2002 Worlds Balloons

• Electric Fireplaces
• Electric Fireplace Inserts
• Corner Electric Fireplaces
• Dimplex Electric Fireplaces
• Classic Flame Electric Fireplaces
• Wall Mount Electric Fireplaces
• Electric Fireplace Stoves
• Entertainment Center Electric Fireplaces
• Electric Fireplace Mantels
• Cherry Electric Fireplaces

In my younger days, before I was a writer, I lived for a short period of time in a small town in northern Utah named Logan. Logan is nestled in a tiny valley between two arms of the steeply rising Cache Mountains. Looking past the edge of town in any direction reveals a mountain range. Beautiful though the town was, the unique location made the town extremely susceptible to air pollution at certain times of the year.

Several times during every winter, the town would experience a weather phenomenon known as an “inversion.” Very cold air would settle into the valley while warmer air would travel over the valley at the height of the mountains. This would trap the cold air in the valley and keep the air absolutely still. This cold weather made every citizen in the valley want to light a fire in the fireplace to keep warm. With the stale, windless air in the valley, all of the polluting smoke from these fires stayed in the valley creating conditions of very poor air quality. After a few days of inversion, the air quality would get so bad that the city government would place a ban on fireplaces, issuing fines for any house putting smoke into the air.

What a difficult predicament! It is extremely cold outside, so you want to use your fireplace. Your fireplace is polluting the air, so you can not keep using the fireplace. Now you are left in the cold, depending on your more expensive heater with a valley full of bad air. This is of course a unique scenario, but illustrates on a magnified level the problem with traditional fireplaces. Burning wood, paper, or any other fuel puts pollution into the air. Enough fireplaces in an area can have a severely detrimental effect on air quality.

There is a solution. The electric fireplace is a pollution free substitute. Shaped like a traditional fireplace, the electric fireplace can be placed anywhere in the house you want it to go and just needs a standard power outlet to operate. Electric fireplaces do not put out any emissions, making them immune to any clean air laws or regulations that a town or county might place on local citizens. Electric fireplaces are efficient, warming a space quickly and uniformly, without the danger of an open flame. You do not need to make sure that the flu is open, there is no worry of smoke filling the house, and children can play nearby without parents having to worry that they will be burned.

In addition to being pollution free, electric fireplaces are decorative. Electric fireplace inserts give the owner a choice for decoration, allowing him to choose different log types and different colors to suit his home décor scheme.

The electric fireplace can be used in any home, and is a great substitute to any other home heating device. It is functional and decorative, making it the perfect fit for any home.

• Doctors Scales
• Price Computing Scales
• Jewelry Scales
• Detecto Scales
• Health O Meter Scales
• Seca Scales
• Ohaus Scales
• Pelouze Scales
• Analytical Balances
• Moisture Analyzers

With a new year fast approaching, many of us will break out that familiar resolution of losing weight. Whether your resolution is to lose a specific amount of weight or simply the nebulous “lose some weight,” you will probably be starting a diet and exercise program and will be checking your progress on the bathroom scale.

You might start by going to the gym, you might start by cutting out sweets, or you might start with something more rigorous. Either way, you will undoubtedly start off checking your beginning weight on the bathroom scale. After the first day of working out or dieting, you will again check your weight on the bathroom scale. After the second day of working out or dieting, you will again check your weight on the bathroom scale. After the third day of working out or dieting, you will again check your weight on the bathroom scale. I think you see where this is going.

While it is good to know how you are progressing towards your goal, constantly checking your weight on the bathroom scale can have a negative effect. Both dieting and exercise require tremendous sacrifice and personal discipline to maintain. Passing up on a second helping, eating carrots instead of potato chips and getting up in the morning to go to the gym are difficult mental hurdles. Each action tests your resolve to see how well you can ignore temptation. If you work hard and sacrifice for several days in a row and fail to see any improvements on the bathroom scale, disappointment and discouragement can easily set in.

Checking the bathroom scale too frequently can make every positive action you take towards your goal more difficult. When results are slow in coming, it is very easy to question the value of all of the hard work you are putting in. Shouldn’t that hour on the treadmill and salad for lunch have taken off more than a single pound? Shouldn’t the calories given up in no longer drinking soda have had some effect on your weight? Shouldn’t there be at least some immediate results from all of the hard work?

Everybody is different. Your metabolism, current level of health, body type, and choice of type of diet and/or exercise will make your results unique when compared to any other person working on the same New Year’s resolution. Just because your friend immediately lost 10 pounds does not mean that you can expect the same results. When you do not see results immediately, you need to continue to tell yourself that the changes you have made are positive and will ultimately have beneficial health effects. The weight might not come off all at once, but continuing your new lifestyle choices will eventually pay off.

Rather than weighing yourself every day, pull out the bathroom scale once a week. Seeing the progress you made over seven days will be far more satisfying than looking every day and will allow you do avoid thinking that your hard work is for nothing if you do not see progress every day.

• Digital Scales
• Baby Scales
• Bathroom Scales
• Counting Scales
• Floor Scales
• Food Scales
• Hanging Scales
• Kitchen Scales
• Medical Scales
• Postal Scales

Scales come in many shapes and sizes and are used in many different ways. Some scales are used to weigh people and some are used to weigh babies. There are food scales, scales to weigh produce, scales that calculate price per pound of any product. Some scales are used by sports fishermen to weigh their catch. There are special scales used to weigh deer at a weighing station, scales for weighing gold and scales for weighing jewelry. We see scales almost every day.

In a trip to the grocery store, you may be amazed at the number of scales you come across. There are scales in the produce section to weigh your fruits and vegetables. In the bulk foods section you can buy cereal, nuts, granola, dry fruit, and grains such as quinoa, rice, oats, and barley. There are also treats like chocolate covered pretzels and yogurt covered raisins. All of these items are sold by the pound. A scale lets you weigh your choices and it spits out a tag with the price, weight, and barcode which allows you to know exactly what you have bought and to easily cash out at the register.

When you get to the deli counter, the deli clerk weighs your sandwich meat, cheese, and deli salads on a special deli scale. The meat counter has a scale for your meat purchases; the fish counter has a scale for your fish. Even coffee can be ground and weighed on a special machine that ensures your coffee is fresh ground and that you get what you paid for.

By the time you have made it to the check out, you may think that you have seen all the scales you are going to see but here, again, are more scales. If you check out with a cashier, there is a scale to weigh your fruit and vegetable choices. This ensures you are charged the correct price for your items as it weighs them and calculates the price, simplifying the check out process. If you cash out at a self checkout counter there is a whole new variety of scale. This scale can be quite annoying at times. It weighs each item you scan. When you put the item in your bag, it makes sure the bag reflects the weight of the items scanned. If you do not scan an item and place it in the bag, the “scale” communicates to the scanner and will not let you continue until the offending item is removed from the bag. If you scan an item, and do not put it in the bag, the “scale” again communicates to the scanner and will not allow you to continue until you put the correct item in the bag. These scales are quite amazing in their technology but I must say, at times, I could do without their insistence that they announce every item I buy and proceed to tell me how much I spent. Sometimes I do prefer a cashier, even if they ignore me and are too busy flirting with the bag boy to say hello.