January is Bath Safety Month. Easy with the soap.

Wow. Did we ever get a bunch of calls for generators!

Seems like no one wants to be out of power - for a day - or a week - again. So, we went out and found the best whole house generators on the market. In fact Mike and Steve have just returned from Wisconsin where Kohler manufactures their entire line. 

And with scores of new installations already completed, Aiello can show you how a whole house generator can keep the lights lit and the family safe and warm.More than likely it is going to snow again. And again. Power will be lost. 

Question is, "are you going to sit in the dark?" If you've decided the answer is "no," give us a call. We're ready to help. 

Call (860) 264-4066

January is California Dried Plum Month.

 If they called it Prune Month would anyone celebrate?

January, according to that unimpeachable source, Wikipedia, is named after Janus - the god of the doorway. The Romans had a god of the doorway, who knew? The Romans only had 10 months in their year. Winter was considered a monthless period. Feels like that now sometimes, no?

Anyway, the semi-mythical successor of Romulus, King Numa Pompilius is supposed to have added the months of January and February allowing for a more standardized calendar. The Saxson's called it Wulf-monath - wolf month (in case that comes up in conversation this month).

Sometime at the beginning of the 16th century, European countries began officially making January 1 the start of the New Year. The Chinese New Year - which will be the Year of the Dragon - will begin January 23, 2012 - which begins the 15 day celebration of the New Year. So - Happy New Year

January is National Random Act Month. Hug a duck.

January is National Volunteer Blood Donor Month. 

 Volunteer? How else? (still it's a great idea)

AIELLO'S JANUARY HEATING SYSTEM SPECIAL

SAVE $1000* on Energy Kinetics System 2000 Integrated Boiler & Hot Water System.

Cut Your Oil Bill By 40%* 

It's like saving up to $1.40* a Gallon.

 

The key is a unique Digital Energy Management unit. The super high efficiency System 2000 works with oil, natural gas or propane. No matter what size house or condo you own there is a System 2000 unit that's perfect for you. And now, til January 31, 2012, you can save $1,000 off the retail price of a new system.

 January is Get Organized Month.

  Like that's going to happen

January is Book Blitz Month. 

 The Jesse James Bio is pretty cool!

The casualoptimist.com is a great blog. There we found a selection of "Best Book Cover Designs" for 2011.

Here are two and a link to the rest. So the question is based on these covers, can you tell whether the book is any good?

 We'd like your thoughts here.

January is National Hot Tea Month.

 Make mine Chai

January 11-17 is National Cuckoo Dancing Week.

 We couldn't make this stuff up

The winter solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet's polar hemisphere is farthest away from the star that it orbits. (You knew that!)

Earth's maximum axial tilt to our star, during a solstice is 23° 26'. More evidently from high latitudes, a hemisphere's winter solstice occurs on the shortest day and longest night of the year, when the sun's daily maximum elevation in the sky is the lowest.

The Winter Solstice was December 22nd. Good news - with the Winter Solstice behind us - the hours of daylight are increasing! Enjoy them.

January 17-23 is National Fresh Squeeze Juice Week. 

 Grab some dried plums and celebrate!

One Chilling Top 5 List --

The Five Greatest Snow Storms

Look, there's snow....and then there's SNOW!

#5 - The Schoolhouse Blizzard, Jan. 12, 1888 - 230 deaths - the combination of extraordinary cold, following unusually warm days led to people in the plain states not being prepared. Temperatures ranged as low as 40 below. And this wasn't the famous Blizzard of '88

#4 - The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 - 260+ deaths - considered the deadliest natural disaster to ever hit the Great Lakes region. Whiteouts caused travel to slow to a crawl, winds of 60-90 mph helped cause the loss of 19 ships and 199 sailors lost on Lake Huron. This monster storm lasted 16 hours.

#3 - Storm of the Century - March 11-15, 1993 - 300 deaths - this one had everything - blizzards, torrential rains, tornadoes and 60 inches of snow in Mount LeConte, TN. The storm was so large it spread from Central America to Canada. Mindbogglingly big, hence...the Storm of the Century.

#2 The Great Appalachian Storm of 1950 - Nov. 24-30 - 353 deaths - they blamed la Nina, but the snow and the extremely heavy winds were such that nothing could stand in her way. A million people without power. The storm impacted fully half of the US. Train crews used flame throwers to clear tracks, and there were gusts to 110mph in Concord, NH.

#1 The Great Blizzard of 1888 March 11-14 - 400+ deaths - this is the all time champ. It brought up to 50 inches of snow in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. OK - there were snow drifts 50 feet high due to 45mph winds. 200 Ships were ruined, massive flooding followed (it was a March storm) and even fires couldn't be extinquished because firehouses were closed.   

So, when next we see a few inches of the powdery white stuff...calm down!   

January 30-Feb. 4 - is National Cowboy Poetry Week. 

 Yup. Cowboy up.

Etibar Elchiyev demonstrates his magnetic ability as he poses with 50 metal spoons magnetized to his body during an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for Most Spoons on a Human Body in Tbilisi, Georgia. Elchiyev claims that his body acts as a magnet attracting metal objects. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)