Rain

Unlike some other parts of the country, Florida in particular, we are having our fill of the wet stuff. It has been cloudy and gloomy in Northwest Ohio for the better part of a week and it looks like there is another week yet to come. The temperature is a little off also but you expect it to be cooler when the gray overcast sky hangs over you day after day. It is starting to get depressing not seeing blue sky and the sun at least for a little while.

Northwest Ohio is known for its cloudy days. It is kind of a trademark of the region to have an endless string of cloudy days and rain. We will never be known for our solar power generating capability. That we will leave up to the desert states of the west and south. We do however have a solar panel manufacturer, First Solar, which is building a plant in the area as well as several through out Europe and Asia. It may start a Renaissance for the glass industry in our area.

Toledo was once known as the Glass Capital of the World. We had Libby Owens Ford, Owens Illinois, and Owens Corning producing everything from automotive glass, to construction glass, to drinking implements, to decorative fixtures. The manufacturing has dried up except for a few factories making automotive and specialty glass. What was once an elite group of Fortune 500 companies has been bought up or downsized. Owens Illinois and Owens Corning are all that is left of that once proud industry. Maybe First Solar will be the silver lining to the clouds that have covered Toledo and provide the spark for the next chapter in the Glass Capital. We could sure use some sun shine in our neck of the wood.

Icool

Cobb