A cold wind, my car and Kyoto


The Voice, on The Current this morning, promised that by 2015 climate change is going to melt all that frozen mucus up our nostrils. The weather channel was more optimistic, suggesting that the long term warming trend may resume next month.

Yesterday Windsor experienced a record low for February 5th: -20º Celsius, beating the previous record set in 1995. The norm is -10. I'm sure Uncle Elmer in Winnipeg is laughing at our cold weather whining. They hit -40ºC on Sunday, -53 with the windchill.

There is an apartment building in downtown Windsor which had an electrical panel burn out on Saturday, killing the heat, electricity, running water and the elevators. Some of the tenants were evacuated. Others are camping out in their apartments. A number of water mains have burst throughout Essex County and one school in Amhurstburg had to close because the boiler failed.

Over in Michigan several school boards have cancelled class because their buses won't start. No such problems over here and I suspect the maintenance issues across the lake have more to do with the state's low taxes than the weather.

I'm having a problem getting my car to start. The engine is just fine but the theft prevention device has developed an intermittency, the bane of all electronics. As well as turning the key I have to punch in a number code on a small keyboard on the dashboard. For the past few days the keyboard goes dead if I push too hard, while being unresponsive if I touch it too lightly.

Normally I could set the device to automatically supply the password without my input but it appears that the cold is causing a disconnect whenever I turn the car off. Without power the failsafe defaults to no go. So far repeated efforts, some lasting for more than 10 minutes, have warmed the circuitry sufficiently to enable the startup protocol.

The service shop I deal with is swamped right now with more traditional mechanical problems and asked me to hang in there for a few more days before bringing it in. Anyway it's not a big problem. I only planned to use the car twice more this week anyway. As long as my cell phone keeps working I can always call for help if I get stranded.

Arctic lows notwithstanding, last night a united opposition in Parliament passed a resolution calling for the government to meet Canada's obligations under the Kyoto treaty. The Conservatives, with the prime minister absent from the house, defiantly voted in the minority. What this might mean for the Conservative - NDP alliance, if such an animal actually exists, is a good question. If they are going to be consistent we should expect a move by the opposition parties to amend the budget, providing for the payment of several billion dollars to Russia (or another failing economy) for emissions credits. That would cause an election with Kyoto as the central issue. Which would be a good debate for Canadians to have. Let's see if Mr. Layton is willing to force the issue.

Update: All of the remaining residents of Ouellette Towers were ordered yesterday to evacuate the building by the ever vigilant public health unit and the city's building inspectors.

The theft prevention keyboard fell off my car's dashboard, the result I suspect of my incessant pounding combined with the extremely dry and frigid air desiccating the glue on the back of said device. Re-affixed with a liberal amount of duct tape it seems to be working normally again.

Update: Thursday morning the alarm was dead again. I was on the point of calling a tow truck when I gave it one last try, pinching the keypad on its sides while twisting the wire with my other hand. It lit up, I used my thumb to punch in the code, and the car started. Drove directly to the dealer, left the car running and demanded they remove the infernal thing. They did and now I have one more metaphor for the inverse relationship between freedom and security.

Posted: Tue - February 6, 2007 at 12:51 PM          

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