A Toast to the 80th Birthday of the 21st Amendment
Today is the 80th anniversary of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution which repealed the 18th Amendment that banned alcohol. Raise the beverage of your choice in salute at 7:00 pm this evening… the time at which President Roosevelt signed the 21st Amendment into Law!
“To alcohol! The cause of… and solution to… all of life’s problems.” – Matt Groening (via Homer Simpson)
* Image borrowed from www.guyism.com
Christmas Vigilantes
I first heard of the Christmas Vigilantes last year. If you haven’t been struck by the Christmas Vigilantes yet, here’s the scoop: One local family has created a tradition that they have been practicing for the last few years. They go out touring the local Christmas light displays and award written certificates of merit with positive critiques and occasional prizes.
To the best of my knowledge, as with most vigilante groups they are semi anonymous. If you want to send any pictures of light displays that you think merit acknowledgement, please feel free to send them here. If I like them as well as you, I’ll post them on the site. If you send the addresses to me, I’ll leave it under a rock at the designated drop site for the vigilantes to pick up. Possibly your submittal will receive a visit!
Seems like they should have a tag-line too, doesn’t it? Something like Superman’s “Up, Up and Away!!!” I’ll have to ask them. If you have suggestions for that, I’ll take them here too.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Cookie Gobblers made for cookie gobblers…I ran across these on the Internet and thought they looked like a fun project to make and then destroy…though my teeth cringe a little about enduring that much sugar. The cookies pictured above were from a site called HI Cookery and included instructions for making them here. The instruction even included a video!
For those with even more ambition, here’s a recipe for making Turkey Cookies with more “from scratch” ingredients. They’re shown in the picture at the right. This one requires actually baking some chocolate cookies rather than just cracking open an Oreo. I found this one at the Worth Pinning site here.
I know you were just dying for a suggestion on how to use up that Candy Corn left over from Halloween… Here you go!
Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at Easterday Construction Co., Inc.!
Net Zero Energy Walgreens in Evanston, Illinois
Imager borrowed from evanston.patch.com
Combining efficient energy use with wind and solar energy production, the new Evanston Walgreens will have net zero energy use. See the article here.
Too bad the new WECS ordinance being considered for Culver would stop a store like this from coming into Culver. (A Walgreens would best fit in a C-2 Zoning District which does allow for the use of a WECS, but the further restriction that no WECS maybe located within 1500 feet of an R-1 Zoning District would make it virtually impossible to place such a store within Culver’s Town Limits.)
Evanston is north of Chicago which generally would put it in a latitude where solar energy collection has diminished returns. It’s proximity to Lake Michigan does make it likely to receive fairly consistent winds.
Telkonet Thermostat
Telkonet Thermostat Image borrowed from www.eregrinegroup.com
Check out the Telkonet thermostat. I’ve previously written about the Nest thermostat and the Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat. Telkonet claims to take it another step further. Not only is their thermostat programmable, accessible from the Internet and “smart”, but it can calculate roof comfort by aggregating data like time-of-day, solar load, brightness, humidity and occupancy patterns. It’s Ecoinsight feature determines when a space is occupied or vacant and reverts to preset temperature limits. Check it out at their site here.
The Ecoinsight thermostat is more for commercial applications than the other two. While it has Internet connectivity, it may require special networking in order to access it. This is more efficient where you have multiple installations.
