Welcome to New England

It's negative three degrees Fahrenheit.  That's the high for today, actually.  It's a cold one.  Not record-breaking cold - but it sucks pretty bad no matter what.  It's hard to get a sense of what that temperature feels like, but Mr. Mailman here kind of tells it...

And you should know that when it's this cold out, the roads look like this...

...because there isn't anything we can put on the roads that will melt snow in these temps.

Well you would think it would go without saying that this isn't real good ride-around-with-the-windows-open weather.   Casual observation says that a full 30% of motorists disagree.

A smoker, probably?  Yes - could be.  Having the passenger window cracked a bit as well does make me wonder though.

Unless this person is smoking a cigar, I would say that that much window down is a bit more than needed.

Same applies here.

...and here.

I love no dog this much.

Now, I've met these kinds of people before and they'll tell you they like to have fresh air.  Personally I think it's a phobia about car air being bad for you.  I think it's also a phobia about heated air in general.  For example, it's fairly standard practice among fire heated homes to have a window cracked in the same room as the wood stove.  This has partly to do with creating a draft for the chimney, but it also has the effect of creating a freezing goddamn draft in the room in which you are trying to sit. The reason this usually isn't a problem is because the only people who would be bothered by this are people who are dumb enough trust something so unnatural as heated air in the first place.

Now, I've found that I'm just about the exception around here concerning car heat.  I'll take all you got.  It's all free and plentiful (once your car warms up.)  But I've ridden with so many folks who never bother to turn the heat on, folks who leave it just blowing on your face the whole time while you can't feel your toes, and yes, your classic window-crackers.  Up in the backwoods of New England exists a breed of human that just can't acclimate to summer weather, and that's fine and understandable if that's where you live after all, but THREE BELOW?!?  PUT YOUR WINDOW UP, STUPID.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?