If there’s one day out of the year, here in McHenry, when it’s okay to let your hair down and get a little wild, it’s New Year’s Eve. It’s almost mandatory. No one will blame you if you drink a little too much, or a lot. They won’t care if you whoop and holler at Midnight. The crazy paper hat on your head will appear as appropriate as the big smile on your face. If you drive, however,

At this point, if you haven’t winterized your car, time is definitely running short. In fact, McHenry area weather has already thrown some serious tests you and your car’s way. Where we usually don’t see more than a few flakes of snow through mid-November, this year we had children Trick-or-Treating in a snowstorm. Equally unusual, where we only dip slightly below the freezing mark in the same

Imagine if the Big Guy came in for a landing and a strut for one of the sleigh blades broke. Or, think about Nick going off-course because the in-dash navigation system was on the fritz. Even if the seat warmers stopped warming it could spell disaster for good girls and boys, as well as bad; keep in mind the temperatures are dangerously low when soaring at 10,000 feet. Maintenance is part of the trip

Last winter here in Wonder Lake, the temperature fell to close to 30-below zero. That’s cold. That’s really, really cold. That’s the kind of cold where you don’t want to go outside longer than you have to. But, unless you have a heated garage, it’s also the kind of cold your car, truck or SUV is stuck in. It can make it difficult to start your vehicle. The cold has a peculiar effect on liquids.

Truck drivers, the drivers of those 18-wheel monstrosities we see on the roads around McHenry, are required by law to conduct a Pre-Trip Inspection each day before they drive. It makes a lot of sense considering how much damage a 40-ton tractor-trailer can do if something goes wrong. Performing an inspection before you drive makes sense for those of us operating 4-wheel, 1-1/2-ton little monsters,