Ex High Rise Guy Serves Vietnam Veterans

Chuck Schryer, an ex-high-rise window washer stands in front of the van he drives.

Volunteer drives 250K miles for disabled veterans (Marion, IL) - A retired U.S. Army veteran has spent the past 10 years driving disabled veterans to and from the Marion, Illinois Veterans Affair's hospital. Chuck Schryer served in the Army's 173rd Airborne and three years overseas during the Vietnam War. The retired high-rise window washer spends his free time serving disabled veterans like himself.

Schryer said he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and receives care from the Marion VA. He said he wanted to make sure other veterans like himself can receive care. “It’s been hectic at times,” Schryer said.

Schryer helped found Chapter 80 of the non-profit group Disabled American Veterans Charity, that serves veterans in the 29 counties in southern Illinois, southwest Indiana, and western Kentucky. Chapter 80 started by fundraising for one van and has grown to own and operate 11 vans. “For the veterans. I figure if we don’t take care of one another, no one else will take care of us,” Schryer said.

The DAV brings 125 veterans to and from the Marion VA each month. Schryer has driven more than 250,000 miles over the past 10 years. “You hear a lot of stories from the vets when you’re in there… It’s an honor to do,” Schryer said.

The DAV serving the Marion VA is in need of volunteers. Anyone with a valid driver’s license and proof of insurance can volunteer. If you’re interested you can call the Marion VA Hospital at 618-997-5311 and ask for volunteer services.

Vietnam

Time to forgive — Fifty years after the start of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and the rise of the antiwar movement that in part made the return home for soldiers less than welcoming, it is time to move on, said Chuck Schryer. “We both need to forget and forgive, the veterans and the people,” Schryer said. “There were a lot of harsh feelings when the Vietnam vet came home. He didn’t help the situation. We were called the bad boys, and we were the bad boys.

“It’s time to forgive.” Schryer, of Flora, served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970. He made his remarks at a Marion VA Medical Center event to honor veterans of the tumultuous era. The Defense Department’s Vietnam War Commemoration was set by a presidential proclamation on May 28, 2012, establishing a 13-year program to remember the veterans. “While no words will ever be fully worthy of their service, nor any honor truly befitting their sacrifice, let us remember that it is never too late to pay tribute to the men and women who answered the call of duty with courage and valor,” President Barack Obama wrote at the time.

According to VA information, there are more than 7 million living Vietnam veterans and 9 million families of those who served. Schryer also gave his thanks to the Marion VA, but he has been doing that for 10 years. In May, he will be recognized by the Illinois chapter of the Daugthers of the American Revolution for his volunteer service to the Medical Center, donating 150,000 hours of his time, the most at the VA.

Among his service, Schryer drives veterans across the region to and from the VA for the Disabled American Veterans charity, logging 250,000 miles. He put in a plug for the DAV, saying more drivers are needed. “The VA in Marion is probably one of the best there is,” he said.

Recent Scaffold Collapses

Two workers have died following a scaffolding collapse at a construction site in Toronto's west end.

2 dead after scaffolding collapse (Toronto): Two men have died after a scaffolding collapse at a construction site in Toronto’s west end, police say. It happened just after 11 a.m. in the Bloor Street West and Keele Street area. One of the men who died was 51-years-old, according to a colleague and friend on the scene. He had a granddaughter born last week. Paramedics said another man in his 30s was rushed to St. Michael’s Hospital without vital signs, where he later died. A metal and wooden platform collapsed from about six storeys high, one worker at the scene said. It is believed a hydraulic lift may have failed, sending the platform to the ground. The Ministry of Labour has been called to the scene to investigate.

Scaffolding collapse in downtown Raleigh. It could take three to six months for Labor Department investigators to determine what caused the collapse.

A vigil was held Friday at noon at Shaw University's Thomas J. Boyd Chapel to remember the three men who lost their lives in a tragic scaffolding accident in Raleigh on Monday. The scaffolding collapsed shortly before 11 a.m. Monday at the construction site of the Charter Square project on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh. Anderson Almeida and Jose Erasmo Hernandez of Durham died in the accident, as well as Jose Luis Lopez-Ramirez of Clinton.

Two of the men killed in the accident worked for Concord-based Juba Aluminum Products, which specializes in building exteriors, curtainwalls, storefronts and aluminum panels. The company has not said what role it played in the Charter Square project other than that the men worked on its Jannawall team. According to a U.S. Department of Labor database, Juba Aluminum has been cited for four separate "serious" violations since 1988. The North Carolina Department of Labor said the third man who was killed Monday worked for KEA Contracting, Inc. Elmer Guevara, who was injured in the incident, was employed by Associated Scaffolding Equipment.

Rescuers clear the rubble of a scaffolding that collapsed in the central province of Ha Tinh on March 25, killing 13 and injuring 28.

