Monday, January 24, 2011

Well, the good news is that the temperature is up to -8F...

Which is considerable warmer than the -30F we woke up to.
I'm not a fan of cold.

Part of the bad news is that we're down to no working cars. Madman's car went into the shop Friday with a leaking gas tank and spent the weekend there. Sunday my car blew a sparkplug right out of the engine, stripping the socket so a new plug won't hold. It's going into the shop today, if we can figure out a way to get it there. (She currently won't start. We don't know if that's due to the cold or the engine malfunction.) (And she's not happy running on 3 cylinders anyway, and there's a serious lack of compression from the missing plug.) (And what is it with me and exploding cars?)
We'll rescue Madman's car today, which is at least drivable as long as he keeps the gas tank less than a quarter full. Not at all convenient, but at least possible. (The garage is hunting up a replacement gas tank, so can't fix his car for a bit anyway.)

*sigh*

8 comments:

Becky said...

Okay, you win in the Too-Effing-Cold wars. And girl, I feel your pain with the cars. I have a leak in my savings account that is going right into my car. I'm considering going back to the horse.

Bullwinkle said...

Sorry - I have to give today's Worst Monday Ever award to Cold Antler Farm: http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/

Sure puts my world in perspective ;)

(Although, your total lack of transportation does come in a close second.)

Erika said...

I've seen 30 below. I can't say I cared for it.

Have you tried the sublimation trick yet? Take a pan of boiling water, run outside and throw it in the air. It's pretty neat, and at least you can say you did it!

Cookie said...

Holy Crap! What's going with you people?!

xo

Anonymous said...

Have your rubber tires shattered yet? That is the real mark of cold. And, no, that has never happened here, either. I think you have to be in Siberia or Antarctica for rubber to freeze.

That having been said, you have my sympathies. Winter really is hard on the mechanicals. And the animals (including us).

Anonymous said...

Gah! Zero cars is icky. Both our cars refused to start that morning, but at least we could pop the clutch to get Neil's subaru running.

I hope you get something sorted out quickly!

Do you know where the pipes freeze? We had good success heating my engine with one of those 250watt heat bulbs - it might work on frozen pipes too...

Dorothy said...

Oh man! If it wasn't for bad luck, you'd have no luck at all! I agree that it's way, way too cold there. Here's hoping things warm up and you get your wheels back.

Lanea said...

Oof. Best of luck with the repairs.