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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.

Made another trip up to Banff for the Christmas holiday’s with Jenn’s parents. We have a few new nice pictures added to the Banff photo album.

Finally we are back, and since I am using WordPress I shoud have a complete website in no time… since someone else has written the software for me.

Jenn is 8 months pregnant now, so photos will be posted soon.