13 confirmed dead, 28 injured in Vietnam scaffolding collapse as rescue mission ends: Authorities in the central province of Ha Tinh have confirmed that 13 people died and 28 others were injured in a scaffolding collapse on Wednesday, as rescuers finished clearing the massive rubble of the worst construction accident since 2007. In a report to the government, the province’s labor department said the accident at the construction site of a steel plant-port complex invested by Taiwanese-owned Formosa Plastics Group could be caused by some problem in a hydraulic system.

It is still unclear how and by whom the system was operated in the scaffolding, which was part of the construction of a breakwater to protect the port. The province’s authorities are working with government agencies to further investigate the cause of the collapse. Contractor Samsung C&T, a subsidiary of the South Korea's Samsung, in a statement issued on Thursday pledged to take responsibility for the accident, provide support to the victims, and assist authorities during the investigation. 

Early signs ignored: Around 50 workers were working on the scaffolding which was 25 meters high, 40 meters long and 35 meters wide, when it tumbled down on Wednesday night. Some survivors told local media that about 30 minutes before the collapse, the scaffolding shook strongly. Many of them ran away, but a few minutes later their foreign supervisor ordered them to come back to continue working. The most recent catastrophe at this scale took place on September 26, 2007, when two spans of a bridge which was being built in the Mekong Delta collapsed, killing 55 workers and injured 80 others.

Work on Can Tho Bridge, which connects Can Tho City and Vinh Long Province, was completed in 2010. Formosa launched work on the complex in Vung Ang Economic Zone in July 2008 with the initial investment of nearly $10 billion. As of December last year, the project has recruited around 40,000 laborers, nearly 5,700 of whom are Chinese. Early this month the government inspectorate found that managers at the Vung Ang Economic Zone went beyond their authority and broke quite a few rules when offering too many incentives to Formosa. Among the violations, according to the inspectorate, the Formosa complex was illegally licensed for a 70-year period, even though Vietnam's investment law states that a foreign-invested project must not last more than 50 years. 

Worker advocate calls for tougher scaffolding regulations.

Worker advocate calls for tougher scaffolding regulations: As a state and federal investigation continues into the collapse of scaffolding at a downtown Raleigh high-rise Monday that killed three construction workers, crews on Thursday removed the rest of the scaffolding from the side of the building. Jose Erasmo Hernandez, 41, Anderson Almeida, 33, both of Durham, and Jose Luis Lopez-Ramirez, 33, of Clinton, died in the accident at the 11-story Charter Square project on Fayetteville Street. Elmer Guevara, 53, was seriously injured and remains hospitalized at WakeMed.

The accident involved equipment known as a mast climber scaffold, which moves up and down a building's facade to take workers to different floors. Mike Hampton, chief operating officer for general contractor Choate Construction Co., has said subcontractor Associated Scaffolding was in the process of dismantling the scaffold when one of the tracks snapped off and fell into a twisted heap on the ground below.

Veteran scaffold builder Tom Hallman said he was on a job site in West Virginia six years ago where a co-worker died. "It's not good. They shut the job down. It's like the area around here. You just kind of feel it in the air. It's sad, it's very sad," said Hallman, who is now an online advocate for more than 10,000 people in his industry. He says the danger lies with antiquated federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules that apply the same safety guidelines to all types of scaffolding equally. "I hate to say it, but most OSHA rules, they say in business, are written in blood, and here we go. There's need for a change," he said.

Hallman said mast climbers call for higher safety measures, such as "lifelines" that tether workers to a building and not just the platforms on which they stand. "When you're tearing them down, when you demo them, when you get to that certain point that you have lifelines dropped (from the platform), if something fails, you've got that fail-safe," he said. Authorities said it could take months to determine the cause of the accident and determine whether any workplace safety violations occurred.

How do I find out about employer responsibilities and worker rights? Workers have a right to a safe workplace. The law requires employers to provide their employees with working conditions that are free of known dangers. The OSHA law also prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for exercising their rights under the law (including the right to raise a health and safety concern or report an injury). For more information see www.whistleblowers.gov or worker rights.

Shinn - The War Veteran Window Cleaner

Introducing "SHINN" Veteran of Foreign War Hero: He was born in Oklahoma and moved to California as a child when his family was forced, economically, to sell their property and livestock. They joined relatives in the southern part of the state and he attended high school in Bell, California. His full name is Jennings Hazen Shinn Jr. He is named after his father, who died one week before he was born due to a blood clot in his leg. “Shinn” became his nickname in middle school, when last names were printed on the student’s gym shorts. He’s been called “Shinn” by friends and family ever since. It is the only name you see on his C&S Window Washing business card, which I will mention again later. And the only name he uses when being introduced.

When I asked him about his parents, he shared that his mother was the best of the best. “I know a lot of people think that their mom is the best, but my mom actually wins that contest,” he said, smiling. He also described her as, “very tolerant and very kind unless you got on her bad side. You had to work at getting on her bad side, but when you did, that was it.” His mother remarried, and Shinn was raised also by his step-father, who he considers and refers to as his dad. Duane Campbell was in the Army, he told me, and “escorted the then-General Dwight Eisenhower in Paris, France. He was also awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Charles De Gaulle.”

