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Dear Contractor: After installing high-efficiency equipment, my utility bills have improved some, but I am not seeing the amount of return that was promised. Do you have any suggestions?

They are midway into the challenge, but the 2009-2010 Freeze Yer Buns participants are taking the environmental battle to their thermostats. Started by an environmentalist blogger dubbed The Crunchy Chicken, the competition has run from Nov. 1 to April 1 since 2007.

Well, the number of people who have weighed in on the issue of global warming - make that climate change - has pretty well reached maximum capacity.

Having recently returned from the Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition (AHR Expo), I noticed three things: new products, old products, and people who talked funny.

One of my favorite scenes from the 1995 film Braveheart takes place on the battlefield before the hand-to-hand combat takes place. In a rousing speech, Scotsman William Wallace challenges his troops to stay and fight. His words whip them into a frenzy. 

I’m really tired of all the space being taken up in print newspapers over the topic of global warming or climate change especially since nothing is ever resolved.

Here we are at the 2010 AHR Expo and The NEWS staff is combing the aisles to find new products and new ideas for the coming heating and cooling seasons.

A lot of day-to-day annoyances can ruin the week. Customers not paying their bills after the work is done, employees not taking their jobs seriously enough, and the DVR malfunctioning and not taping “The Jersey Shore” are all occurrences that can lead to frustration.

One of the few advantages of being ill on New Year’s Eve was being able to stay home and watch some of the Three Stooges marathon on AMC.

Has anyone seen where global warming went? Last I checked I was trying not to freeze to death while I shoveled my Michigan driveway for the third or fourth time in a little over a week. There hasn’t been any evidence of global warming in my daily commute the past few weeks either.