Without knowing the cold, we would not have expected heat. Without knowing the heat, we would not have expected the cool. Everything is relative.- Anon.

N O T  R E A L L Y  A N   E G O  B O O S T E  R

I placed the call this afternoon at 12:10 p.m. to the automobile club. The electronic voice on the other end of the line patiently prodded me for my membership number and other pertinent information. It did not mock me for not taking better care of my vehicle.

After taking all this essential information that same unfeeling and unsympathetic voice matter-of-factly announced that the tow and rescue truck would be arriving there between then and 10:10 p.m. That meant that I should be waiting patiently by the telephone for 10 hours while other needy auto club customers were receiving service.

I had done all I could to prevent this scenario from happening. The weather for the past week had been extremely cold ranging from a daytime high of Minus 28 C to an overnight low of Minus 33 C.

The car’s block heater had been plugged in and I was playing the odds that by turning the engine on twice a day and letting the vehicle warm up for ten minute all would be well.

But as it turned out while I was sitting comfortable and warm in my suite the car outside was freezing its internals off . I took  a gamble and lost on this one. The ounce of prevention did not prevent the pound of cure that would be required to bring my always reliable vehicle back to life.

I weighed the pros and the cons of waiting for a tow truck to appear and decided to cancel the request until warmer and more pleasant weather arrived. Weather channel reports stated that the temperatures would return to single digit values by Thursday or Friday of this week. A glimmer of hope for me and my uncomplaining vehicle.

Did I rant and rave about this unfortunate turn of events or curse the sleepy ground hog for seeing its shadow dooming us to six more weeks of winter? Nope.

I did the adult thing and considered baking ginger snap or chocolate chip cookies or carrot muffins to at least mitigate the negative implications this dead battery had ushered into my life style. Besides the time I spent in cooking class were about to pay off. 

I am admittedly not the Betty Crocker type of person who sits at home patiently waiting until things outside my patio doors corrects itself.

But the mere thought of the aroma of freshly baked goods filling my suite was enough to encourage me to put on my baking apron and carry on as best as I could.

It was too cold to catch a city bus at this time so I chose my next best alternative. 

Treating myself was the best way to enjoy this unavoidable down time.

Besides I need to gain weight and there is no tastier way to do so.

Sitting stranded at home and being bored out of my gourd was not an option. 🙂