My favorite father/son story is the one Shinn shared about his dad and the poppies: “I was about eight years old,” he told me, “and I watched my dad give this man five dollars for a poppy. Five dollars was a lot of money back then. ‘Why are you giving that man so much money?’ I asked him, and he told me, ‘because he’s a veteran.’ I said to him, ‘You’re a veteran. Why doesn’t he give you five dollars?’ And my dad told me, ‘those who can work should always help those who can’t.’ And that has stuck with me all these years.” He recalled also how his dad never talked much about World War II itself, but spoke with great affection about the beautiful women, cute children, and the magic of Paris, which he called the city of lights and love.

Shinn is one of four children. He has already said goodbye to his one and only sister who was 6 years older. She was shot and killed in 1979 by a boyfriend in Houston, Texas. The boyfriend was never convicted, but “he went missing,” Shinn explained. And then he eluded to the idea justice may have been served in some vigilante style way, because “this was Texas, after all...in the 70s.” He has two brothers, one four years older, living in Missouri, and one two years younger, living in San Bernadino County.

Shinn married at age 18, “the neighborhood girl.” Linda Gibson was 16 at the time and encouraged by her mother to marry Shinn before he went overseas. They had two children, one boy and one girl. His grown son, Ron Shinn, is married with three children and lives in Sacramento. His grown daughter, Karen Richards, is married, also has three children and lives in Pleasant Hill. Shinn and Linda were married for 10 years, separated for four and ultimately divorced.

Shinn did follow somewhat in his father’s military footsteps by joining the Marines in 1964. “After Kennedy was killed,” he explained, “a bunch of us just joined up.” He became a sergeant in under four years. It was during a tour near DaNang, Vietnam, in 1965, that he was surprise-attacked and hit with a hand grenade. His platoon, Point for “E” Company 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines, was in the process of carrying out an operation that required them to move from the north valley to the south end of a village, but before they had a chance to get into position, “I caught two men hiding. We were walking into ambush, I assaulted their position.” One threw the grenade that claimed Shinn’s left leg. “This set off the battle early before we were in place for attack,” he said, “And then all hell broke loose.”

He went on to explain how he was cut off from his platoon. “The sergeant was the first one to get to me. And Jack Bradley, my best friend, next to my riffle - he was hit too. The grenade went through me and hit him too.” The helicopter was under fire when it came in to air-lift Shinn out. “Jack wouldn’t go,” Shinn told me. He stayed behind despite his injuries and vowed to “get those son of a b**ches for you Shinn.”

Shinn was transported safely to DaNang Air Base, then spent one month in the Philippines before arriving at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, California. His left leg was amputated from the knee down, and his right leg had been hit with four pieces of shrapnel. “The nurse handed them to me in a plastic bag, and told me I had a souvenir for my grandchildren,” he said shaking his head in a type of disbelief. “I just threw it away.”

When it came to talks about medals and awards, Shinn said to me, with great humility, his only real interest was in receiving the good conduct medal. But you can see from his military papers and the pictures included here, he is the recipient of far more than that. Shinn has been awarded not only a Good Conduct Medal, but an Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, two Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation Ribbons, a National Defense Service Medal, a Purple Heart, and I learned from Dave Ham that he’s been recommended for a Silver Star, which Judge Walter and Congressman Jerry McNerney confirmed with Shinn.

 

I liked learning also, from Shinn, that while this coffee and donut social hour at the Veteran’s Hall does offer veterans a safe place to discuss war tragedies and the rare opportunity to feel understood, most of the time, these conversations don’t take place. “We’ve all been in combat. We’ve lived it. We know. We don’t necessarily need to talk about it.” Shinn explained. And that makes perfect sense to me. There is a shared silent knowing that bonds these veterans. They seem much more interested in contributing and serving today than revisiting their past.

Shinn has one grandson, Steve Lull, that has served two tours in Iraq and is currently back safe and sound on United States soil. “I didn’t catch him in time,” Shinn said, “but I would have discouraged it. This war is like another Vietnam. If you really want to help people, you should become a police officer,” he said. That advice was not lost on Chris Thompson. Chris is the son of Shinn’s former girlfriend, who considered at one time joining the military but is today a police officer here in Livermore. “I can’t take credit for what he accomplished in the academy or anything like that, but I did tell him that was the best way to help people.”

Chris, in fact, inspired the “C” on Shinn’s C&S business card. He named the business after his former girlfriend's two children, Chris and Shauna. While family conflicts prevented their relationship from succeeding, Shinn still feels great affection for Chris and Shauna. C&S Window Washing was Shinn’s primary business for some twenty years. No doubt you’ve spotted him, like I did, in his baseball cap and jeans, washing windows here or there up and down Main Street and all around Pleasanton.

And in that 20 years, he has only taken one true, one-week vacation, which he spent in Yosemite. I am happy to share in closing then that our favorite veteran of foreign war hero and Tri-Valley window washer officially retired the day before we finally, and at last, sat down together at Tully’s. The very last windows he washed was as Café Ali — one of his favorite clients. He has plans now to hop in an RV and travel throughout California and Nevada.

