Over the next several weeks a wonderful transformation was created. Brand new Pella windows were installed, new doors, new vinyl siding, and about a dozen solar panels on the roof appeared. Shortly after it appeared that someone was actually living in the place! Every day when I would drive past this now wonderful example of urban renewal at its finest I would think about how much I wished that I had the kind of money it would take to retrofit my own house with the newest technologies for climate control and energy conservation. But it wasn’t very long before the house was abandoned again and vandalized again, back to holes in the windows and the beautiful solar panels broken. Every single one of them was full of holes. I don’t know if it was a hail storm, or vandals, but every one was ruined. I never found out the story behind that poor house, but it is once again a very sad and lonely house. It’s a real shame.

It seems a terrible waste to take out the item and them just throw the box in the trash. So I decided to use a box cutter and slice through the packaging tape, flatten the box, and store them under the stairs for future use. Not that I can imagine what future use I might have for them, myself, but if anyone else ever needs boxes for moving I can share these and maybe save that person some money. Boxes are expensive and always hard to find when you need to pack the house up for a move.

I can’t just throw them in the trash. It seems disrespectful to our environment to do that. Hopefully these boxes will have at least one more use before they hit the landfill.

If you are lucky enough to be serviced by an utility company that offers free energy audits, by all means make the appointment and have one of their technicians come out to your place and give it a good going over. Have him check your windows to see if they are double glazing and if they close tightly. Have him check the weather stripping around the sills. If they offer to install a water heater blanket, by all means let them do it. Some companies will do that for free; others will charge a minimal amount. The energy savings will be worth it in the long run.

The scientists who made this discovery gave the planet the name, Tatooine after the fictional planet in the “Star Wars” films that boasts a double sunset. I hope to read more about this exciting discovery – I can only imagine what it would be like to have two suns.

My parents supported my interest in the space program by taking me to museums, a tour of the Kennedy Space Center one spring when we were in Florida for spring Break, and they sent me to Space Camp in Huntsville when I was 12 years old. They bought a microscope for me when I was 15 and several of my friends had microscopes, too. We were a band of geeks, in a way.

So now that we are all adults, we still stay in touch and talk about the space program. We are devastated that the space program has been shut down. Not that we want to be astronauts, but because we believe in space exploration. Some of us still have our childhood microscopes and keep them repaired with microscope parts that we order over the internet. In fact, I hope to pass along my microscope to my son some day.

My mother has always been known for her green thumb. The house we all grew up in had the most wonderful window box planters that all the neighbors were very envious of, she really got a charge out of that. We also always had a nice vegetable garden in the back that we were known with sharing the harvest around the neighbor each season. The only indoor planter that I can remember back then was one that always held a nice and healthy mother-in-law’s tongue that ironically enough her mother-in-law bought for her shortly after my folks were married. My mother much preferred to be outside in the sun tending all of her beauties.

A fireplace with gas logs can add heat to a house and leaves no messy ashes to clean up. If you want the best selection of realistic looking logs in the fireplace, R. H. Peterson Real Fyre Gas Logs are where I found over two dozen styles and types of gas logs that look like wood.

I’d like to get Vented Gas Logs for my living room and find gas logs that look like the real oak trees that are in my back yard. Once they are lit, they looks so real, if you didn’t know they were gas logs you would think they are real oak logs burning.

Well, she had one of those single cup coffee makers and a variety of different coffee flavors to pick from. I’ve not had a chance to try one until today. It was hard to make up my mind which flavor to try. I went with a traditional Columbia coffee – and it was delicious.