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Congratulations to
Chicago PDCA-FCA Member The Leopardo Companies on being awarded
“Interior Contractor of The Year” honors at the Greater
Chicago Food Depository 16th Annual Commercial Real Estate Awards
Dinner in April. Gary Leopardo, Rick DuPraw, Christopher Novak,
and Mark Fenton were present to accept the honor.
Figures are in for 2003 regarding the 14 building
trades Unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Membership figures are
based upon per-capita tax payments to the AFL-CIO from affiliated
Unions. For all 14 Unions taken together, there was actually a net
loss of about 9,800...but by subtracting the Teamsters loss of nearly
17,000 members, the other trade Unions reflected a modest increase
of about 7,000 members. The best results were posted by the Laborers
Union with a one-year increase of 31,700 and the Bricklayers, who
gained 31,400.
Great expectations sometimes come true for unexpected
reasons. Take the teacher who was studying her new class list on
the first day of school when she noticed a number posted beside
each child’s name...154, 136, 142, and so on. “Wow,
look at these I.Q.’s!” she thought, vowing to work harder
than ever with this terrific new class. So, throughout the year,
she devised innovative and challenging lessons to keep them from
getting bored, and her plan worked out just great. Sure enough,
the class out-performed all the previous classes she had ever taught.
Then, during the last quarter of the year, she happened to discover
what those numbers on the list of students’ names really stood
for... their locker numbers.
Here are 12 ways to gain a more positive outlook on life:
- Forget.
- Apologize.
- Admit errors.
- Avoid mistakes.
- Listen to advice.
- Keep your temper.
- Shoulder the blame.
- Make the best of things.
- Maintain high standards.
- Think first and act accordingly.
- Put others’ needs before yours.
- Forgive.
Are you a coffeeholic? If so, the news has been
mostly bad in recent years... but that has changed with results
in from new research. Long-time coffee drinkers are apparently less
inclined to develop diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, or even
Alzheimer’s. Harvard research reports on men who drink more
than six cups of coffee a day cut their risk of developing Type
2 diabetes by more than 50%, and women by more than 30% when compared
with non-coffee
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drinkers. The theory is that
the anti- oxidants and magnesium in coffee may counter diabetes
by improving insulin’s ability to control blood sugar.
Another Harvard study showed that Parkinson’s disease risk
levels were one third the levels experienced by non- coffee drinkers.
At the University of Toronto, researchers identified a lower risk
of contracting Alzheimer’s among coffee drinkers. In Norway,
researchers found that two-cup-a-day coffee people were under 40%
as likely to succomb to cirrhosis of the liver.
Still, coffee has a downside for some. It can cause anxiety, headaches,
heartburn, and high blood pressure.
Did you know that the average heart beats 100,000
times a day?
Benjamin Moore has released a new book that Contractors
may wish to use as a premium for customers. Titled “Exterior
Style: Imspiring Color Ideas and Expert Painting Advice,”
the book is available in bookstores, from on-line booksellers, and
directly from the firm at www.benjaminmoore.com. Retail pricing
on the volume is $22.95.
Speaking of books, here is another helpful tome:
“Simplify Your Life: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things
That Really Matter” can help streamline your days for just
$7.95 (by Elaine St. James, Hyperion Press).
Feeling less than
perfect today? It’s really OK, because those perfectionists
surrounding you won’t make any more money than you. According
to a study of successful insurance agents, income levels didn’t
vary much between groups of perfectionists and non-prefectionists.
In fact, perfectionists who linked self-worth and achievement actually
earned an average of $15,000 a year less than their non-perfectionist
peers. They were paying a price in dollars for a self-defeating
mental habit. In other words, Oscar regularly outsold Felix....
Then there
were the little boys who were foraging around in a woods and found
a dead bird. Of course, they decided to give it a proper funeral.
Fortunately, one of the trio was the son of a pastor, so he knew
the ropes...sort of. First a shoebox was appropriated to serve as
the coffin; it was then carefully lined with newspapers to receive
the little feathery corpse. Next, a hole was excavated out behind
the tool shed for a grave, and the band gathered for last rites.
“Glory be to the Father and the Son,” the little minister
intoned, “and into the hole he gooooooes!”
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Chicago
PDCA/FCA President Marty Tew, left (J.M. Brennan & Company) and Treasurer
Tom Tyrakowski (Am-Coat Painting) attended the PDCA National Convention
in Las Vegas in March, bringing home two “Picture It Painted Professionally”
(PIPP) Awards. Marty holds a PIPP for Chicago’s Charitable Painting
Project undertaken last year at the Olive Branch Mission in Chicago. Tom
clasps his own PIPP Award for the Northern Illinois University Water Tower
Project in DeKalb, won in the industrial class. Their backdrop is a lovely
mural donated by the St. Louis Chapter #2 to the new PDCA office.