Window Cleaning News

Jarrow cleaning company has high hopes of wiping out the opposition: A window cleaning company hopes to more than triple turnover after picking up a number of large contracts and is now looking to become a fully fledged facilities management business. Quayside Cleaning Maintenance was set up 18 months ago by ex-serviceman Simon Clare and has already secured contracts with Brentford-based construction and support services firm Carillion and Doncaster builder Frank Haslam Milan. The firm, based in Jarrow, has begun to specialise in high access service, with two of its six staff trained to abseil larger structures, providing a cheaper and less invasive cleaning service to customers.
The company, which has benefited from around £20,000 of funding from South Tyneside Means Business, hopes to land even larger contracts after being signed up to clean The Gate entertainment complex in Newcastle. Mr Clare, who worked as a window cleaner for 10 years after leaving the Army, said: “We have been fortunate enough to win contracts cleaning for the likes of The Gate, Carilion and Wynyard Park. The feedback we have had from these clients shows that we are able to offer safe, innovative and cost efficient services, focused on customer care.”

Rain-Gutter Maintenance: It’s a winter tradition: husband on the roof in the rain, pulling leaves out of the gutters and trying not to fall to his death. So far, he’s been successful. I hate to make him do it, but, as Tory Marino at Elite Window Washing (619-634-9580) says, “If you don’t get your gutters cleaned, then the debris from leaves and pine needles and the debris from your roof will build up. The gutters will start to sag from the weight. Eventually, you’ll have to replace them. And if the downspout gets clogged so badly that it can’t be flushed out, it too will have to be replaced.”
Marino knows, because Elite doesn’t do just windows. “A 2000-square-foot home might have 130 lineal feet of gutter and might take us around five hours to clean at $3 to $5 per lineal foot, depending on how bad the gutters are. If there is over an inch of sediment in the gutter, we’ll take a gutter scoop — it’s like a hard-plastic hand shovel — and remove the sediment manually. If there’s only a half-inch or less of sediment, we’ll use a pressure washer to flush the sediment through the drains. If the downspout is clogged, I have a tool that looks like an umbrella handle that I put on my pressure wand. I feed it in from the ground up, and the pressurized water flushes things out pretty well. Then we start cleaning the gutters by hand, using rags and a cleaning solution. It whitens up the exteriors of the gutter — and it makes dark colors brighten up, too.”
For future protection, Elite can install “a product called Rainflow [$10–$15 per lineal foot]. It’s not a gutter guard or gutter screen…something that sits on top and changes the look of your house; it’s inserted into the gutter. It looks like fiberglass-mesh insulation, and it strains out debris. Leaves and pine needles will stay on top of the mesh during the rain, but after the rain stops and they dry out, the wind should blow them off. It comes with a lifetime guarantee, and if you have it in, your gutter should need only minor maintenance every five or six years. All I would need to do is take the Rainflow out at your gutter’s high spot and send pressurized water toward the downspout to flush out any dirt. A homeowner could even do it with a hose.”
That is, if I wanted to send my homeowner up there. I have some scary-hilarious visions of Patrick teetering like a circus clown, 20 feet up. “We follow OSHA ladder-safety guidelines,” Marino assured me. “When the ladder is fully extended, it should rest at a 45-degree angle from the house. And there’s the three-point rule: you must have three points of contact with the ladder at all times. Both feet and one hand.”
Like Marino, Jim Hamilton at Any & All Rain Gutter Cleaners (619-444-0041, rainguttercleaners.com) is a stickler for safety. “We work from the roof, and if a roof has any kind of pitch, we’ll use a harness. And there’s always a ground guy and a roof guy in communication.” Unlike Marino, Hamilton doesn’t put anything into (or on top of) his gutters. “We used to install gutter screens but found that the leaves lay on top of the screen and biodegraded to form a sort of lid. When the water hit it, it skipped right over the gutter and onto the ground. And when the leaves finish decomposing, they drop through the screen as sediment.…
“We’ve been doing this for 16 years,” continued Hamilton. “When we started, we scooped gutters by hand or we used blowers, but we found it didn’t work for downspouts and roof drains. So, we’ve devised a water-jetting system; when we’re through, you could eat out of these gutters. We use a high-volume, low-pressure treatment. The machines on our trucks push eight gallons per minute — most washers only get two — and the higher volume carries everything downstream.” But not to the downspout. “You don’t want to send debris down the downspout. Some of them go underground, and you risk getting impacted sediment down there that will impede water flow. We block the downspout, blow everything out of the gutter into a receptacle, then unblock the spout and blast water through.” For that, “We use a spinning roto-jet nozzle that we can crank up to 4000 psi or down to 200 psi as needed.”
Hamilton’s prices start at around $175 per house and go up from there, depending on size. “We perform a flow test; if we see leaking at the seams, we’ll seal them. If necessary, we’ll readjust spikes to improve the angle of flow. We remove debris, clear the roof, and do a free pressure rinse of the home’s exterior.”

