At first, I did not notice the all-access design of the NextGen Experience house. But then I spotted Waldemar Alameda, a 39-year-old father of two. He was using a walker to navigate the crowded house.

Blame it on the recession. Concerns over water quality seem to drop from the public’s radar for much of 2009 and 2010.  

Forget resolutions, behavior changes, and the things you stress about on a consistent basis. It is time to relax and refocus. I am not talking about lazing on a beach with a self-help book and an umbrella drink.

My wife and I have been spending the past few weeks watching DVDs of Christmas-themed movies. But having been hanging around an industry that focuses on refrigeration and logic for so long, I keep looking at certain aspects of the movies for how cold is factored in and how logic is factored out.

I’ve been thinking a lot about engineers lately and concluded they must be alien beings. For reasons I do not understand, God sent these advanced life forms to earth to keep people like me from mass chaos. There must be an engineering angel whose job is to keep us from self-destruction.

For Thanksgiving last month, I decided to forego the usual turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie for sushi and other Japanese delicacies. Instead of sitting at home with the family, I spent the holiday visiting friends who are living in Nagoya for a year.

I’ve been feeling pretty good about 2011. There are several signs the economy is rebounding. Many construction-related firms throughout the supply chain have indicated they are gradually climbing out of their respective holes.

As I was working on an end of year 2010 story about possible HFC refrigerant mandates, I remembered that many years ago when I was working on the old, now defunct RSC Magazine I was doing a story on the phase out of CFCs under the Montreal Protocol mandates.

If you’ve been living under a rock to avoid the hopeful candidates who were flooding your mailbox and answering machine with political ads, it’s now safe to come out. Take a deep breath and let it out - the midterm elections are over.

The votes are in and it’s decided; a majority of the nation is not too happy with the changes made by the White House thus far and they are hoping the large number of Republicans recently voted in will make them happier.