Vroom, vroom!

What's the solution when the temperatures are in the negative and your car just won't start?

Wait for it to get warmer. Monday was 20F instead of -20F, and on lunch, Anthony helped me jumpstart the Canyonero. After a while, it sputtered to life, no thanks to the many functional and nonfunctional heating devices I've tried on it. (On another note, it's strange how quickly you adjust to winter temperatures. I walked out of the house into freezing 20 degree weather and remarked aloud, "Wow it's warm today." Anthony and Samara both agreed with me.)

Anyway, so the Canyonero started. Of course, it ran pretty crappy and what looked like gasoline was leaking from the muffler, probably from flooding the engine repeatedly in our attempts to get it to light off. As I drove it back over to work, I barely had any oil pressure, and it just didn't want to stay running. That made me pretty nervous, and I was feeling pretty blue over the entire episode.

Then I decided to make a trip to NAPA to buy oil, an oil filter and some spark plugs to do a tune-up. The Canyonero was running like its old self again. I'm relieved.

I also had a nice conversation with a gentlemen in Tennessee about the radiator hose heater that wasn't working. He's sending a new one out in the mail. Anthony's works great, so we're both confident that a functional hose heater will keep the car warm enough to start in the colder weather. So I have more car work on my plate, but I'm once again optimistic that it will all start to come together in a way that leaves me with a functioning vehicle, even when the temperatures drop again.

Oh, I also want to give a shout-out to Barbara, Ann's mom. She's been posting comments on our blog lately. It's always nice to know that people are reading, so if someone amuses you, go ahead and post a comment. We like to hear from all our friends and family.

More good news today: Samara has been booked for a training in Anchorage at the end of this month. I knew the court system wasn't going to be sending me anywhere out of Dillingham, but Samara kept holding out hope that SAFE would send her for a conference or training in Anchorage some day. Apparently that day has come. This is a big deal for us here in Dillingham. Anchorage, which is on the road system, has Lower 48-esque prices on all sorts of goods. People go there to shop and stock up on anything they need. You can get all kinds of good things in Anchorage that wouldn't be available in Dillingham. It should be a good time for Samara. I'll make her take the camera and snap photos of all the fast food restaurants, malls, and moose wandering the streets.