Suspects Identified In Skybridge Vandalism: Two young adults from Davenport were issued citations Thursday for their part in a graffiti spree on the Davenport Skybridge. Police say 19 year old Justin Mitchell and 18 year old Joshua Young are both charged with Criminal Mischief. Police say both admitted to their involvement. Three other members of the group were also identified, but it is not believed they participated in the vandalism. Police say surveillance video provided key information in helping identify the suspects. The graffiti was discovered early Sunday. Words and images, some considered obscene, were scrawled over windows and railings inside the glass and steel pedestrian Skywalk. The city hired a window-washing crew to clean it up. Police say cost of the clean-up is estimated at $175.

Gone and (almost) forgotten: In the last year it’s estimated that somewhere between nine and 15 people have died in the local community because of poverty related issues. There is Lorne Clapper (pictured). A singing window washer who would plod his way up and down the main streets of Peterborough with his bucket and squeegee in hand. A man who was loved and hated all at the same time. He died of a heart attack, alone in his room. He was 42.

HALIFAX, N.S. - Nova Scotia's finance minister says people should be angry about an embarrassing political spending scandal that has cost one politician his job and dominated headlines across the province for two weeks. Graham Steele, speaking Thursday after a cabinet meeting, said he's received an earful from residents as he's travelled the province seeking suggestions on how the NDP government should deal with a massive budget deficit. "People are angry and they should be angry because their money has been wasted, and has been spent on things that should never have been bought with their money," he said. Earlier, the New Democrats released a list of members' expenses related to their constituency assistants, and services related to their constituency offices, including window cleaning, garbage disposal and snow removal.

Talking Trash: The psychologist B.F. Skinner suggested that in an ideal society, jobs would be differentiated according to their degree of unpleasantness. A window-washer, or a garbage man, might only have to work four hours a day because the job was so odious (or odorous). Meanwhile, a musician (or a newspaper columnist?) would be expected to labor perhaps 10 hours a day, given how much fun s/he was having. Although nobody paid any attention to Skinner’s proposal, one bit of fairness has developed over the years: Garbage men may have the worst job, but they tend to get decently compensated for it. Municipal garbage workers typically receive all the benefits of a government job, including health insurance, pension contribution, public holidays, sick leave, overtime, and job security. That’s the case in Falls Church (at least for the garbage workers – the recycling is contracted out to a private firm).

Elderly man attempts to chase down wallet thief: SPOKANE, Washington - A man in his late 80s was crying as he attempted to chase down the man who had just stolen his wallet, according to a witness who called Crime Check. Last Sunday, the man and his wife allowed the thief into their home after he told the couple he was a window washer. Once inside their home in the 8100 block of E. Upriver Dr., the man, instead of 'counting windows' like he said, grabbed the homeowner's wallet and ran from the home. The couple chased the man who drove off in what they described as a red station wagon with license plates similar to 5147110 of an unknown state. Minutes later, a passerby called Crime Check and reported an elderly couple chasing an old red mini-van with a Montana license plate 541770. He told the operator the elderly man was crying. The couple described the suspect as a 50 to 60-year-old white male who was about 6'01" tall. He had gray hair that was receding, a thin build and gray eyes. Police ran different combinations of the license plate numbers given but none came back as belonging to a mini-van.

Lunch with the Barenaked Ladies: Well, they weren’t bare naked. And they weren’t ladies. But during a snowy, cold Niagara Falls lunch hour Monday a multi-platinum Canadian rock band gave a whole new meaning to the term “ladies who lunch.” “I teach about the Barenaked Ladies,” said Voss, who teaches literacy to teachers. “Their lyrics are all poetry put to music.” As just one of many examples, she said, are the lyrics “crystal clear canvas” from their song “When I Fall,” about a window washer who relates to life being cleanable and renewable, just like a window. Huh?

Chu Lai Float Glass Plant put into operation: The Chu Lai Float Glass Plant was put into operation in the Bac Chu Lai Industrial Park in Nui Thanh district, Quang Nam province yesterday. The plant invested by the Chu Lai – INDEVCO Float Glass Joint Stock Company has a capacity of 900 tonnes of float glass a day, which comes up to Japan’s standard JISR 3020-1996. The first Chu Lai float glass products are expected to be available in market in early April. This is the first float glass in Vietnam produced with the advanced technology. The Chu Lai Plant’s operation will considerably meet the domestic and export demand for construction glass, especially for 12 mm thick glass which Vietnam has had to import so far.

