Tony Brewer

I had to leave work for a short while today to be home to let the furnace maintenance man into the house to perform a “check-over” service before winter really sets in.  We purchased a maintenance agreement with the propane company last year that says that every year they will come out and check the furnace and repair anything that might wrong with it, and if the furnace DOES break down and needs repair, that they will repair it.  The maintenance agreement cost us $200, but it covers all parts and labor, so we think it is well worth it – there is nothing worse than having a furnace break down in the middle of winter!  And furnace repairs can get really expensive, too!  So I consider it an insurance policy that is well worth the money!

I’ve been in a quandary lately.  I want to take a hot beverage with me in the morning for my morning commute that will stay hot.  So I bought an insulated steel sports bottle, to keep it hot.  Now I have to figure out what drink to take with me!  I don’t want to take anything with caffeine in it because my doctor has advised me to reduce my caffeine intake.  I don’t want to take anything that acts as a diuretic, either.  So that rules out tea and coffee.  I tried taking hot chocolate (yummy!) but every day that I’ve done that the next morning I’ve awakened with a new blemish on my face!  And hot apple cider (again yummy!) does a serious number on my stomach.  In fact any fruit juice bothers my stomach!  So I’ve been in a quandary about what to take!  I’d love to take a hot buttered rum, but I don’t think that is too smart an idea!

So this morning I decided to take some of Teri’s sugar-free “crystal light” types of fruit flavored drink and warm that up in the microwave and take that.  That actually came out better than I expected!  Quite a bit like an herbal tea in fact!  So I think I may have come up with the perfect solution to that problem!

It’s been a while since I was taking college courses, and to be honest one kind of blended into the next, so I really can’t remember which class lecture was talking about the subject of infrastructure. I took a lot of business classes, but this could have been a class in political science, or a class in economics, I can’t remember. But what I DO remember is that the professor was lecturing the class on how the United States was going to have a really hard time competing in the global economy. Especially against the countries that we have damaged physically through acts of war. One of the biggest reasons for that statement is the aging infrastructure in the United States, compared to the newer infrastructure of the countries that were damaged in those wars. One of the ironies in this is that after the United States taxpayers paid for the military actions in those countries AND the United States taxpayers paid for the rebuilding (and new infrastructure) in those countries that are now competing (and winning) against us!

And if I recall correctly, one of the successful maneuvers that was done after World War II that helped the suffering economy back then was for the government to invest in the building of new roads and bridges.  From what I’ve been hearing on the news, one of Barack Obama’s plans is to help jump start the economy by working on improving the infrastructure – building and/or repairing roads and bridges.  Considering how often we hear on the news that bridges have collapsed (or are in danger of collapsing) I think that is an exceptional idea!  That will put a lot of Americans on the payroll, and update our infrastructure so that we can better compete in the global economy.