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    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! There’s always something. : / On the way in to work this morning, the ESP light and ABS light both came on at the same time and continued to remain lit. Even when the vehicle was completley stopped.

Confused by this i found a nice stretch of empty road covered with snow and proceeded to slam on the brakes. All the wheels locked up and ABS did not do anything. I then slammed the accelerator to the floor, and the rear tires spun up a storm, no intervention from the traction control system. Interesting, I then proceeded to stop the car, shut it off, and restart it. The problem seemed to be fixed as i now had ABS and ESP.

I continue on my way to work, and get to the parking lot. The lights both come on AGAIN. and my car swerves as I am turning into the lot as the ESP had just shut off. I’ll deal with it after work.

After work, I start the car to get it all warm and toasty (HAHA Yeah right). Scrape all the ice off the car, and get back in it. I shift into first and disengage the handbrake. Instantly the ESP light and ABS light kick in. Keeping in mind that the car HAS YET TO MOVE AT ALL. So I shut off the car and restart it, the issue corrects itself. Well I got all of 20 metres and the lights kick in again. I’m not wasting time on this right now.

So I drive home extra cautious. Checked the manual and it says not to drive the car at all because the ABS system could kick in at anytime while the vehicle is in motion stopping the vehicle and any vehicle following too close behind in a violent orgy of metallicy plasticy death. O.O

I call up the clowns at Victoria Star and they say that the earliest I can take the car in is on Monday…RAAAAH! I ask if I can drive it since the manual says absolutely not to, and the tech there says that “the warning is just in the manual to cover our ass…you can drive it no problem”. Sure thing, I’ll get right on that…ass. So now my car is parked, and I wish death upon it and everyone that looks like it.

Well, we finally got the first batch of snow that has decided to stick around. I can’t say I am displeased that it took this long, I love when there is snow on the ground. The only downside I can see is that people drive like absolute idiots. This was, of course, also the first real snow I had taken my car out in. It performed reasonably well, didn’t feel like i was in any danger due to traction. Only got stuck once , and that was when i stopped at a stop sign, going uphill, on sheer ice. Traction control handled the car surprisingly well, and righted any errors on my part. The only downfall to the car so far is that since it’s a diesel, it hardly heats up at all while sitting idle. Hence it is really a task to clear the windscreen of frost.

Work has been really busy these last few weeks, had two major brochures to get to print.One of them was kind of sprung on me with a two week deadline. Worked late a couple nights to get the necessary shots of the tools/machines. Overall I took over 2500 photos in the last 3 weeks. Grah! But they are finally done, and will be off to print on Monday hopefully.

Over the last few months, my friends have slowly been disappearing, I guess you could say. I haven’t seen a single one of them, minus Em, in the last 2 months at least. I let it slide at first, since they are busy with school. I can understand. But its now been TWO months. Even if i message them most do not respond. I’m just fed up with it. I would rather have friends that i can actually t alk to and have relationships with other than”XXXXXXXX is Busy”. I had originally planned on having a new years party this year again, but I have since decided against it Why would I have a party for friends who I only ever see once every blue moon, and every other time I try and catch up with them / hang out, end up being blown off. The only time in the last 2 months that it even looked like something was going to be happening, I wasn’t even notified when it was called off. Hence, I am tired of even trying to make plans, don’t feel like wasting my time anymore. It is time for new friends.

Oh, I also need to take a new photo for the top banner. Need a new wintery one.

On Wednesday the London contingent of smarties made the journey to KW to visit the Concordia Club. I took off work a bit early for we were going to have a little tour of the countryside. We met in Baden and then drove around for about 1.5 hours until we arrived at the Concordia Club. There we met up with more smarties from the surrounding areas, including the GTA. About 15 people showed up for the dinner, including Harald from parts4smarts.ca. We even had a non smartie in our midst who had the chance to drive a smart during our little romp around the countryside. After dinner, most of us headed over to Haralds to see his little store of Michelak parts in his basement. At least one purchase was made, and I found out he finally has keychains coming in again (YAY!). We slowly dispersed our seperate ways for the drive home. All in all it was a great evening, no, it was a great afternoon. Couldn’t think of a better way to relax.

Waiting at the school in Baden before we set off.

Leaving The School

Most of the attendees at the Concordia Club

Row one of the cars at the Concordia Club