The Edge of Empty

A E says "Take my picture will you?  Just try to take my picture after I hide the camera."

A dministrators of false alarm units are often called on to present information to the local government officials.  In preparation for my debut briefing the Supervisors in my county, I visited Albemarle County last week for their  Board of Supervisors meeting .  The Albemarle County Police Department was before the board to present some updates to their false alarm ordinance so it was a good opportunity to witness public reaction.  The great thing about local government is that the public has the opportunity to participate.  Albemarle County and many other counties allow citizens to have their time to air their opinions simply by signing up before the meeting begins.  The number of people who sign up, determines how much time each speaker is given.  For this meeting, there were so many people signed up, that the time limit was reduced to two minutes each. The agenda for each meeting is generally posted in advance but the public commentary doe...

Here is young A. E. a day or two after we brought him home--with Youngest's hand for scale. And here he is 5 months later.

This picture makes me think of the book Curious George for some reason.  Happy Friday!

In some reports in CryWolf, mousing over an account number and then clicking opens window with the account history.  If what you really need is the account instead, right click on the account number and then choose "Load Account Form" to open the account screen.

Shortly after we brought our ferret home, we realized that he needed someplace he could call his own.  We went to our resource of choice--the book  Ferrets for Dummies . The book describes how to make a nest box out of a storage bin and a pvc connector.  On our next visit to the home improvement store, we picked up the items necessary to make a home for A. G. Ferret.  Much to my surprise, the house turned out great and you can see that he loves it.  He did the decoration himself.  That blanket started the day on the lower level of his cage, but he dragged it upstairs and into the box.  Here, he is looking mighty pleased with himself and ready for a nap after all the hard work.

I don't know about you, but I have never been a conformist. This didn't go over too well in high school -or the police academy either for that matter-but it serves me well now.  As individuals, we each have ways that we like to do things-they work for us, but might not work for someone else. Some things are universal though, and I think that most people like to customize their work space to suit the way they work.  Many people also like to add a dash of personality to their cubicle as well. Since I spend so much time at my computer, I like to regularly change the way my screen looks. In winter, it may feature a picture of the beach.  In summer, tropical fish may swim across my screen. Unfortunately, my desktop is often not visible because I am deep in some program or other. I have mentioned previously that my office uses CryWolf to process our alarms.  When our rep shared that the main CryWolf screen could be customized, I was immediately on board. It is very simple,...

My grandmother was Rosie the Riveter during World War II.  Actually, she was a welder at a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama while my grandfather was off in the Army.  My dad was a toddler during this time, so he was left in the care of her parents while she traveled the 90 miles to work.  Each Monday morning, my grandmother rose hours before dawn to walk several miles to town and board a bus back to Mobile.  Each Friday night, after a rigorous and exhausting week, she would board a bus back home.  She recalled that most trips she stood the entire way. Hard work was nothing new however.  As a child, she spent her summers in the cotton fields helping her family eke out a living. Growing up with 5 brothers, she learned at an early age to not let them see her cry. She eventually became a professional seamstress for a manufacturing company.  I remember her telling me of the times that she sewed right through her fingers.  I am cringing now thinking about...

Our travels last week took us through Kentucky.  Of course I had to peruse the web to see what is going on in the world of false alarm reduction in the bluegrass state.  Of the cities that we would be visiting, Lexington was the first that I found with a false alarm reduction unit . Alarm systems in Lexington must be registered and there is an application fee of $15, which seems to be a one time fee. (Update: the $15 fee is an annual fee). Lexington's ordinance is similar to most other ordinances, but it has a feature that I have not seen before.  The fine schedule lists minimum and maximum fines.  If an alarm user doesn't contest the alarm, they pay the minimum fine.  If they contest the fine and lose, they could end up paying the maximum fine. Fines begin at the fourth alarm with a $25 minimum fine and go up to a $300 minimum fine for the 9th alarm (maximum fine is $500).  These fines are relatively low compared to fines in the area where I live;...

Law enforcement agencies have always struggled with how best to serve the public and provide the most service on budgets that never seem to have enough funds.  One of the creative solutions that  many departments utilize is placing a "field office" in whatever business will give them a space.  Many field offices consist solely of a desk in an unused corner of a store.  This provides officers with a place to take care of paperwork more comfortably than in their cruiser.  It also saves on fuel costs and reduces air pollution because the officers do not have to keep the engine running to maintain some sense of comfort .  Wise businesses realize that having a police presence is beneficial to them as well.  It would be an unwise criminal who decided to hold up a store where an officer was doing paperwork. This Philly police badge was located on the door of what I imagine is a field office in the Target store next to our hotel in Philly .  

I was sitting in the den working on some posts and watching America's Got Talent when I heard what I thought was the sound of the 5 gallon jug being changed in the water cooler.  Our camel is home from college, so this is not an unexpected occurrence.  When the noise continued though, I decided I better check it out.  What I found was a ferret pushing an empty bottle around with his nose. The hole seemed to be just the right size and the right height for his snout. He was having a grand old time, so I let him continue as there didn't seem to be any harm in it.  He played for quite some time.  I guess ferrets are like kids in that they seem to find amusement in unusual places.  How many parents have shopped for the perfect toy only to realize that the child is more entertained by the box than the toy?

At some time, you may find it necessary to edit alarm data that is already in the system as I did a short while ago when it was discovered that a dispatcher typed the wrong year.  In our area, officers are encouraged to list all clearance codes that apply to the call.  So, if they do a building check at an alarm call, they would clear the call with the code for the alarm and for the building check.  Our CAD (computer aided dispatch) extract pulls the first code it "sees" into the CryWolf® Clearance Code field so occasionally the "wrong" code shows up in CryWolf®.  Being able to "correct" the code allows my unit to better track alarm calls and their causes.  We actually have two clearance codes for false alarm here.  One code signifies a false alarm with no identifiable cause and the other is for false alarm where there is an identifiable cause. To update the data, from the main CryWolf® screen, choose the File menu and scroll down to the "Edit Existi...

