Archive for category: Friday Afternoon

Here at KHT, we operate around a driving principle – namely an obsession to tackle and solve your PIA (Pain in the @%$) Jobs! As I was typing this in an email to a potential customer, it struck me that we’ve used the “@” symbol in our promise for decades, to help us communicate not just what many of our customers feel (more fun than aaarrrggghhh!) but also what makes us tick as a thermal processing service provider to so many industries (thanks Dad for supporting me as we pursued this!!). Being the curious type, I jumped onto the internet and found a whole bunch of fun info on early text symbols, and fun  🙂  symbols called emoticons. Teaser – the @ symbol was invented more than 400 years before email! Here’s some really great info about text symbols, along with some of my favorite emoticons. I wasn’t able to find an emoticon that reflects my kids rolling their eyes! Enjoy! – or should I say { ^.^ } 

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“Winter” means different things around the United States. Here in Cleveland, it is associated with snow scrapers, salt trucks, slush (Ugh!), heavy coats, and frozen faces. Folks in New England can almost guarantee they’ll have lots of snow, while Floridians might see a few flurries every few years. On the West Coast, in Los Angeles, temperatures might not even dip below 50 degrees Fahrenheit most days- that would be so boring! As regions across the country experience winter weather very differently, weather forecasters have developed special language for winter weather occurrences (my favorite is bomb cyclone, but I think that is a little dramatic)! I did some research and found some of the more popular storm names and definitions, along with winter words no longer in use. You will really be able to impress your friends with some of the following words!  Stay warm and enjoy!

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Growing up and living most of my life in Northeast Ohio gives me a somewhat unique perspective on snow, snowstorms, and snow drifts. I can’t count how many times I’ve ventured down the driveway to shovel, only to find a big drift wrapping around the car or garage. Part PIA (pain in the @%$) and part beauty, I find myself slice carving sections out with my shovel to then throw the snow onto the lawn, clearing the driveway (for a little while). I can remember, as a kid back in 1978, before I-480 was opened, we were driving down Brookpark Road by the Cleveland Hopkins Airport – the snow was so high that we could not see over the fences on either side of the road, just a long white tunnel! That year, we also had drifts of almost 40’!  For those of you who live in the northeast, you’ve likely noticed how storms are less severe than years ago (“when I was a kid, we walked 8 miles to school, barefoot, against the wind both ways, without jackets…”). Even though I’m fascinated by the drifts, at times, I must admit, sometimes they are a “pain”. These days I have a very nice snowblower, which allows me to occasionally start at my driveway and proceed down to the corner of the street and come back!! Yup -a man with his toys!  Here’s some cool science about snow and drifts I think you’ll find fascinating, along with a bit of big storms trivia. Stay warm and enjoy! 

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Now that we’ve turned the corner on 2026, you’re likely thinking about starting the year off right with better exercise and diet. Did you know next Wednesday is National Take the Stairs Day? It’s a quirky, uplifting celebration that encourages everyone – office workers, students, and public officials alike – to skip the elevator and climb the stairs for a healthier lifestyle.​ For me, I’m lucky that my office is on the second floor here at KHT World headquarters (that’s fun to write!). So often during the day, I scoot down the back stairs, onto the shop floor to check on your PIA (pain in the @%$) Jobs! It’s not a long descent or climb, but it does get me out of my chair and moving. In the town I live in, I’m blessed to have stair access to Lake Erie. Jackie and I love to head over to the lakefront and make our way down to the sand and surf. I’ll admit, the walk back up does test my lungs every time I do it!  I can feel it in my calves too!  At first, I thought the celebration day was a bit silly, but thinking a bit more about it, it made sense to share. Here’s some fun info on the day, and more about “steps” I hope you enjoy – I sure learned a lot doing my research. Enjoy!

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There’s something special about the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Sure, it triggers all of those “I gotta get this done before the new year” thoughts, but it also has a bit of a relaxing exhale to it – kind of a quiet rhythm all its own. Around here, winter begins to settle in, the fireplace gets used a lot more, and we just sort of look forward to chill. I thought about it to see what I’d plan, and suggest, rather than rushing into resolutions (I have just a few this year!) I’d take some time to reflect and enjoy. Searching the web to see if others do the same, I stumbled on some cool traditions from other countries and made up a list of my own. I hope you, too, can think of this week as your reset window – a quiet space to wrap up loose ends, enjoy small pleasures, connect with those we missed the past few weeks, and get our mind and heart ready for a fresh start. Enjoy the tips!

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