It is once again time to gather nominations for PM Engineer’s Next Gen All Stars Top 20 Under 40 list.

It’s officially springtime in my home state of Michigan! While I’m happy to see the cold and snow gone, this time of year is the worst for my seasonal allergies. Watery eyes, runny nose, constant sneezing — the whole nine yards. Ever since the pandemic, people give me the side eye and avoid me like the plague this time of year. I’m actually looking into getting a whole-home air purifier installed in my HVAC system.

Democrat or Republican, we can all agree that lead in drinking water is bad. That was the takeaway from President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address last month, where he discussed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and how it has funded 20,000 projects since the legislation passed in 2021.

Water is a finite resource. Read that again, I’ll wait.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday season and welcomed the new year with family and friends. I always love the blank slate a new year brings, and 2023 is chock-full of new opportunities in the plumbing and HVAC industry.

One of my more recent work trips provided the opportunity to stay the weekend and catch up with one of my college girlfriends in North Carolina. I rode the Amtrak from Charlotte to Durham, where my friend met me at the station.

Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on Sept. 28, carving a path of destruction through the state and killing more than 100 people. The real magnitude of Hurricane Ian’s death toll is still unknown, with media outlets reporting differing numbers as officials are still digging through debris some three weeks later.

As I write this month’s column, I’m fresh off the plane from the ASPE 2022 Convention & Expo in Indianapolis. Let me just say, some of the engineers walking around with ribbons down to their knees — ahem Julius Ballanco — made my two little “Press” and “First-Timer” ribbons feel a little inadequate!

Last month, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, representing the largest investment in clean energy sources in U.S. history. Though the bill is entitled “Inflation Reduction Act,” it's really a “climate change bill with a side helping of health reform,” as New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman describes.

This past weekend, my husband and I traveled to beautiful Charlevoix, Michigan — that’s about a four-hour drive North of the metro-Detroit area. Totally worth it — summer and fall are both great times to visit! We drove up to attend a friend’s wedding. Unfortunately, the wedding date was held during an annual summer festival in Charlevoix, and hotel rooms were in high demand.