Knife Sharpening as a Window Cleaning Add-On + Other News

David Lipkind had spent the last 15 years working as a self-employed window cleaner on the Mendocino Coast until he really started feeling the economy's downturn earlier last year. Lipkind decided he needed to add with something he could bring with him to his client's homes to his existing business especially if he was already going to be doing windows there anyway. After looking in the phonebook and asking around, Lipkind settled on a sharpening business, a need in the community no one was filling. Offering people an alternative to throwing out old knifes was a great way to help people in a sagging economy, he decided. When resharpened, old knives are as good as new, but at a fraction of the replacement cost.
During winter 2008, Lipkind traveled to San Luis Obispo to apprentice with a master sharpener. "He really took me under his wing," Lipkind reminisced. "I was able to learn the basics of sharpening, I learned about metals, abrasives, techniques, and much more. He filled me with confidence and sent me on my way." During the late winter and early spring months, Lipkind was able to practice and hone his skills sharpening knifes and scissors for family and friends. Once he felt confident in his abilities, Lipkind ran an ad in his hometown paper and received calls for jobs. Business started picking up nicely. After a few steady months of work, Lipkind stumbled onto the idea of setting up a booth for his mobile sharpening service at local farmer's markets. He contacted market managers, and most seemed eager, even excited, to have Diamond Edge Mobile Sharpening Service at their sites.
Lipkind also enrolled longtime friend Paul Schulman to apprentice with him and partner in the business. The two started regularly attending markets, sharpening everything from axes to knives to scissors. "We keep expanding the direction of our business depending on what people bring to us and ask us to sharpen," explained Lipkind. Currently Diamond Edge can sharpen kitchen knives including paring, boning, serrated and Santoku styles hunting knives, scissors, loppers, shears, axes, mauls, hatchets, shovels, pick axes, hand scythes, hand pruners, pocket knives and machetes. Lipkind and Schulman do not sharpen saws or chainsaws due to the extensive, immobile setup required. Diamond Edge also will sharpen animal clipper blades like the Oster A5 styles when they return to the August 13Willits Farmer's Market. Salon shears also may be added to the ever-extending list of sharpenables. Along with regular sharpenings, Lipkind and Schulman also can provide a range of corrective and resculpturing options to save client's blades, including fixing broken tips, bolster adjustments and smoothing out blade nicks and cracks. "We can get out almost anything," laughed Lipkind.
Persons interested in having blades sharpened may bring their items to the market; expect about a half hour wait if arriving mid-market. Cost is determined by blade length for knives and scissors; many standard-sized items have set pricing. Diamond Edge attends several Mendocino County farmer's markets and can be found in Willits the second Thursday of the month; in Ukiah the second Saturday of the month; in Laytonville the second Monday of the month; in Boonville the third Saturday of the month; in Mendocino the fourth Friday of the month; and in Gualala the fourth Saturday of the month. "We really want to express our appreciation to the community and the positive response we have received from members," Lipkind explained. "We look forward to seeing you at the next market."

Vietnam War buddies find each other after 39 years: Winfred "Bub" Cooksey moved to Hot Springs Village in 2001. He runs a window washing service and is kept pretty busy. Over the past 39 years, Cooksey has tried to find a buddy who closely served with him in Vietnam. Unbeknownst to him until recently, his friend, Larry Popour of Phoenix, Ariz., had been doing the same. On June 28, their efforts were rewarded, and the two men met here in the Village for a quick reunion as Popour was making his way from Arizona to a family reunion in Michigan. It was the first time they had seen each other since leaving Fort Benning, Ga. in 1969 - 40 years and one month ago.
The two friends spent their entire one-year tour of duty together and returned home. Arriving back in the U.S. was not a pleasant experience for Cooksey. At O'Hare airport in Chicago, other travelers called him a baby killer. "The college kids didn't like us," Cooksey said. Popour was spared the experience. He returned to Detroit late at night. Both men were exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange. It was used as a defoliant in Operation Ranch Hand from 1962 to 1970.
The defoliant contained a poisonous substance called tetrachloridibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD) which has been linked to several health problems for Vietnam veterans. Its purpose was to kill vegetation and, thereby, expose enemy positions and movements. By war's end, according to Veterans Administration numbers from October 1981, 18.85 million gallons of the herbicide were used, mostly during the time period of 1967 to 1969. Popour is now feeling some of the early effects of Agent Orange and has the first stages of leukemia. Talking about being sprayed with the chemical, Cooksey said, "It was like walking through a fog," as a light mist fell from the C-123s overhead.

HARLOW - Bogus window cleaner steals pensioner's purse in Pittman's Field: ESSEX Police are appealing for witnesses following a burglary at a home in Pittman's Field, Harlow. The burglary occurred around 11am, when a man knocked on the door of a home belonging to a woman in her 80s, stating he was a window cleaner and was collecting payment from local residents. The man gained entrance to the woman's home and while she was in the kitchen he is believed to have removed her purse from her handbag. The suspect is described as a white man, aged 18-20 years, 5ft 6in tall, slim build, short mousy/blonde straight hair possibly with highlights, wearing a blue grey/green T-shirt possibly with a yellow stripe.
Officer investigating, PC Brian Eagling said: "There was a lot of roadworks going on at the time so I am hoping someone may have seen this chap in the area. I would like to remind residents to always check peoples ID thoroughly and close the door on them whilst you call the person's company to check. If you are in any doubt, don't open the door and contact police immediately." Anyone with any information should contact detectives at Harlow police station on 0300 333 4444 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Euphemisms add layer of nonsense: It's a living language. But sometimes it's dead on arrival when people toss around euphemisms and gobbledygook. If a hospital charges $58 for a "thermal therapy unit," what is the patient getting for the money? Answer: an ice pack. Suppose a patient spots an "optical illuminator enhancer" entering his room. Should he be alarmed? No. The visitor is a window washer.

