When it gets dangerously cold outside, many electric and mechanical devices don’t like to work.

This is a fact that’s affected my life Sunday and Monday.

My son was packed and ready to drive off to college at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for the spring semester on Sunday morning.

The problem was, with the zero-degree temperatures, his car did not want to start.

We have three sets of jumper cables at home and I thought I had taken the best of the bunch to start his car. We attempted to jump start the car, but all we got were some weak engine turnovers and then clicks. I know from experience when jump-starting a car that having good connections — and especially grounds — can make all the difference. So, I started fiddling with doing it over-and-over again with better grounds. 

It didn’t work.

During this process I noticed a slight corrosion build up on his positive battery terminal. I took a wire brush and cleaned that off.

Still, the vehicle would not start.

Then I looked at all three pairs of jumper cables we had and decided that I had not chosen the best pair. I went through the whole process again and made sure every connection was solid. Praise glory, the vehicle started right up. It took two-and-a-half hours standing outside in sub-freezing temperatures to make happen. I did have help from my son, but he got dejected and took a break from our endeavor. I think, honestly, he got cold. Like every other teen on the planet he refuses to wear a hat and gloves. Apparently to the youth of America a hoodie is sufficiently equal in protection against the cold as a parka. Yes, I once wanted to maintain my hairstyle, too, but it’s not worth preserving in the dangerous cold.

I can imagine the fake television report of teens freezing for lack of wanting to wear winter clothes: “Another youth was found frozen solid today after wearing a hoodie, sweatpants and shoes without socks while walking to a college class today. Reports indicate, however, the youth’s hair was perfectly styled and their outfit was well-coordinated.”

I got to answer that question myself on Monday morning at 6:30 a.m. when I woke up in the house and it was very cold. Ridiculously cold. Upon wandering down to the thermostat I discovered it was 56 degrees inside the house. That’s cold, but it was much better than the minus 3 outside.

Over the early fall a new furnace was put into the house. This recent cold snap is its first test. And it’s failing — miserably. 

I went into the basement, turned the furnace off, let it sit for a few minutes, then turned it on. I waited and the pilot light turned on and flames shot into furnace to supposedly warm the house.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about resetting a furnace and thinking it will instantly warm the house to the prescribed thermostat setting, it’s that you can’t abandon the furnace as you wait for this to be done. The furnace might just stop working again, then when you return, instead of being 56 degrees, it’s 40 degrees. Nobody wants that.

Winter brings with it amazing challenges that are easy to take for granted when everything is working right. Your snow gets cleaned off, your home is always warm, your vehicles always start, you’re family always dresses for the weather; that’s called being prepared and lucky. What percentage of Wisconsinites does this happen to? Less than 50?

In our personal lives, where “if it isn’t one thing, it’s another,” winter just adds interesting curveballs. In the summer, the air conditioning goes out, there are ants and other insects to contend with and vehicles still need repair.

When I was out shoveling on Saturday, my neighbor and I talked and he said, “At least we didn’t have to clean up after snow storms like this in November.” True, true. Now if we can just corral winter to end sometime in March, that would be fabulous.

Good luck to all of us with that, right?

— Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.