Monday, October 09, 2006

Off topic - Sports Time

While there's probably tons of good things to grasp in the glass and aluminum industry- my other passion.. sports really has taken center stage.

First.. baseball.. and the Detroit Tigers.

I live outside of Detroit and even though I grew up in Pittsburgh and will always be a Pirate fan, living the last 9 years here made in to a Tiger fan and obviously today I am pretty pumped.

The Tigers miracle series win over the Yankees was simply amazing. No one, and I mean NO ONE in Detroit thought these guys had a snowballs chance in beating the might Yankees.

The celebration afterward ws proof of that- it was one of those "oh my we did it" types of releases. And it was unreal.

Now onto Oakland, where Tiger fans can only hope that the boys don't come out flat against a very good A's team.

Meanwhile, probably lost in the whole TO debate yesterday was that the Steelers.. defending SuperBowl champs are in deep trouble after losing to the Chargers.

Basically the Steelers have to go 10 and 2 the rest of the way.. and thats a tall order.. plus those 2 losses can not come against the Ravens or really anyone in the AFC....

On the bright side if any team can string together victories, its Pittsburgh... but it just seems like Bill Cowher is not into it...

Anyway that's my off topic dump- next time in we'll get back to glass and aluminum and all of the adventures that come with it...

Hope everyone is well...

Monday, October 02, 2006

Back Again

Yes, and sorry again for the delays in posting. Been very hectic around the industry right now. Everyone is seemingly very busy- which is good.

The recent GlassBuild show is now in the books- lots of people on hand- Vegas can really draw them in. Hopefully that is a good sign for our 2007 BEC conference- its one you do not want t o miss.

NFRC wise I have to be quiet. However not sure if anyone noticed that at the IEC code hearings last week, an alternative path to NFRC using AAMA 507 was voted down. No surprise except for the fact that the IEC allowed 2 committee members, who are also NFRC Board guys, to be able to vote and control the hearing.

Amazing. What's more to be said than that? Is there anyone out there at that level that is not awash in massive conflicts of interest? Anyone?

China wise, the show in Vegas really showed that the Chinese are coming strong. Shame is that many people will buy into it, bringing more Chinese influence to the states, and eventually hurting the industry. One glass shop owner told me he had no issues with the Chinese and that if they were low, then that's his supplier. Oh well, that is surely his choice- but at the end of the day this will not be good. The glass shop may not suffer like the installer, but it still will be troublesome.

Hopefully now that things are mellowing I can keep up with this better. Its funny, a comment was made about me to one of my co workers- the guy said "doesn't he have better things to do with his time?" and Yes its true- I do, but I enjoy the communication of this blog and what spurs from it.