I mentioned a week or so ago that my grandmother passed away. She was 99 and had a very full, wonderful life which was for the most part sickness free until the very end. What follows is a personal story and I understand if you have no need to read further.
Dan from Madison
99 Years
My grandmother died last night. She was 99. She was very active right up until her death. She had a very good life.
Aside from the obvious sorrows that I have, the historian in me thinks about the past. Not just my memories with her, but all the things she has seen in the last 99 years. I simply can’t imagine her life.
She was born in Munich and raised with I believe six siblings. She was the last to pass.
She lived though both world wars. The Great War she was in Germany and her whole family almost starved, but they managed. Her dad was a cobbler – a great one. Legend has it that he fixed shoes for some of the Habsburgs although I have no proof of that. She fled Hitler in the thirties and watched WW2 from Chicago where she met my Grandfather, who emigrated from Latvia.
I simply can’t imagine what she thought about even the things that I take for granted today, like my Blackberry, coming from a rural community without electricity. They raised rabbits for food.
What about antibiotics? Cars? Indoor plumbing?
What a century this has been.
Media Bleg
I started blogging at my “homebase”, Life In The Great Midwest on November 20, 2004. Here is my first post:
My first post, I guess, should be a quote from one of my heroes, Ronald Reagan.
“Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.”
LITGM is an immense collection of posts about different subjects. It has been a small group blog for some time now. We have a lot of fun there and I have made a lot of wonderful friends. I also blog at some half dozen other locations.
People have different reasons for blogging. My main reason was to keep my (admittedly poor) writing skills sharp and to keep up on new technology as far as the sharing of ideas goes. I know that my writing will never be as good as someone like Ginny, but I do try my best.
It will be interesting to see where blogs end up in another five years. Frankly I am surprised that they have lasted this long. Best buggy whip around, I always say.
To the meat of this post. It seems that I have now come full circle. I have decided to write a small book, and I hope that my blogging over the last 6 years will help me with the writing of it.
The subject matter will be how physical fitness has changed my life. I am now an upper end amateur athlete, and I participate in running, strength training, cycling and Muay Thai kickboxing. The changes in my life have been nothing short of amazing and I not only want to share my story with others, but I want to help others receive this gift.
I want to give the information away for free and my initial idea is to put up a website where people could download a copy for free by clicking a link for a pdf file. I don’t know much about print on demand books.
Any help our commenters could provide here would be greatly appreciated as to what you think would be the best way to distribute this. I hope to get it done by Spring and have made it my winter project.
I just hope Jim McCormick doesn’t review my book, as his review will most likely be better and longer than my text :).
We Just Don’t Know
Back in September I wrote a post that bitched because a certain law had a loophole that was being exploited.
I now have an update of sorts.
I will limit this discussion to residential A/C equipment to keep the discussion simple.
To review, the original intent of the law that was enacted as of January 1 of this year was to eliminate the manufacture of any residential A/C that contained the refrigerant R-22. Unfortunately the law was written poorly, and quickly the Chinese manufacturers flooded the market with air conditioners that were shipped dry, meant to be charged with R-22 in the field. R-22 is still available at relatively low prices.
Last week in Chicago I attended a lecture by the head of a large HVAC trade group. Apparently the DOE (Department of Energy) is frowning upon this loophole and may be doing something to not allow the dry units to be sold.
Meanwhile, several of the major manufacturers are (as of this writing) gearing up production for dry R-22 units.
So what to do. Jump in and risk the units being outlawed at a later date (as is what most think will happen) or sit here and let my competitors get a leg up on the thing?
This isn’t the only pending issue in my industry – there are a lot of credits available now for replacing your old heating and cooling system with one of a much higher efficiency – those credits are due to expire at the end of the year unless re-upped. This was expected to be done but Congress left town to campaign and it is tabled. They may or may not get on it with the lame duck session (like so many other items).
This is a very nervous and interesting time for my industry. I am sure there are many, many others who are also watching Congress like never before in this uncertain last few months of the year.
Obama Visit to Madison
The President of the United States of America visits Madison today. As I write this I think I may have heard AF1 buzz over my place of business. We don’t get too many 747s (like, none) landing in Madison.
Also as I write this, some of the major roads are blocked off or are getting blocked off for the President’s motorcade. I honestly have no clue how I am going to get home, as my residence is on the other side of a highway that is blocked off. I believe the overpasses are also blocked. Obama’s speech is set for 6pm.
Some interesting anecdotal evidence for you. I made a point to be visible outside of my usual office area and to talk more than usual to guys who had things to pick up – from parts runners to technicians. Almost every single person is not happy about this – not only for the extreme inconvenience, but for the sheer waste of money. Many guys explicitly said “that’s my money they are wasting”. I know that some of these guys voted for Obama, but none of them are pleased with this show of bluster.
So if you see my town on the news tonight with a huge crowd on Library Mall in downtown Madison to hear the One speak, just remember that there is a seething underbelly of people who are major-league pissed off at this spectacle.