When you love your classic car, nothing else matters. Sure, the windows don’t work, there’s body rust, and it dies after 20 minutes of uphill driving, but it’s your baby.
Since we’re in January, another problem is heat, specifically what to do when it doesn’t work in your classic car. You’re probably fine with wearing a hat and mittens while driving, but your significant other might not feel the same.
Prepare him or her before the drive
Sometimes it helps to have a heads-up. If you’re planning a trip during the winter, whether long or short, you need to start communicating the cold factor early. Example:
“Hey babe, whatcha doing?”
“Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah”
“Hah! Wow.”
“I know! blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah—“
“Oh hey, I wanted to mention: the heater is not working too great in my car right now, so you’ll probably need some gloves, at the very least.”
“Okay! Back to Doreen story blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah (etc.)”
Get your prep work done
- Scrape the ice off the windshield before it’s time to go.
- Grab some thick blankets and have them in the passenger seat.
- Get some hand-warmers from a hunting store.
- Cook a chicken and put it in the back seat (smell can be powerful).
- Distract them with a present in the glove compartment.
Create a vivid mental picture of how it could be worse
“So I know we’re driving to Virginia tomorrow, but at least it’s not the Donner pass.”
“The what?”
“The Donner pass. It’s this road up in California in the mountains where the Donner family got stranded and maybe actually ate each other. I’d have to double-check that last part, I don’t know if it’s true.”
“Oh my gosh!”
“Or there’s lots of people who don’t have reliable heat in their houses at night. I sure am glad that our heater is working well.”
“…”
“I just…it’s just good that we have reliable heat.”
“…”
“And that where we’re going has heat, and even if we don’t have heat on the way, we’re still super fortunate to have heat for most of our lives.”
“…”
“I’m going to get some pie. Would you like some pie?”
Conclusion: Be proactive about this thing
Those are three strategies for helping your s.o. come to grips with your problem. Definitely be aggressive about addressing this issue: the goal is making it to the summer with your baby, so do what you have to in the meantime.
Do you have experience with this scenario? Let us know on Facebook.