How Cold Was It?

Cold enough to freeze two of our water pipes. Fortunately, it hit the mid 30’s today, warm enough to thaw the pipes out before they burst.

Prior to remodeling the kitchen in early 2001, the hot water pipe serving our sink would freeze up several times each winter if we forgot to let it drip overnight. The original builder put it too close to the outer wall with insufficient insulation protection. Better insulation installed during the renovation generally took care of the problem, but just to be on the safe side, before going to bed Sunday I set the drip again. To no avail. Our hot water pipe froze up from the single digit overnight temperatures and even lower wind chill reading.

More surprising was the cold water pipe freeze-up in the master bedroom bathroom. Again, the culprit was proximity to an outer wall. This time a renovation in 2005 did us in, as we moved some pipes from an interior to an exterior wall.


Generational Divide: Watching Diane Sawyer’s Monday evening newscast on ABC, I was bemused by artwork she used to illustrate a story on rising employment prospects. She showed a made-up screen shot of a Help Wanted page.

It got me wondering, how soon before the future generation of job seekers has no visual context for a newspaper’s Help Wanted section? Given the use of job sites like CareerBuilder and Monster Board, and community sites like LinkedIn, it wouldn’t surprise me if many of them would be perplexed by what Diane Sawyer displayed. Of course, that’s assuming they watch the national news on ABC, or NBC, CBS, CNN or FOX, for that matter. They generally don’t. Surveys show they get more news from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart than from the heritage newscasts on broadcast and cable networks.


Stumped: During a recent family get-together, my grandnephew Harrison asked Ellie and me a question: “Is it weird being an adult?”

Twenty-nine-year-old Ellie and I looked at each other dumbfounded. Seven-year-old Harrison is very bright. That question is one for the ages.


Happy Birthday: It’s my sister Lee’s birthday today. I won’t say how old she is, but I am the baby of the family.


Gimme Some R-e-s-p-e-c-t: I’m beginning to think I get no respect. Or, am at the very least, underappreciated. Maybe just undiscovered.

The NY Times did an article a few days ago on ideas to rejuvenate suburbia. One suggestion was to transform “dead” malls into downtown areas that could be enjoyed by an increasingly aging society (http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/new-lives-for-dead-suburban-malls/?scp=1&sq=ellen%20dunham-jones&st=cse).

It’s a laudable proposal, but one I basically postulated 15 and a half years ago in my monthly Chain Store Age editorial. I opined several alternate uses for lapsed retail space including turning the square footage into senior citizens apartments, low or moderate income housing, community centers, and my personal favorite, low-risk detention centers.

Maybe I need a better PR agent?