My blog posting was going to be about how I keep hearing depressing stories from contractors and manufacturers about how awful business is going to be into 2011.

I really love hearing that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that they are delaying enforcement of the new rules on working with lead-painted structures and building components known as Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP). 

Swore I would quit whining about the antics of our federal government and get back to more topical roofing issues but the hits just keep on coming. 

I was not going to do this. Rant about the government, that is. But they just will not stop, so what else can I do? 

Well the party is over (for now) with the $8,000 new-homebuyer credit. Many expect the small burst in new-home construction will drop and we will return to the doldrums. I do not think so. 

I was delighted to come across a YouTube video of Chad Collins testifying before a Congressional committee looking into  the Green Roofing Energy Efficiency Tax Act of 2009 (GREETA). 

I really do. I love change. It makes my writing job so easy. Getting words structured into proper sentences and spelling words right is not much of a challenge when you have spell checker along with talented and educated editors fixing everything you mess up (thanks, y’all).

For the two of you (hi Mom!) who are regular readers of this Blog, I will begin this one by apologizing for the long absence. For some reason I was hit with a world-class case of spring fever this year. Was it me or was that the longest and coldest winter in recent memory?

February 25, 2010 – from 33,000 feet

This time next week I will be packing it up and heading to New Orleans for the NRCA Convention and the International Roofing Expo. After over 35 years of these things you would think I might be tired of them, but I am just as excited this time as I was in 1974 when Julien (the late Julien P. Benjamin Jr.) footed the bill for me to attend my first roofing convention.