About Paul’s To-Do List

This list could have been named after Dan, Al, Craig, my Dad, my brothers, my Mother or my sisters. It could have been named after any number of people who have helped me fix something, or someone who captivated my imagination with some backyard tinkering that looked to have commercial possibilities. It could have been named after an artist who bends scraps of metal into shape until a form represents what was imagined. As it is, the list is named after Paul because he was there when I thought of the idea to create it. Brian and I were having lunch with him at *** where we were introduced to sweet potato fries with shrimp. For this we are in Paul’s debt.

After 20 years as a software programmer, Paul retired – if you can call it that – from Medtronic last spring. He’s smart. At the time back in May, he mentioned that he could foresee having some free time. Maybe we could produce another video? Five months later, he wasn’t so free after all.

Paul told us about a new project he is doing and we filled him in on what I hope will be the next stage of some composting experiments. It’s actually been a rugged year for us in a lot of ways, and worms seemed to have been the chosen fallback topic to avoid making the afternoon a complete downer. From this, our conversation evolved as conversations do.

Where is the refrigerator for a Minnesota climate?

Apparently I needed to get something off my chest.

“If we can heat a house with solar air, why can’t we cool a refrigerator with winter air?”

“You could!”

“You could! Somebody could! Where is it? And it can’t cost 10,000 dollars! It has to be an affordable kick-ass consumer-level product. I’m putting it on your to-do list!”

“My to-do list?”

So was born Paul’s To-Do List. It is a place to share ideas, grab ideas, and run with ideas.

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