This came in an email. It's a very neat idea that could become a family tradition in many of our homes and an idea that goes along with the above: Subject: SIMPLE WHITE ENVELOPE It's just a small white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so. It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas --oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it -- the overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma -- the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else. Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties, and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way. Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, 'I wish just one of them could have won,' he said. 'They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.' Mike loved kids -- all kids -- and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball, and lacrosse. That's when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition --one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn't end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us. May we all remember the true Christmas spirit this year and always.

tricae - its both an issue of degree and future decisions. No we can't change the past. No we can't find places to live that are totally risk free. We are not talking the randomness of tornadoes in the midwest. There are places that are at risk for significant damage regularly and repeatedly and that's what we are talking about here. I think its stupid, not a word I use very often, to continue to rebuild in those areas where the risk is significant and one can pretty well determine that catastropic damage will occur again soon. I'm not sure what the threshold is -you pick one based on frequency - had to totally rebuild the house more than twice in the past 30 years? Or money - have to keep pouring money into levees that aren't going to hold, replace beach over and over and over so the house isn't in the middle of the ocean? (BTW I live near a town, Xenia OH, known as freakishly tornado prone and it can pass both these thresholds easily). How many millions if not more dollars have we spent trying to make the new New Orleans levee's better? There are already problems and no assurrances that there won't be another break. How many more millions are we going to continue to spend on a regular basis in New Orleans, that could be helping the disadvantaged elsewhere, so people can continue to live below the water line? Sure people have been living near the coast for 250 years in New England. I can't think of a time when significant areas of the coast have been evacuated on any routine or regular basis (you drove down to take those pictures, not something I would have done in Galvaston or New Orleans). But really, if the sea levels started to really encroach - are we supposed to build levees because someone's great great great grandfather lived in that old house? Things change. People move. Otherwise we'd all still be living in caves. Sure Chicago had some flooding. My mother is in Michigan and I went up to help with water in her basement. More standing water around my hometown than I've seen in a really long time. But it doesn't happen that often, - her house wasn't buried under a mudslide that happens every three years, or go up in flames every 5 years, her lot didn't disappear, and its not in an area that's costing millions to ensure that none of those things happen. As for feeling for the people in those areas. Just because we don't agree with rebuilding doesn't mean we don't care or donate to help people in time of need. I'm sure the areas that flooded in the Midwest are still struggling. A lot of people are hurting out there in many less dramatic ways. It would be nice to be able to help them.

Sorry for the confusion. In your previous post you mentioned PVB in millimeters ("...0.75mm vs a 1.5mm PVB interlayer."), so I switched to millimeters in my post somewhat out of habit. While some laminators use inches for the interlayer thickness - .030, .060, .090 - others use millimeters - .762mm, 1.54mm, 2.286mm. When you used millimeters I assumed that your supplier was talking in metric so I went that way. Not much different than glass; glass can be referred to as double strength, 1/8" and 3mm for the same product. And tempered glass is considered to be four times stronger than annealed glass, and at the thicknesses that you are considering distortion potential is minimal, but the possibility is there. Take a look at some large storefront windows when you have the chance and notice the distortion in the glass. That is the nature of tempered. Distortion in the storefront windows may be very minimal so that you don't even see it, or it may be really obvious - often depending entirely on the skill of the operator. I had mentioned in a much earlier post that tempering glass is easy, but tempering glass really well (flat) takes good equipment, technical skill, and a bit of artistry from the furnace operator. I am not entirely familiar with the hurricane requirements in Hawaii, but I seem to remember that the islands used the basic ASTM E1886 and E1996 reqirements - but I could be wrong about that... You will not meet large missile, or ASTM missile D (basically the same thing), impact requirements using either .030 or .060 interlayers. For consistent impact performance you need an .090 interlayer - either PVB or SGP. So, based on your last paragraph, what sort of impact are you considering when you mention "...thus decreasing the chance the glass will break upon impact..."? It is true that tempering the glass will help keep an errant baseball from potentially breaking your glass, and it will add a good bit to the level of windows that the windows can handle without broken glass, but if you are thinking of impacts from flying palm trees or coconuts in the event of a hurricane, then tempering the glass really doesn't add a lot to the overall impact performance. I am also a bit puzzled about needing SGP for windloads. You are using some very thick glass and considering tempered as well, so what windload are you thinking of meeting that you need SGP? I like SGP, I think it is an amazing product, but for sound applications I would suggest that it is not the best choice. Also, which island are you on? I lived on Oahu from 1981 to 1984.

Sue, I did receive your private message and just responded. You are right on. I can not read the message in my email because with HOUZZ it is sent as a "private message". My private email only tells me that somone has sent me a HOUZZ message, thus I have to sign in to HOUZZ to read it .........On GW, we were sending an "email", thus I could read the message in my email.. Hello o o o o Annie, is anybody home???? This is what I say when something is so obvious and I don't figure it out....LOL!!! Email vs private message....kind of basic!!!! Thanks for being an awesome rbb...... Annie