A ton of good people about

Happy New Year… In the most recent issue of USGlass I gave out awards for some of the good things we have going on in our industry and also recognized some very good people who deserved some props. And after doing it I realized a few things… the biggest being I should’ve named the top 30 or 40 people who deserve some limelight… not just 10. The moral for me is there are some seriously good people in our world. Folks with ethics and morals, class and style, that are professional to the core. Too many times we miss all of that in the daily pitter patter of our industry and I hope to keep bringing to light the names of people who fit that description. So for those of you, who I forgot, be prepared… I’m coming after ya…

Elsewhere…

-- Obviously I saw the International Aluminum announcement and as I noted a few weeks back, unfortunately more of this stuff was due to come and I hope that the folks there can do what needs to be done to work through it all. My heart and support goes out to them.

-- WEBCAST ALERT… GANA is doing another VERY helpful webcast scheduled for January 28th at 12PM EST. This one will be on the new rules from the Consumer Products Safety Commision (CPSC). While you may not recognize the name, it is a very important update on how the labeling and certification will go for glazing in “hazardous” locations. More info can be found HERE, so check it out. The other bonus that none other than the legend Kim Mann will do the presenting, that alone is worth it. Seriously take a sec, click the link and check it out.

-- Speaking of Kim Mann, I almost needed a lawyer of his high grade this week… See in the last 10 months, I went on an epic stress eating binge… some people drink.. I eat… anyway I have gained a ton of weight… then over the holidays I grew a beard at the urging of my daughter… so needless to say I look like a jewish and balding version of Grizzly Adams… So I go to the airport to fly to the great state of Texas and when I give my license to the TSA, he looks me up and down and says “This is not you”… Now I should’ve been thinking since security was going to be tougher but I wasn’t… so I stammered that I just grew the beard and I am much bigger than I appear in the license… he looked again and let me pass… then he cracked “That picture must’ve been when you were at your fighting weight!”…. yep… gotta by a razor and start Isagenix… yee ha…

-- Football playoffs… early Superbowl choice… Chargers vs Cowboys….

-- Saw that good ole Gary Curtis is back on the board of the NFRC…. He replaces Roland Temple who retired… which is depressing. Gary has never been a fan of our industry and was one of the ringleaders trying to jam the process down our throats… he also was the one who gave the various excuses in the past… (most famous one- “it’s in the codes!” which it wasn’t this was after we proved it WASN’T a congressional mandate either) so its old home week at NFRC and the gains by hiring a guy like John Lewis surely just got minimized there. The Titanic is now back on course… icebergs straight ahead!

-- I got to see a LEED job that I must’ve filled out a mountain of paperwork for today… and the job was smaller than a broom closet…. It killed me… I killed a forest of trees and probably a ton of computer energy filling out forms and writing letters for a building that Michael Landon could’ve built himself on Little House on the Prairie… Brutal.

-- Can I be snide and say I want to know where my global warming is right now?

-- Last, it was a tough start to the new year for me and my family as we lost our oldest dog, “Rascal”… Rascal was a beagle-terrier mix who suffered from severe seizures every 4-6 weeks or so. He was a tremendously good dog who just had the awful misfortune of the seizures and despite tons of different medicines and protocols (wish I had pet health insurance… wonder if congress can pass that one… every pet should have it!!) he lost his fight this past Saturday. By the way the doctors assured me he felt no pain during the seizures.. and I hope that was the case. Anyway rest in peace little buddy…

Off to the LINKS…

Well folks she’s baaaaaack… yes the all knowing and all famous Link Chick re-appeared after taking December off to go to Spa Treatments and other fun stuff… or maybe she got pregnant and just didn’t want to tell me…so she avoided me…. who knows… Anyway good stuff as always…

-- A Dog is a great pet (I still have 2 at home…) so is a cat or fish… but this guy had a tarantula… and can you believe the spider hurt him? Yep… people… odd…

-- Link Chick wrote the headline for this one: “Don’t people remember Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker?”… guess not after preacher Rick Warren brings in 2.4 MILLION in donations…

-- Loved this story... the most overused and now “banned” words in our society… you know like “unfriended” and “Stimulus”….

Video of the Week:

Brian Pitman of GANA sent me this one… it’s the opening of the new Burj Dubai and the fireworks display is insane… I think they took every firework ever lit in the US on July 4th and used it here… never seen anything like it… Thanks for the link Brian!