Seasons Greetings
Month: December 2013
The Many Faces of Santa Clause
I am fascinated by the various Christmas traditions and faces of Santa Clause throughout the world. My favorite Santa version is known as Ded Moroz from Siberia. He looks a bit intimidating but that may be an incentive as to whether or not you choose to be good or bad.
In Yugoslavia, they kind of roll what we celebrate as Halloween, Mother’s Day and Christmas gift giving all in one. On the second Sunday before Christmas, the children creep in and tie their mother’s feet to a chair and shout, “Mother’s Day, Mother’s Day, what will you pay to get away?” She then gives them presents. Children play the same trick on their father the week after.
The children celebrating Christmas in China decorate trees with colorful ornaments. These ornaments are made from paper in the shapes of flowers, chains and lanterns. They also hang muslin stockings hoping that “Christmas Old Man” will fill them with gifts and treats. Santa Claus is called Dun Che Lao Ren which means “Christmas Old Man.”.
In China they call this season the Spring Festival and celebrate with many festivities that include delicious meals and pay respects to their ancestors. The children are the main focus of these celebrations, they receive new clothes and toys, eat delectable food and watch firework displays.
The one thing that is common among all traditions is…Food. And I’m here to tell you there is tons of food around the office during the holiday season and the company caters in a lunch.
In the past, after all the binging is over, we have had diet competitions. I’ve never been successful with that and just carry the extra weight for the remainder of the year. Yep, each year I add another pound. I’ve been with EXAIR for 20 years and have put on 20 pounds.
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During this holiday season, more than ever, our thoughts turn gratefully to those who have made our success possible. Thank you and may peace, prosperity, & happiness be yours throughout the holidays and new year.
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Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer
Phone (513) 671-3322
Fax (513) 671-3363
Web: http://www.exair.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/exair_jp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair
Some Things You’re Stuck With, Others You Are Not
This past Saturday, my wife and I awoke to several missed calls from her mother. The first reaction was, oh no, something has happened with someone and it is bad. The good news is everyone in her family is just fine. The bad news is, the car my brother in law borrowed from us would not be getting returned in the same condition it left in. While he was driving on the interstate he encountered some ice which caused him to lose control and meet a concrete divider head on, then spin and touch the back end too. The good news again is, he is safe, the airbags did their job and kept him safe. He was able to still make it to his destination which was a test for a new job. The funniest part of the ordeal is the whole reason he had our car in the first place. He had borrowed our Matrix while his truck was in the body shop getting repaired from a fight with a knee high wall and a shallow right turn. Needless to say his truck was scratched and dented up pretty badly. Now the same shop has two cars from the same family. I don’t know if they could stay in business without my wife’s family being customers. A picture of the aftermath on our Matrix is below.
The reason for telling this story is to explain how the situation was handled. When we first heard the news my immediate reaction was solely based on my frontal lobe thinking. It was all emotion, I couldn’t believe something like this could happen and was furious for about 15 seconds. Then I made sure to logically process everything about the situation. When it all boils down to it, a car can be replaced, my brother in law is far more important than anything else that happened. We really were just glad that he wasn’t hurt in the accident.
I joke with my in-laws that I would like to exchange them for some that work better. The truth is, family is family, you are stuck with them whether you want them or not. If you have an EXAIR product though, you aren’t stuck with it. I know I have said it time and time again. If for any reason you determine that one of our products you have bought factory direct from us doesn’t fit your needs, wants, or likes. Simply give us a call. We will honor our 30 day guarantee on stock products. We don’t want you to feel like you do when you have to go to the in laws house for the holidays and the only thing you can do is try to find a nice dark quiet place to hide until it is time to leave.
Just to make sure my message is clear, don’t ever feel like you are stuck with an EXAIR product that you ordered from us, from our shipped same day stock. We want to make sure you never feel like you are left stranded on the side of the highway or worse, at the in-laws for a 7 hour dinner (I’m joking! …I could only stand it for about 6 hours).
Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF
Filling a Floating Barge of HDPE
I spoke with a customer who had one million high density polyethylene hollow plastic balls. You might have seen these HDPE balls at your local amusement park in the ball pit. What many of us see as novelty toys, actually have some real uses in industry that can not be replicated using any other method. According to ECC, LLC, these plastic balls are used in storage tanks in the oil, coal, and chemical industry to cover the top of liquids. By covering the top of these liquids, it creates a barrier, which limits heat transfer, as well as limiting the transfer of oxygen, carbon dioxide or liquid to the environment.
In most cases the installation process for these balls is to dump them out the back of the truck, but my customer wanted to use them to fill up a floating barge that was beginning to fill with water. By filling the barge with these HDPE balls, the water would be displaced and the barge would remain afloat as repairs or removal took place. His problem was how to get one million 4″ diameter balls into a floating barge without dumping everyone of the super sacks into a funnel by hand or with a crane. EXAIR solution was the 6088, 5″ aluminum Line Vac. The customer had compressed air at the dock and was able to supply 80 psig to the Line Vac. He attached five feet of hose to the suction side of the Line Vac and 40 feet to the discharge side. He was able to move the one million HPDE balls quickly and neatly with no back breaking labor.
Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
davewoerner@exair.com
@EXAIR_DW