It’s mid December and the temperature is a mild 6 degrees. Last night we had our annual company winter get together at Woodbine racetrack.

I remember that last year we had over a foot of snow and couldn’t really see the other side of the track from our tables. I wish that I could tell you that the track visibility was the only weather related issue last year. Unfortunately mother nature delivered an ice storm just in time for Christmas. While I was very fortunate to have power at home and at the office many of our customers were not nearly as lucky.

We had many customers with no power even in large condominiums that would normally have backup generators. Here is a very interesting re-cap of one such situaion written by one of our customers, Adele Sottile at Del Property Management, http://www.acmo.org/cmmag/G_F14.pdf .

Based on the generally positive results of this years heat trace and ramp heat verifications (Preparing for winter: Electric heat tracing)  it would appear that many of our customers have learned a hard lesson and are much better prepared this winter.

Calls to install electric vehicle chargers are finally taking off. We now receive about a call a week. Stay tuned this year for news on dedicated EV panels in condominiums and maybe even some cloud based controls. We may have moved ahead from our first EV Charger in a condo (The first installation of an electric vehicle charge in a Toronto condominium.)

Who knows where all of this electric vehicle technology may take us. Our post on Solar Freakin’ Roadways got a ton of responses.

I’m struggling with which personal highlights to share. 2014 was a pretty good year. Certainly the highlight of the year would be the arrival of my second grandchild in May. Mimi has a very different temperament than Eli and my son Aaron and daughter in-law Rachel are working on adjusting. We actually think that Mimi is adjusting them. In the meantime Leslie and I are having tons of fun spending time with both of them.

A few other highlights included,

Powered paragliding (a birthday gift to myself). Thanks to Leslie for patiently and safely waiting on the runway for me to return.

Our trip to Newfoundland, amazing icebergs.

My annual trip to the sheepdog trials in Kingston with my wonderful sister in-law Leslie Roberts. No kids this year just to the two of us enjoying the experience in the sunshine.

My 1970 MGB took me skeet shooting with my son Aaron and off to transport a veteran in the Warriors Day parade at the CNE opening.

Do you remember in September when someone jumped the fence at the Whitehouse in Washington DC? My son Max and I were just around the other side at the time watching the presidential helicopter take off to Camp David.

As you can see my plan is to enjoy each day and live with as few regrets as possible. I wish the same for all of my customers, colleagues, family and friends.

Happy 2015

Mark