November 2008
Monthly Archive
Tips for a Warmer Less-Expensive Winter
Posted by susan on 29 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
As cold weather approaches, try these tips for winterizing your home. I received this in an e-mail I received from HWA (Home Warranty Associaton).
- Add or change the weather stripping on your front door and any other doors to the outside of your home
- Add fireproof electrical insulation around your switch plates
- Add insulation around your window trim
- Add insulation around or weather stripping to your attic trap door(s)
- Insulate or add weather stripping around any bathroom fans vented to your attic
- Insulate your garage and attic
- Keep your fireplace damper closed when not in use
For basements
- Insulate the perimeter of your basement (the rim joists)
- Seal ducts and insulate any spots where pipes intersect with the floor or ceiling
- Insulate your basement
You can also complete an online energy audit for your own home at the Government’s ENERGY STAR site by following the link below. All you need is a few minutes and 12 months worth of energy bills.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=home_energy_yardstick.showStep2
Most of these fixes are quick, easy and inexpensive, but can save you hundreds of dollars on energy costs annually, plus give you something to talk about with the neighbors on those long winter nights.
WITH HOPE THAT OBAMA UNITES
Posted by susan on 05 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Taken from the November 5, 2008 Los Angeles Times Editorial
Campaigns divide, and this one has been no exception. But if campaigns present choices, elections are the occasion for reunification. On Tuesday night, the struggle ended with a convincing victory that altered the contours of the electoral map and movingly reminded us of the greatness in our history.
With victories in Democratic strongholds and historic Republican redoubts — Virginia, of all places — Barack Obama can rightfully assert a national mandate, one he will need to confront the difficulties ahead. As our president, he must re-energize a troubled nation, reviled in much of the world, unsteady and anxious at home. The range of issues that demand the next administration’s attention is almost limitless; the yearning of the country for thoughtful, conscientious leadership is nearly palpable.
Before the election gives way to the complexity of governing, however, we deserve to savor this moment. The same nation that within many of our lifetimes sanctioned Jim Crow has elected a black man to the presidency of the United States — this, just 61 years after Jackie Robinson lifted a bat for the Brooklyn Dodgers, 54 years after Brown vs. Board of Education integrated the nation’s schools, 45 years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the country’s conscience from Washington’s National Mall. Our history of racism is real and painful, and it is far from resolved. But our progress is equally undeniable. It stood before us Tuesday night. The satisfaction of Obama’s victory resonates around the world, stirring emotions in Europe and Africa, in rich nations and poor, just as it stirs our national soul.
(However) Obama will serve as president not of a race or a region but of a nation. He has demonstrated admirable gifts for leadership in his young life and in this long campaign. And as he assumes the office that the electorate has granted him, he has the opportunity to be the leader that our current president, too often, has not been.
Humility and modesty are guiding principles that befit a great power and a great leader. Bush has paid lip service to those ideals; Obama must honor them in fact, not merely in word. For nearly two years, Americans have participated in a thrilling — and sometimes contemptuous — debate about which candidate and which ideas should guide this country through a dangerous, difficult present toward a more promising future. On Tuesday, we chose the president to lead that journey. Today, we embark, united again.