Messed Up Day

Saturday January 15th was sure a nice day.  It was partly sunny, and the temperature got up to about +6 by mid afternoon.  But other than the weather it was a lousy day for me...!

In the morning I went over to the guest cottage and got everything ready for installation of the aspen paneling to the east side of the high ceiling.  I sorted out all the aspen boards that I finished and separated the 8', 9' and 10' lengths, and then stacked them out of the way.  I moved a few tools and supplies out of the way and then set up the scaffold.  It is a tight squeeze to get it in between the door, the walls and the wood stove, but I made it work.  Hopefully we can reach all sections of the ceiling from where I have it as there is little room for movement.

After that I took a drive up to Abraham Lake, hoping to get out with my camera for the first time in 2022.  I should have known better than to attempt this on a mild Saturday.  Not only did we have mild temperatures, but wind conditions up at the lake were better than usual, with only a stiff breeze.  But the lake was just crawling with people.  At every lake access point there were 10, 20 or even 30 parked cars.  And people were all over the place out on the ice.  You can see some of the hoards in the background of my Bighorn Sheep snapshot below.  Frustrated with this I decided to head back to Nordegg and gave up on photography.

Just after I turned the truck around, my check engine light came on and the screen on the dash flashed a warning.  It advised that in 200km the truck would be disabled to a maximum speed of 8 km/h and that I needed to service the DEF system.  DEF is diesel exhaust fluid and it is a urea based solution that is injected into the exhaust system to reduce emissions.  DEF freezes solid at about -10C, so the reservoir on the truck is heated.  This recent cold snap must have seen it frozen solid.  Now with the mild temperatures it has started acting up.  By the time I got back to the cottage the count was down to 160km before the truck goes into limp mode.  So I called the Dodge dealership in Rocky Mountain House and have the truck booked to go in on Monday morning.  Although this will be covered under warranty, it is a major inconvenience.  Not only does it delay my trip back to Edmonton, but it just messed up my whole day.  For someone like me that regularly does a 600km round trip to the cottage, a 200km warning is not sufficient.  I am less than impressed...!