Winter weather is magical, isn’t it?

Suddenly your car is a lemon. Your street is a skating rink. And those machines that dispense parking slips are just big, green ice sculptures.

What was rain on the weekend turned to ice with Monday’s mercury dip, coating just about everything, including the city’s solar-powered pay-and-display machines.

For some drivers, that meant a free ride.

Gwyn Thomas, president of the Toronto Parking Authority, said he was receiving reports of defective dispensers from along the Danforth, around city hall and in the Beach.

He didn’t know how exactly how many machines were down, their buttons frozen and credit card readers illiterate. But while parking officials were busy de-icing, enforcement officers were told not to ticket near green machines that had turned glacial, he said.

Judith Taylor didn’t buy it.

“I’ve gotta run. I’m really nervous about getting a ticket,” she said before running into Kew Gardens to buy a Christmas tree.

The machine on the other side of Queen St. E. wouldn’t read her credit card. And while it ate 11-year-old Maddie Monson’s toonie, it wouldn’t spit out a ticket in return.

Her mother, Lori Monson, said they would throw caution to the wind. She’s a risk taker, she said. That’s a quality that doesn’t pay off in the Beach, she added, politely describing the area’s ticket enforcement officers as “diligent.”

“They’re doing their jobs. I’m the one playing Russian roulette,” said Monson, who admits to a stack of past parking tickets. “I get shot all the time.”

Thomas said the malfunctioning machines are not a common problem for parking officials.

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“It’s just one of those days,” he said, adding that he expected them all to be working again by the end of the day.

So anyone who thinks of blaming Tuesday’s ticket woes on the weather may have to come up with another excuse.