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If I May Take A Moment To Say…

…to everyone who has left comments on this blog. Sometimes it feels like I’m screaming (or jerking off) into the void. It’s nice to know what I post at least has enough effect on other people to prompt even a small response.

Again, thank you all!

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During a brief moment during the COVID lockdowns, humanity unintentionally ran one of the largest environmental experiments in modern history.

With cars parked, flights cancelled and factories operating at reduced capacity, global daily CO₂ emissions fell by about 17% at their peak in April 2020. Road transport alone dropped by roughly 36%, making it the largest contributor to that sudden decline. 

The change was visible from space too. Satellites observed dramatic reductions in nitrogen dioxide pollution over many major cities and industrial regions. The air genuinely became cleaner in many places, although pollutants such as fine particulate matter did not fall everywhere because weather, dust and other natural sources still played a major role. 

But Earth didn’t suddenly “heal” in a few months. Atmospheric CO₂ continued increasing because humanity was still emitting billions of tonnes, just at a slower rate. Once economies reopened, emissions rapidly moved back toward previous levels. Across all of 2020, global CO₂ emissions ended up roughly 6% lower than in 2019. 

And that’s perhaps the most important lesson. We don’t need permanent lockdowns to protect the planet. What those months demonstrated was how strongly transportation, energy production and industry influence the environment when their activity changes at a global scale.

The challenge is achieving those reductions deliberately through cleaner electricity, efficient cities, better public transport and low-carbon technology rather than through a global emergency.

For a few months, we saw how quickly some forms of pollution can respond when human activity changes. The planet didn’t heal overnight, but it showed us that our actions really can be large enough to change what satellites see from space.

[source]

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IMHO…

Festival (Boris Midney) – Disco Evita (1979)

…still the best rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita score. Back in the late 90s my housemate Michael picked up Madonna’s interpretation and after one listen, shaking my head through the entire performance, I dragged him down to a music store at Stonestown Galleria and picked up Boris Midney’s version. “This is how Evita is done,” I told him.

Yes, even at my age, I’m still very much a disco dolly.

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That Didn’t Take Long

And the vultures descend…

Fortunately I already had it archived in iTunes.

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I can easily see this house in rural western Massachusetts where my grandparents lived. 

First off, let’s assume that NORTH is up in this just so I can explain locations more easily.

That first floor bedroom wing needs help.

I’d remove the closets between STORAGE and the hallway, close off the STORAGE entrance from the OFFICE and then use that room as the OFFICE.

I’d push that north wall from that strange closet that opens to the hallway inside the master suite to align with the rest of the hall, realign the window on the east side, lose the door to the master suite and relocate it either to align with the end of the closets in the OWNERS RM and then turn CLOSET into a bath. The existing OFFICE can then be used as a bedroom by converting that countertop space to a closet.

Alternately, you could split the existing STORAGE room so that on the left side there’s a guest bath, and on the right, a walk-in closet that services the BEDROOM that the OFFICE can now become. In that instance I’d rip out that whole closet mess abutting the hallway in that area to maximize the square footage of the secondary bedroom.

As for the OWNERS ROOM, I’d convert that double closet into a single walk in closet area as well turning the double bath that serves no purpose in that configuration into a really nice single ensuite.

The second floor basically works okay for me. Yeah, the bathroom is at the end of the hallway, but not all that unusual for an older house. It wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for me..

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