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Being the first time my wife and I have ever had to deal with -35 degree temperatures, we were not really sure how cold the VW TDI would go before it wouldn’t start any more. I went to work yesterday, and couldn’t get the car to start on the way home, leaving me to walk home, about 5km at -35 celsius (oh what joy).

It was sufficient a reason to join AMA, they towed my car back home, we pushed it into the garage overnight and two hours later it worked like a charm. What was VW thinking by not putting a block heater in their diesel vehicles? Usually it is around -20c when it starts to get difficult.

After a $300.00 day, at least we have an AMA/CAA membership now, and I purchased a special coolant tank heater which heats the coolant and circulates the coolant throughout the motor, which is just as effective as a block heater on those cold days. While I won`t have my new heater to install for probably another 2-3 weeks at least I will be ready for next year. Apparently though these tank heater (purchasable through www.frostheater.com) are highly effective and recommended by many people from the TDI Forums; I`ll post once I have tested it out for myself.

As for tomorrow, I`ll have to take the bus.

It seems that in the last 4 weeks 3 people have been killed (or turned into vegetables) because of stupid decisions leading them to wonder in front of the C-Train. For you non Calgarians, the C-Train is a Light Rail Transit system. Even though it is termed “Light” they weigh 49 tonnes, and typically travel at around 80km/h. So you think it would be sensible that people would simply look before crossing over the train lines.

Growing up, my parents always taught me to look both ways before crossing the road (and I distinctly remember this being part of my kindergarden through to grade 3 curriculum), while I will admit they never pointed out situations involving trains, it only seem logical to extend this line of thought to any rail crossings.

In all 3 incidences that have happened this month, not once was there any equipment failure. All (of several) visual and auditory alarms were present to notify pedestrians of an oncoming train, yet for some reason these pedestrians continued to cross the rail lines illegally.

These incidences do certainly support Darwin’s theory though; If you act like a retard, you die.

So there are only two more days until the baby is due, we have waited a long time for this so we are pretty impatient at this point. Labor can set in at any time now, so everything is ready to go. We expect that Saffron will be with us sometime next week.

If you are friends or family, don’t be upset if you cannot get a hold of us once the baby is born. The expectation is that it will be a very tiring and busy period during the first week after the baby and Jenn arrive back home, so the phone will be unplugged during the days. If you wish to contact us, please do to by email; we will set aside times to call immediate family.

Check back to this website, I will let everyone know as soon as Saffron is born.

Here are some pictures at 39 weeks and 5 days.

Jenn is now at 38weeks. At this point we pretty much have everything ready for the trip to the hospital, we are both hoping the baby comes on time. I mean we have already waited 9 months, it is the least it could do for us.

Some new pictures