November 3rd. That is the longest I’ve ever been able to put off switching to winters. A late snowfall this year and the fact that I had the Lincoln to rely on meant that the Focus could still sit on the Rs without worry. As of yesterday though it’s now ready to face the snow and salt again, as the Lincoln had a minor issue….

It’s dead. Driving home a few days ago the whole car started to go nuts (warning lights, error messages), and then the screens inside started going black one by one followed by the car shutting off and coasting to a stop. Brad happened to be driving by and saw me at the side of the road while I was waiting on the tow truck, and stopped to see if I needed a lift. Kyle showed up too and followed the tow truck as we brought the Lincoln home. Thanks guys!

This is why you don’t abruptly park a car for a year and then drag it out to be immediately put back to daily use.

It’s being towed to work soon so that it can be brought back to life but until then it’s a decoration in the street. We have a hunch as to what happened but we’ll be able to dig into it more once it’s in the shop.

That means that the yellow sedan gets to come out of its short hiding and get back to work.

I’ve actually had people ask during the winter months (when the Focus was on stock wheels and snow tires) when I was going to buy new wheels for it. So, I had some fun and quickly made up a small Winter Mode decal for it to throw on a wheel. Normally on the Focus I don’t like to stick decals on any type of painted/finished surface (hence why they’re all on the glass) because cleaning glue residue off of them isn’t my favourite thing*. However, when I was taking the stock wheels off of the rack they’re stored on, part of it fell and bounced off a spoke of this wheel, taking a small chunk out of the face. Stupid gravity. That’ll be on the list of things to fix in the spring…at least it was one of the winter wheels. That means glue residue doesn’t matter as much now though since it has to be repaired anyway.

*Quick tip from a detailer; use soft steel wool and glass cleaner to remove glue and other crud from your windows. That’s why my decals go there – cleanup is a snap.

The one upside currently is that the roads are staying pretty dry so the car is relatively clean.

Also in winter mode is the ST. Mario’s driving it through its second winter, and the first one with it lowered. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes. He’s using his Varrstoens as winter wheels though, so it looks pretty much the same as it did during the summer.

With work and school not much has happened to the car lately aside from this, but planning for 2014 is already happening. That’s one part of winter I enjoy; looking ahead to spring and starting to stockpile parts and get ideas for the new season.

-Bill