I did also mouth “Poor thing” while reading, Lol
    Thanks for sharing Christa!
    Sherri

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