How tough are Canadians in the cold....

RB_2

50 Fahrenheit (10 C)
Californians shiver uncontrollable
Canadians plant gardens

35 Fahrenheit (1.6 C)
Italian Cars won't start
Canadians drive with the windows down

32 Fahrenheit (0 C)
American water freezes
Canadian water gets thicker.

Fahrenheit (-17.9 C)
New York City landlords finally turn on the heat.
Canadians have the last cookout of the season.

-60 Fahrenheit (-51 C)
Mt. St. Helens freezes.
Canadian Girl Guides sell cookies door-to-door .

-100 Fahrenheit (-73 C)
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Canadians pull down their ear flaps.

-173 Fahrenheit (-114 C)
Ethyl alcohol Freezes.
Canadians get frustrated when they can't thaw the keg

-460 Fahrenheit (-273 C)
Absolute zero; all atomic motion stops.
Canadians start saying "cold, eh?"

-500 Fahrenheit (-295 C)
Hell freezes over.
The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup.

hot_rod

Cold, eh?

Yeah, I was thinking of you last night after midnight as I was driving through white-out conditions on my way home from the last call of the day. It was snowing to beat the band & the tornadic winds were whipping what snow had already fallen back into the air. I was wishing for you neighbors to the north to pull that Canadian air mass right back up into the north woods!

I was also cursing Twisted Sister about the parts situation.

2nd to last call would have taken no more than 30 minutes 15 years ago. Instead, I had a PC board to retro-fit / re-wire into a first generation high-efficiency scorched air untit's all-to-cramped electrical cavity - you know the one - all of the wires were installed AFTER the PC board was installed & it's damn near impossible to remove the bugger. The insane asylum escapee "gent" who wrote the instructions on how to make this new-style so-called universal board fit into this antique (funny how the computer age has taught us to refer to systems more than a month old as antiques!) scorched air unit that sits facing a wall with NO LIGHT to see by so you drag a frozen drop-light, which is aptly named because you often drop them - causing the bulb filament to die, and you half-lay / half-squat while standing on your head trying to adjust the bi-focals - all the while muttering under your breath - and after becoming thouroughly confused by the demented instructions, you "use the force Luke" and rely on your 30+ years of wiring controls experience to wing-it - and that works, but only after you find the extremely windy conditions necessatate your physically separating the combustion air intake to allow the vaxcuum/pressure switch to re-set & heat is finally restored. (First board had smoked & the shorted pathway was unmistakable.) With running back to obtain the correct board, which is just one of dozens of PC boards we keep in our inventory because NO ONE standardizes parts anymore - slightly over two hours.

Next call - smart valve pilot assembly shot. Radiant job, so the home's not cooling off too quickly & arrangements were made to return in the AM. Well.................... NO ONE STOCKS ANY DAMN PARTS ANYMORE, so what could have been a 30 minute service call the night before 15 years ago, turned into a marathon phone calling session to find a supplier - 45 minutes away, one way - who had ONLY ONE in stock.

No damn wonder I have tens of thousands of dollars wrapped up in inventory to try to keep what's needed in my shop & on the trucks & even at that, I'd need about ten warehouses to store adequate inventory to service all of the improvements" we've seen in these past 15 years.

And then I saw on the news that somewhere up your way it was something like -47 degrees F without a wind chill factor & I counted my blessings.

We had to use our jetter machine today to blast through a poop-cicle ice plug in a septic tank inlet!

A sream system that had flooded & tripped off the pressure troll froze up and many of the pipes are split. As the building thaws, we'll probably find some of the radiators have gone south too.

No heat calls and frozen pipe calls out the wazoo! Tis a bad time to be without a regular plumber or - worse yet - to be behind on making timely payments on past due bills(G).

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

Bob Tonner

That is priceless!

My family (solid Leaf fans) and I (gave up after 42 years) are watching the Leafs lose again to Buffalo 2-0.

However, having said that I remember a time no too long ago while in service to Her Majesty in the Canadian army I was spending night after night in a tent at -70 C. Now that is seriously cold!

Bob Tonner,
President,
InfinityLab Inc.

Mike Lampkin_2

That's funny...

Hi Robert,
That temperature conversion chart is a keeper. I still
am laughing. I also wanted to add: ( At -500 degrees, the
phone never stops ringing at the Danfoss order desk....
send more zone control panels please.)
Regards, Mike lampkin

Jackchips

Hey RB,

what temperature do we need to kill the curse of the Bambino?

Dave_4

How tough are Edmontonians in the cold....

.....

- 508F = Hell freezes over. Edmontonians cheer for the Calgary Stampeders & Flames.

Alaska Joe

Cold????

I'm sure that there are some businesses in Canada that have to deal with cold, but really, if it's any colder than here in interior Alaska and they can't get things working at -45 for weeks on end, let us know!

canuckDale

Hockey & Football

> .....

>

> - 508F = Hell freezes over. Edmontonians

> cheer for the Calgary Stampeders & Flames.



Not this year..........again. sigh

canuckDale

and.....

Pheonix 5....Edmonton 1.

Last night...Pheonix 7...Calgary 1.

Says it all!