Police hunt abusive 'window cleaner': Police are appealing for witnesses after a woman shop worker was subjected to a vicious verbal assault in a crowded Totnes business after two days of alleged harassment. When a member of the public tried to help her, he too was subjected to a tirade of abuse including alleged homophobic comments. The incidents happened in the China Blue complex in Station Road, Totnes, at around 3pm on Tuesday . Police claim the man, who was aged 30 to 40 years, was aggressive and demanding, made threats and at one point lunged at the shop worker and attempted to grab her.
The man, who was white, of slim build, with a goatee beard and spoke with a Liverpool accent, had first met the women when he turned up at China Blue last Friday looking for window cleaning work. The woman discussed possible guttering work at her home but later telephoned the man to tell him there was no job. He then turned up at China Blue on Monday on five different occasions to try to talk to her. He showed up twice the next day and on the second occasion became abusive and offensive. PC Sharon Unsworth pointed out that the shop had been packed with people on the Tuesday afternoon and said she wanted to hear from anyone who had witnessed the incident.

Let the pros come to you: Dwight Kennedy of Lake Oswego spent most of his career as a metal refinisher working with his hands, but when emerging from retirement he decided to lend a hand instead. “Retirement for a lot of people means quitting. I didn’t want to quit. I’ve worked hard all my life and I like it,” said Kennedy, 74. In January, Kennedy started Remodeling & Repair Referrals, a company that connects homeowners with home improvement contractors and professionals. Kennedy finds pre-screened, licensed and insured home service professionals for homeowners at no charge. The contractors pay Kennedy a commission for work secured.
Whether new to the area or just beginning to search for qualified professionals, Kennedy said his company does the research for you. He spent four months checking licenses, valid insurance policies, customer references, Better Business Bureau and the Consumer Affairs records of local companies – in various fields such as remodeling, decking, painting and plumbing – and that list grows each week.
“I’m really lucky; I never had to work for a big company,” Kennedy said. “I’ve always been my own boss.” Kennedy said he got the idea to start a referral business after his wife read an article about Debra Cohen in Good Housekeeping a year ago. Cohen started Home Remedies referral service in New York and made $125,000 in a year, working about 30 hours a week. “I’ve dealt with people all my life in a service-oriented way,” Kennedy said. “I can tell what a contractor thinks of a customer.” That’s why Kennedy interviews each contractor after they pass his background check. “I want to find out (about) the person, not the job. They’ve got to be conscientious and concerned for the customer,” he said. Lake Oswego resident Dwight Kennedy started his company to put homeowners in touch with qualified contractors. Remodeling & Repair Referrals has connected locals with professionals in fields such as appliance repair, carpentry, carpet installation, gardening, heating and ventilation, lock installation, painting, roofing, tile installation and window cleaning.

Robots: The good, the bad and the ugly: The robots are coming and we’re all going to die. That’s what some of the recent media stories would have you believe. Noel Sharkey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield, recently suggested that we are in danger of becoming a victim of our own success when it comes to robotics and AI. Quite literally. If we don’t carefully monitor what we’re doing in the field of military robotics, innocent people could be hurt. Of course, media momentum gathered and now there are probably people panic-buying bread and long-life milk and heading speedily to their nearest bunker to hide from these death hungry bots.
“Outside of the ethical issues, I see robotics technology being a great benefit to the human race in [many] ways. The standard robot used in the manufacturing and automotive industries is outnumbered nowadays by service robots about five to one. These are robots that do the three Ds – dull, dirty and dangerous work like cleaning sewers, domestic duties like vacuuming and window cleaning – even picking fruit and pumping gas,” he added. High Speed robotic hand video from the same article.

This summer, in Korean film industry, a new film has come out! Director Jo Min-ho has appeared at the press release for the film, "A Million." Out of 100,000 applicants for a survival game show organized by an Internet broadcasting company, just eight are selected to participate in the event. The group? which includes 26-year-old documentary producer Han Ki-tae (Park Hae-il), 24-year-old pizza delivery girl (Shin Min-a) and 28-year-old window washer Park Chul-hee (Lee Min-ki) ? is then taken to the location of the show: a deserted island near Perth, Australia. The game begins, and the eight participants must go through the sea, desert, forest and rivers to cross the finish line. But seven days later, Australian police find just one person alive. What happened in the past week during this mysterious survival game?

