In the past week, Mother Nature has been doing a pretty good job of scaring people. Not only was there an earthquake in Virginia, but even the Bay Area had a couple of tiny jolts. I felt one of those little quakes while I was sitting at my desk.

Now if the earthquake didn’t scare people on the East coast, along comes Hurricane Irene. While the severity of Irene could have been worse, news outlets are predicting billions of dollars in damage. Vermont is one state that had more damage than expected, including massive flooding.

There is going to be a lot of clean up after the recent hurricane and the earthquake in Virginia. And it got me thinking about the economy. It may seem strange to draw a line to connect the two, but according to some trade associations, the way out of this economic slump is investing in our infrastructure.

It’s frustrating that as a country we wait until there is devastation before we fix our aging infrastructure. There are roads, bridges and buildings that could all use attention. For the HVAC and sheet metal trade, there are so many buildings that could use an energy-efficiency upgrade.

I know that some people weren’t thrilled with the Obama Administration’s stimulus package. Some people said it was a waste of money and others said it didn’t go far enough. I’m not into talking politics on my blog, but I’d say the stimulus didn’t go far enough. Unfortunately, you need to spend money to make money, and I wish that we could invest in our energy and building infrastructure. We would not only make certain that our buildings and bridges are well protected in the event of natural disasters, but it would put some people back to work and help some HVAC and sheet metal companies feel like it is finally business as usual.