Arctic auto repair

Helllooooo world,
Happy new year!
2009 is shaping up to be cold, so far as I can judge by these first 18 hours. No need to fear, I can still fix my car even when it's arctic temperatures.
I can no fairly say that I would really enjoy having a garage.

That being said.
Let's go back in time. To Monday of last week. 12/22/2008.
It had snowed on Friday... about a foot of the purist lightest fluffiest champagne powder, EVER.
And then... Sunday it snowed most of the day well into night, more of the same beautiful stuff. The saturday had a high of about 7 so there was no room for melting anywhere. So Sunday I spent most of the day on the phone trying to find someone to cover my Monday shift so I could get to Smuggler's Notch. Success struck with the call of Sully! Sweet relief.
Monday morning I was up at 5:45 shoveling the driveway and warming up the car. The sun was out and I was determined to get to the mountain for first chair.
As it would shape up... after picking up Colby I made a minor wrong turn in Essex that added a little bit of time to our travelling. This would mean we would miss FIRST chair, but we were still there dam earlier. Most of the cool folks from the store were going to be at the mountain that day.
boom, we're dressed and ready to go. We get into line and what happens? Colby forgets his pass in the car. What!? Are you kidding me? Well, I'm not about to wait, so I hop the chair and take my first run solo. Wild!
Not only is it STILL snowing at the mountain, it's snowing HARD at the top.
I take a tree run and am WAIST DEEP in the lightest powder I have ever seen in my life. This was easily the greatest day of snowboarding I had ever seen. Really pretty amazing. I got stuck in a tree well on my first run and Colby had to wait a little longer than expected at the lift, but what was I to do? I was stuck.
That day was awesome.
7 hours at the mountain. Rubino, Ben Coleman, Colby, Eddy and myself. There were others at the mountain that day, but we never ran into them until the parking lot. Too bad.

Moving on!
Tuesday I spent 60% of the day packing and shipping packages from Ebay sales. It was a pain. But, it was money well worth it.
Then I drove south to RI for the Holidays. Sadly, Ali was staying VT with her family. Understandable, but still sad.
Tuesday was a long day to say the least, the roads were ok, unless you were in a rest area, or in the breakdown lane, which were as slick as an NHL hickey rink.
I made it into town around 8:00. Jumped into Providence bike to pick up the rest of the parts to build this:

The new hotness.
Some reports were 24.7 pounds, some were 25.4. Let's split the difference and say 25 even. And yes, it's a left hand drive.

That night it was off to the E&O for some pinball with Kipp and Michelle, BMC for a minute, and Hoshaiah. I was hoping to meet up with Bill from the old school days because it was his birthday, but there was no word from him. Bummer.
Christmas Eve was a slow day, I was nearly run off the road by some maniacal drivers.
It was nutty.
That night it was off the Fez for the secret christmas Eve party. All of these things being fun... but something was missing and that something was Ali. Bliffer.
Christmas was fun. Weird at Ned's with some new folks around and a different atmosphere, but it was fun. Then to seen the extended family which I really haven't seen in over a year. Really, it's been that long? Seeing memere' was great and the rest of the family.
Then Friday morning it was back in the car headed VT, after picking up Colby in Worcester.
And that's when the trouble started.
Maybe it was the extra weight of the christmas gifts, maybe it was the extra weight of Colby. Tough to say. I do know that the head gasket finally quit some 50+ miles south of Burlington. Horse shit.
We limped our way to town, coolant going everywhere, including into the cylinders. Sweet.
Keep your figures crossed that I didn't do any other MAJOR damage to the car. So far, it seems ok. Although today while ripping it apart, I did break a small elbow connecter on an air hose. Lame. If that's the only casualty I will be excited.

So, in the arctic 8 degree and mildly windy weather that kicks off the new year here in VT, I was out the driveway, slowly disassembling my engine to get to the head gasket. As it turn out, it's not that difficult. I lucked out and Colby happened to have the 11mm polygon driver needed for the head bolts. I would work in 20 minute shifts outside, then come in and warm-up again.
With the great aid of a sawed off hockey stick shaft that i found in our attic, I was able to lift the head up enough to slide out the old gasket. There was so much coolant in the cylinders I was scared. A quick phone call to master mechanic Mike also known as 3M (not the brand) eased my concerns. I hijacked a kitchen baster from Ali's kitchen supplies and continued on. A little over an hour later the old gasket was out, the new gasket was in and we were in business. I need to secure some compressed air to clean out the head bolt holes and I'll have it back on the road. Or so I hope. Thermosat my be cooked, heater core may be cooked, head may be warped... but seriously, it's too cold to get any deeper into at this time of year. In the spring I'll do some more thorough work and make sure everything is 100%. Car only has 103000 miles on it.
HUGE thanks to Mike Sam for his invaluable help and advice on how to deal with it.
Also to Colby for having some awesome tools and enjoying the adventure of the drive home just as much as I did on the Friday after Christmas.

So... no news on what's happening for 2009. But it's all looking pretty good. I will be riding that little bike a bunch.

Which leads me to my next point. NEXT week Colby and I are embarking on a mini skate park tour of New England. Stops include, Ski Market/Underground in Cambridge, Skater's Edge, Rye Airfield, Shrewsbury... stay tuned. 6th-8th. Mark your calendars!

Oh, and in that other sort of training, January marks the beginning. So get ready!
Happy New Year!