Ever since I became the refrigeration editor of The NEWS, I’ve tried to figure out exactly what is “refrigeration.” After all, the industry spins off the letters HVAC with great ease and fanfare, but then stumbles when adding the “R” to the mix.

Sometimes “R” is a step-child such as when “R” is an after thought such as “HVAC (Slash) R” as in HVAC/R, as in “oh, yeah, we almost forgot to mention refrigeration.”

Even many of the HVAC contractors want nothing to do with “R.”

Well, finally, someone has come up with as clear-cut of a definition as you are going to find. During the FMI Energy & Technical Services Conference a couple of months ago, the following was offered during a technical session.

Commercial Refrigeration: A science of vague assumptions based upon debatable figures taken from inconclusive experiments performed with instruments of problematical accuracy by persons of doubtful reliability and questionable mentality.

I will choose not to ID the presenter of that quote unless he wants to step forward and take credit — or blame. I suspect he had tongue firmly in cheek. But, frankly, as one in the refrigeration sector, I sees some validity in the definition especially in terms of the “questionable mentality,” when applied to me.

The theme of the FMI Energy Conference in September certainly stressed sustainability and conservation. There were no printed documents of PowerPoint presentations. They were not even on CD-ROM. They all came on a single, handy-dandy USB flash drive. There were no bottles of water to cart around. You had to get water from coolers in the hallway or pitchers on the tables.

While no formal sessions took place outdoors (it was, after all, Florida in early September), many breaks and social events did take place outside. That did create a couple of interesting adventures.

It seems Hurricane Ike was working its way through the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico. Most forecasters said the storm would pass well south of central Florida, but local forecasters kept saying it “could” turn north.

As it was, Ike did stay pretty much westward, the results of which are well known in Texas. There were by-products of the storm for those of us in central Florida. High winds to go along with the humidity and 90˚F days created some bad hair days for even those of us with little hair.

A walk from the hotel to a golf clubhouse nearby for a social event was supposed to be led by a bagpiper. But some rain spinning off from Ike made for a soggy evening and the need to be shuttled in golf carts.

These are common occurrences, however, in Florida in September, that can be an unpredictable month.

We at FMI were only a bit inconvenienced. But our hearts then — and now — go out to those more directly in the storm’s path.

The mile hike from the mid-priced hotel where I was staying to the Purdue University campus usually was pretty routine during the most recent four-day compressor and refrigeration-air conditioning conferences.

But one day there was quite a fuss. Local television stations and national networks had set up satellite trucks on campus and security was stepped up.

Well, I thought, it is about time. After all, the plenary talk that morning was one “Latest HVACR Development Trends in European Response to Imminent HFC Regulations.” No doubt “imminent” and “regulations” stirred the interest. No such luck.

Ends up Barack Obama was going to be on campus later that day for a whole two hours to participate in a seminar on such fun topics as bio-terrorism and national security. He was in the next building over from those of us trying to learn more about HFCs.

His part of the seminar just happened to fall during the noon hour when the local stations just happened to have local newscasts. The big cable news channels simply pre-empted whatever “breaking news” was breaking for this “breaking news.”

It all was pretty weighty stuff except for the fact that “Obama for President” volunteers seemed to be in even greater numbers than the media or security.

So, I guess, even solemn seminars have political overtones these days.