Common Ground

I believe it was Joni Mitchell who sang Big Yellow Taxi which contained the refrain “Pave paradise, put in a parking lot” That was joined in the same song, “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone.”

I was recently transferred from our corporate headquarters in Pewaukee to our new store and offices in West Allis very near the old Allis Chalmers factory. Once inside the office, it is actually a better work environment for me than in Pewaukee. The problem is the trip to and from there.

When in Pewaukee, I had a nice ten-minute drive past Golden Gurnsey, the airport and then north on whatever the current name is for Hwy J and then a twisty drive through the Pewaukee commercial park to the office. A pleasure if I was taking one of my motorcycles to work that day.

Now it is Grandview to I94 and wait for the staging light to let me try and match speed with the traffic. Sometimes the drive in and back home is uneventful and takes only 20 minutes. The other day the Brewer’s game let out at rush hour and it took me an hour to get home.

One other nicety when I was stationed in Pewaukee was that it was possible to drive home for lunch. However, I usually packed some food and ate at a near-by park or even took a walk in the little known county park known as The Ryan Property. It is just one of many places within driving distance where I could regain some sanity halfway through a day of solving other people’s problems.

Around West Allis, there isn’t much green space to park and enjoy serenity. The closest is the Menomonee River Parkway. Other than the small stagnant pond area in Jacobus Park, the appearance of being in a wooded area is just scrub thick enough to block the view of the back yards and commercial areas a few feet on the other side. Underwood Parkway would be nicer but is just a bit too much driving away. It also has a reputation where…. Well, lets just say I’d rather not visit there by myself.

Joni was wrong in her song. I knew what I had. I just didn’t have a choice in the matter!

Hot weather makes us grateful for the invention of air conditioning. While I often mention that I am involved with a family pet store, my daytime job, is being a technical representative and instructor for a number of major heating, air conditioning and refrigeration manufacturers. I am, what you would call, an expert in those fields.

Sometimes I see misinformation given from reputable sources concerning cooling comfort and economy. I’d like to give you some information that can help make you more comfortable. Here are some items that don’t cost anything or are inexpensive to do.

Air filters. I assume that you are checking your air filters for cleanliness. If you have disposable air filters, people often replace them with the white pleated filters or washable electrostatic or allergy filters. While these do a better job of filtering, they can reduce the flow of air enough to cause problems with the system. So if you are not getting the performance from your air conditioner, try putting the inexpensive fiberglass filters in. If you desire top quality air filtration, there are any number of electronic and deep pleated (4” deep or more) media that are much better than the one-inch thick pleated filters. You see, the deeply pleated filters have more surface area for the air to flow through and offer less resistance to the air. These are not do-it-yourself installation, so ask your dealer about them.

Many newer homes have combination baseboard and high wall return air grills. If you have these, it is important that the air be drawing into the high grills and the baseboard return grills be close off. Some have a close-off damper on the baseboard grill and some have to be blocked off with cardboard or a magnetic blank-off.

Because cold air tends to hang on the floor, your supply air grills should be blowing the air up as high as possible. Sometimes plastic diverters can be purchased to help divert the air up more. If you have wide baseboard diffuser grills the length of the window, you may need a floor fan to mix the cool air on the floor with the warmer air near the ceiling. Ceiling fans are a great way to mix the air. If you have air conditioning vents in the ceiling, consider yourself fortunate.

The outdoor unit, condensing unit, should have a check-over each season. A check-over is more involved than just checking the refrigerant. Many brands have models that have condenser coils where the fins need to be separated to wash the dirt and fuzz that jams in the fins. A simple back-flush with a water hose is not enough to effectively clean these particular units. A technician can use service data that comes with the unit or is available from the local distributor of the brand to see if an extensive cleaning is necessary. For these jobs expect to pay much more than the dealer’s normal tune-up special price. Manufacturers would rather not build them this way, but it is necessary so the higher efficiency units, already larger than older units, don’t become as big as a one-car garage!

How you set the thermostat can greatly affect your electric bill and your comfort. Contrary to information from some electric companies, it is best to leave the house closed up and the thermostat set to your normal desired temperature. When the house is warm to begin with, the electrical usage is higher than normal while it tries to cool and dehumidify down to normal levels. Also, they cannot drop the temperature as fast as your furnace can raise the temperature. So don’t come home from work, turn on the air conditioner and expect the house to be cool in just a few hours. It may take a whole day, even if the outside temperature drops into the 60’s at night. There’s a technical explanation for that which I will spare you.

If you air conditioner doesn’t work at all, keep your personal cool while waiting for your service technician to get there. Remember that they never know what their next job will take for time so it is difficult to promise when they will arrive. In the mean time, dig that fan from the basement and sit back with a cold drink.

Oh geez, here he goes again!

No, I’m not going to rag on any specific nationality. Believe me when I say I don’t have a racist cell in my body. I find it comical, the various languages that a person can happen across each day. One of the waitresses at the place that Pat and I frequent the most is on vacation to Greece. Pat thought she was Mexican as she speaks it frequently to some of the “newer” employees. I reminded her that one needs to be fluent in three languages to work here.

This evening we ran across a fourth language in the neighborhood. I’ll keep you guessing what that may be. It really doesn’t matter because there was a communication breakdown that shows how important it is that we all be speaking the same language.

I like to patronize the various new places in town, looking for someplace to find a special food that one can’t get elsewhere. This particular place just opened yesterday and there is bound to be some disorganization. Some interesting things can happen, like A1 sauce on the tables, but no steak is on the menu. Or, among the deserts there is a container of fresh shrimp right next to the strawberries. Stranger yet, salad dressing and other fixings but no bowl of lettuce to be found or even a place where it would be likely to sit. Growing pains that will soon be worked out.

But back to my point of a common language being important. You see, we were asked what we wanted to drink, in halting English. It took two people to seeming understand that I must have a diet, sugar free drink. As is usually the case, cola is the sole diet drink available. I thought it rather tasty. Today was sunny and hot. I had spent time in the sun tending to the turtle and tortoises out grazing in the grass in front of the pet store, so I was particularly thirsty. I was offered a refill and I specified diet cola. Shortly the drink came and I immediately noticed that it tasted different. Clearly, one of my sodas was a regular sugar soda. Not too much of a disaster for me. I’m a type two diabetic. But for type one diabetics, like one of my sons, it can throw the day’s insulin into havoc and add to the things that slowly deteriorate vision and organ function.

Yes such mistakes can happen even when both parties are conversing in the same language. But that mistake would be carelessness. This mistake was bewilderment in a country foreign to them.

News of a developer wanting to make a mall at the vacant Fleming land on Sunset is welcomed news. I don't like to see pristine land destroy for any kind of development and this land would be recycled land from industrial to commercial land. A good thing.

Alderman Charles Litchtie claims his constituents are tired of driving to Silvernail to shop. It's not much of a drive, but I do agree that the SW side of the city is due for such a development. The owner of Master Z's thinks that the development will help his business. Probably, unless Target decides to sell pool tables and Foosball tables or whatever those things are called.

But this gives me an opportunity to pose a challenge to the developers. Let's protect the local business owners. You see, Master Z's owner and I are in the same boat. We are both small business owners. There is a reason much of the country is getting a distaste for "Big Box" national stores. These put local business people out of business. Those business people have families that are the community and will forever be part of the community. I'm not saying there should be no competition. I'd just like it to be local competition. Not distant boardrooms interested in the community only as long as it is profitable to keep the big boxes open.

Oh, and one final question. What's the impact going to be on our water supply?