AIG Chief - Loud Voice and a Listener's Ear: When Robert Benmosche takes over American International Group Inc. on Monday, he will be its fourth chief executive in 14 tumultuous months. He will also be the most decisive, direct and tough leader to run the battered insurer since Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg's nearly four-decade reign ended amid an accounting scandal in 2005. Mr. Benmosche, former colleagues say, is willing to upend cozy corporate traditions and make unpopular decisions. His strong personality could be just what AIG and its majority owner, the U.S. government, need to manage the company. But he could also clash with his many overseers, including in Congress, which hasn't shied from offering opinions about how the company should be run. He has a soft side. In 2007, Ken Karlewicz, owner of Mr. K's Window Cleaning, was providing an estimate for Mr. Benmosche's home northwest of New York City, when they began chatting about the window cleaner's passion: running a photography program for kids. Out of that conversation came a nine-day stay by the teacher and five students this past October at Mr. Benmosche's villa in Dubrovnik, Croatia, with breathtaking views of the Adriatic Sea. More at a previous blog.

Grandview Village President Tracy Houser says he is stepping down as village leader to take care of his ailing father and the family business. Houser said the last village board meeting he attended was July 7, when police officers told him his father had suffered a stroke. “Unfortunately he suffered two strokes to the brain,” Houser said. His father, James Houser, owns Houser Window Cleaning. “That’s been in business for 54 years,” Tracy Houser said. “I’m the only person who can take care of it.” Houser said the past few months have been draining on him, because his father is still in the hospital and is paralyzed on his left side. “The trustees of the village have been super, super good about it, and they understand that if I did resign there wouldn’t be any hard feelings,” he said. “They realize that family comes first. I’ve got to take care of my dad.”

Diamon-Fusion® Nano-Coating on the NIKE Building

Nike Applies Diamon-Fusion Nanocoating to its Headquarters Building : Diamon-Fusion International, Inc. (DFI Nanotechnology), global developer and exclusive licensor of patented hydrophobic nanotechnologies, announced today it was awarded the exclusive contract to apply the Diamon-Fusion® nano-coating to the NIKE building world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon near Portland. The first phase took place this month on the John McEnroe Building facade along its exterior glass walls and windows. An extensive restoration process on the existing concrete-leached glass was completed utilizing DFI’s proprietary restoration products prior to fashioning the Diamon-Fusion® nano-coating. The John McEnroe Building is only the first building (at Nike’s HQ Campus) to be treated with the Diamon-Fusion® low-maintenance nano-coating. The work for the entire project is being performed by Santa Cruz, California-based DFI Licensee Central Coast Diamon-Fusion® and Window Cleaning.

Through the DFI’s patented nano-coating process, the chemical treatment creates a water repellent effect which enables ease of cleaning and protection against scratches, abrasion, and environmental elements, therefore considerably reducing the costs of maintenance to the facade. The Diamon-Fusion® nano-coating is optically clear, and does not affect the natural reflection of the glass exterior. Guillermo Seta, Corporate Vice President and Executive Director of DFI Global Operations, commented: “We are pleased and honored to be working with NIKE, one of the most highly recognizable corporations throughout the world. It’s a testament to the confidence we have created in the quality and innovative technology we’ve been providing for over 10 years.”
DFI Nanotechnology multi-functional characteristics include: water and oil repellency (hydrophobic and oleophobic,), impact and scratch resistance, protection against graffiti, dirt and stains, finger print protection, UV stability, additional electrical insulation, protection against calcium and sodium deposits and increased brilliance and lubricity. DFI’s nanocoating works at nanoscale levels to change the molecular composition of any silica-based surface. Diamon-Fusion® provides, in chemical terms, a ‘cross-linked’, ‘branched’ and ‘capped’ optically clear nano-film along with a strong and durable covalent bond.
If you liked this story, you can find more topics on this subject by inserting nano or lotus effect in the search bar at the top left of the page. Here is the Vietnamese take on DFI.....

Window Cleaning for Vietnam Vet'

State’s VFW reaching out to younger veterans: Ben Mastridge, a window cleaner, returned from the Vietnam War with a hole in his foot and patriotism tucked in his back pocket for safe keeping. “When I first came back in 1966, I didn’t immediately join the VFW,” he said. “I didn’t want to think about the military. A lot of Vietnam veterans didn’t initially join a post because of the atmosphere we came home to and you didn’t always feel welcome.” Recently elected as junior vice commander for the Pennsylvania Veterans of Foreign Wars, Mastridge said he’s now determined to help modernize that organization. That way, he said, no veteran would ever get a cold reception again. Mastridge, who is 65, owns a window cleaning service in Bensalem. He said being his own boss has allowed him the freedom necessary for his new position as junior vice commander. “A lot more people are coming back damaged mentally and physically from Iraq and Afghanistan. And we have service officers in our clubs to assist these veterans and regional service officers with even more information and training,” he continued. “We need to dispel the myth that the VFW is just a bunch of old guys with their own bar selling cheaper beer. Last year alone, we raised more than $2.5 million to help the families of soldiers fighting overseas,” he said. The Pennsylvania VFW said it has 120,000 members in 540 posts across the state. Mastridge received the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal and the Cross of Gallantry with Palm and Unit Citation. He served in the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division and was injured when a mortar blast sent shrapnel through his foot while in an artillery battery area in Vietnam. He eventually joined the VFW in 1994 and now is a member of the Billington Post.