Tears, Celebrations and Weather

Cheers to 2021, here’s to us getting through 2020 together! In fact, congratulations are deserved after last year; we did so many things we never thought we could, it should be celebrated. Let’s be sure to remain focused. After the shocking news regarding J.E. Berkowitz, it is safe to say there are no guarantees. That one hits home, as we’re coming up on the century mark ourselves next year, and had multi-generational relationship with them.

Facing winter storms

Hearts out to all impacted by devasting winter storms across the country for the last several weeks. Friends in the upper Midwest might not understand that Southerners aren’t equipped to handle this kind of weather. While you hope for cold to quickly freeze lakes for fishing, we’re complaining light frost delayed our round an hour and that it is only going to get up to 51 degrees.

Weather events will continue to have increasing impact on the glass industry. Hotter, colder, impacts, power outages, all of which can be alleviated with solutions we’ve been improving for decades. Unfortunately, too often it takes a tragedy to move forward, and we don’t always see what we’re missing until too late. Yet, fortunately, when tragedy strikes, we put all differences aside and come together as one.

How glass can help

Consensus is weather patterns are going to get stranger and less predictable, as if they were truly predictable to start with. If we produce products to stop a bullet, certainly we can design better products to handle extreme weather conditions across a vast nation. I choose to see opportunity for our industry and look forward to the challenge. We need to make changes in codes in places we never thought would require them.

Much like after Hurricane Andrew, where we now find impact-rated glass products well inside the coastal regions, we have an opportunity to move forward. Maybe triple and quadruple insulating units become the standard and no longer supplied only in the coldest regions. More laminated glass is on the horizon, and interlayers like ethylene-vinyl acetate are suited to handle adverse conditions by remaining stable across vast temperature ranges.

On the Millennial front ... Instagram shoutout goes to #shower_doors_more located in Fort Lauderdale. Family-owned and operated, Larry and Page Giacin have turned their vision into a reality. Their son, Tyler, does a brilliant job showing how their products are produced from start to finish. Let’s welcome them to The Gram by giving a follow!