Sometimes, in some places, the winter weather can be so severe that the cold not only affects the people who deal with it but also the common things we use each and every day. When negotiating through all of the travails one deals with in the Minneapolis winter weather there are some situations that occur where those who have no experience with it would shake their heads in disbelief and generally respond with a hearty "No way!" But in all truth, the answer is "yes way", these things really do happen.
On one evening Marcus Blankenship was leaving his home to go out with friends only to be met with the biting cold that follows a rain and ice storm. In this type of weather the wind does wonders by blowing on anything that has become wet from the storm and covering it with a strong, but slippery coating of ice. While Marcus walked to his brand new car he hurriedly pressed the unlock button feature on the keyless entry remote only to be met with a door that was iced shut from the cold.
Mistakenly he thought that the locks were not opening due to the weather and this is where he was wrong.
After dropping his key in the street and not wanting to be late for his evening out Marcus decided to do what everyone used to do in the past when he was a kid in Minneapolis - put the key in the lock and turn it. Unfortunately the key became wet when it was dropped and as he inserted into the keyway of the lock and the metal of the key and lock froze making the key become stuck in the lock. Flustered Marcus began attempting to turn the key with a rapid frequency and with force that eventually bent the key in a manner that made it useless for starting the ignition.
That same evening when John Bjornson was arriving home he was preoccupied by his anger and pain from falling on the slippery ice after stepping off of the bus. Ripping his pants and twisting his ankle he limped home and haphazardly inserted the front door key to his house. Getting settled from a days work and the harsh weather that forced his spill outside he went about his routine of cooking dinner, cleaning the mess and taking the full trash out to the container outside.
Somehow, perhaps still thinking of his fall, he locked himself out with the keys hanging safely on the key rack in the kitchen. This weather is too cold for there to be any windows open and fortunately for John, as he ran around to the front to find a neighbor whose phone he could borrow, saw and heard a young man explaining to a locksmith how he bent his key while the residential locksmith was preparing to make him a new one.
On this evening the locksmith was able to help two people in situations that anywhere else would truly seem to be unbelievable.
