The CONAIR Hair Dryer that Saved Christmas

It was December 19, 2014. It was cold outside and “the bells were ringing out” (alarming in nature) on our crossover SUV. Seems the door latch mechanism on the back hatch was frozen; not closing well enough to satisfy the vehicle’s warning system. As a result, we were not relishing an upcoming 1,400 km holiday journey with it sounding off all the way. Or maybe worse yet, the vehicle’s hatch popping open while we were enroute.

Call into service once again, as we had so many times over the years, our trusted CONAIR euro style 1600! A half hour with that hair dryer, well aimed, is all it took to get an all clear of the idiot lights/alarms and a well functioning door latch once more! Believe me when I say, it wasn’t the first time that this CONAIR model 130NG had saved Christmas! 

The stories vary as to how this lifesaver came into our (more specifically my wife Margaret’s) possession. So, here’s where I will use my blogger’s license. It was a Christmas gift of decades ago from me to my darling wife! Although it started out as hers, over the years it really did become ours. The stories of it saving Christmas, past and present are real.

One only needs rewind to last year for another. I’d arrived back at Grouses’ Grail after being away on a three-year work sojourn to points south. It was a cold month of December. There were many feet of snow to deal with before the arrival of our daughter and her family for Christmas. The electric starter on our snow blower was, and still is, notorious for not engaging in weather below -15. And, it was then colder, much colder, where the snow blower sat, looking more like an exposed iceberg!

Never to fail me yet, I sprang into action with our sleek, yet ever so powerful, CONAIR (two speeds, no less) hair dryer! First I got the snow blower tented. Then with that marvel of consumer appliances aimed at that frozen electric starter, I got that snow blower turning over like it was summer, and snow cleared faster than I could say, “Take that Old Man Winter!”

The hair dryer stories over the decades are too numerous to mention. They include thawing many a frozen car, truck and tractor battery to respectable cranking power. There also were frozen water hydrants, thawed to the point of delivering water to awaiting thirsty livestock. No task seemed insurmountable. It had me dubbing the hair dryer, CONAIR the Barbarian for its brute blow drying force!

There are stories from the 1990’s to thaw your heart. I recall how back then Margaret and our kids, Michael and Joelle, spent many an hour using that CONAIR marvel as a lifesaver. With compassion and dedication I marvel at to this day, they dried off, and warmed to the point of standing and taking a first meal, many a hypothermic new born calf. The CONAIR contraption’s effect was often nothing short of miraculous. They literally saved many lives back then with that simple, yet highly functional and relatively inexpensive gift.

Christmas is a blessed time of year for celebrating miracles and new life. It’s also a time of year for gifting. I’m imagining how I’d have been the wisest man of all had I been able to show up at a certain stable a long time ago in Bethlehem with a CONAIR euro 1600 in hand to help dry and warm a new born baby in a manger! 

Gifts don’t have to be gold, frankincense and myrrh to be most appreciated, or life-changing, or in some cases, even lifesaving! Think of them; those kinds of gifts are out there. Here’s hoping you find your CONAIR euro 1600 and that you can find ways of saving Christmases for years to come. A very merry and blessed Christmas to you all and a happy, healthy 2015!