Being Canadian means always plugging your car in when you leave it outside overnight in the winter. For those of you that live in warmer climes, there is an electric block heater in your car (if you live anywhere in North America and have a vehicle made after 1990). This block heater is intended to keep key parts of your engine warm enough so that the small amount of H20 that is present in most engines doesn't freeze and cause serious problems.

Being Canadian also means that you're not afraid to venture forth into the wilderness under the guise of an ice-fishing trip with your friends. Such a combination likely means that there is a very good chance that you forget some of the other aspects of what it means to be a Canadian.

Like plugging in your car for instance.

A 2002 Dodge Caravan left outside in -35C (that's -31F for those of you in warmer climes) for a 48 hour period will freeze.

I have proof.

I've just been informed that the garage has successfully thawed out my car and that I can come pick it up. The problem is, there's a bit of a blizzard outside. This brings us to another aspect of what it means to be Canadian.

Snow falling from the sky has a multiplying effect on transit times. Today, I reckon that the multiplier is roughly 5.5.

The journey should take 3 hours each direction. I figure that if I can do it under 30 round-trip that I'm ahead of the game.

I'll check in later and let you know.