Ferrets are curious creatures that need a variety of toys and activities.    Our ferret loves to dig, and one of his favorite activities is digging in a plastic tub filled with rice.  We make sure it is not available at all times so that it remains a special treat. As much as he loves the rice, if given a choice, he would choose to dig in the dirt of my ficus or citrus tree.  He also loves to "tunnel" under the covers of our bed.  He is not normally a biter, but for some reason, he will bite any toes under sheets.  My theory is that since ferrets are tunnelers and are carnivorous, then he must have some instinct to eat what he finds while tunneling.  Maybe the toes are "earthworms" to him. When my kids were small, they also loved to play in their rice box.  Their rice was multi-colored though. We have added a few PVC pipes (we smoothed all rough edges with sandpaper).  Occasionally, we add some cardboard mailing tubes as well.

Sometimes we get so busy doing our jobs that we fail to take the time to learn more about the tools that we use everyday.  For alarm administrators, that tool is often CryWolf® or another similar program. Once I had discovered the Text Select tool, I began looking at other items on the tool bar.  In doing so, I found that clicking on the Binocular Button at the top right of a report (red arrow to the left) opens a search box.  This makes sense because the binocular button is officially called the Find Text tool.  To find what you are looking for, simply enter the word or number that you want to locate in the "Find What:" box (blue arrow below). If you want to limit the search, click on the search parameters boxes (green arrow below). Click the Search button (red arrow below) and the magic begins. In no time at all, the results of the search will be displayed in the results box (circled in black below).  Here, the sample shows that I searched for t...

Today, we are starting a new feature here on The Edge of Empty called "Things that make you say Hmm!"  We will be discussing things that we encounter and don't know what they are or cause us to do a double take. Our subject today is another by-product of our trip to Philadelphia.  At one of our rest stops, we saw these strange looking contraptions in the truck parking area.  I am pretty sure that we were in Delaware at the time but the rest stop description on the I-95 Exit Guide website doesn't list anything particularly helpful for figuring out what the contraptions might have been.  (Did you know that there was a website devoted to rest stops on I-95?  Well there is, and there are sites for other highways as well.  Even better, they have apps in the App store and the Android Market.  Actually, there is a lot of helpful information on the website so check it out--after reading this post of course.  I will definitely be using the gas price link...

Two weeks ago, the Hubster completed a project that had been in the works for more than two years.  I must say that I would have given up on the project ages ago, but he persevered and his effort has finally paid off.  Here is a clue: June 2011 Do you have any guesses as to what that project might have been? No? Here is another clue: June 2011 Any guesses? After 20+ years of short military haircuts (which he kept even after retirement), he decided to grow his hair for Wigs for Kids .  When he announced his plan, I was surprised-this is a man who loves to get his haircut.  I can't even tell you how much we have spent over the years on his bi-weekly cut--the shorter the better.  See the skin showing in the photo above?  That is what the back of his head looked like for most of the 23 years that I knew him before this project. Now, I will concede that his hair does grow fast, but I don't think either of us knew how long it would take to get to the...

Do you remember those old Apple ads where a nerdy PC interacted with a cool Mac?  If not,  go here for a YouTube refresher. For several years now, our house has been undergoing a transformation back to Apple from PC domination.   I started out using Apple computers way too long ago and have been pushing this transformation.  The first computer that I really remember using was the  Apple IIe .  I remember going to the Apple retailer with my dad to purchase it, and I can still see multicolor apple logo.  After the Hubster and I married, I would have to say that PC's entered our home due to the lower cost and ready availability. A few years ago, I started the move with a Mac mini.  Other MP3 players have been replaced by iPod Touches in all of our pockets except the Hubster who has an iPad.  When I went back to school, I purchased a MacBook Pro.  The transformation is nearly complete and I couldn't be happier. However, I'm ...

Did you know that you can select text in a report generated by CryWolf®?  If you use the program, you know that there are several items such as case numbers and account numbers that can be clicked on for more information or link back to the account.  (If you didn't know this, try mousing around a report.  Generally, if something is linked and can be clicked on for more information it appears underlined when you mouse over it).  Often though, there is other information on the report that needs to be transferred to another document outside of CryWolf®.  What I didn't realize is that  the Hand Tool (red arrow above) which  is selected by default is not the only option.  When a report is generated, the Hand Tool allows you to quickly move around in the report.  However, there is an oft overlooked tool called the Text Select button (green arrow above) that allows you to highlight text in a report, and then copy and paste it into another document ...

Have you seen the movie  Dances with Wolves ?  Kevin Costner starred in this moving tale of a soldier who befriends those who were his enemies.  It is a great way to spend an evening.  Anyway, Costner's character behaves with dignity and decorum.  Well, that is not how things go around our house.  Life with a ferret is full of surprises.  This morning is the perfect example of how life with a ferret is just not normal.   We have a shower stall in our Master bath (shocking, I know), and The Hubster and I routinely yell "next" when we are finished showering so that the other person can come in and take over the shower without having to make all the adjustments to get the right temperature, etc.  Does anyone else do this, or are we just weird? So anyway, the ferret was in our room playing.  When I yelled "next", my husband came in and entered the shower.  Before he could close the door, the ferret had joined us.  I suppose he th...

This past weekend, we were in Philadelphia for a triathlon. As we drove through Philadelphia, we saw signs and ice cream trucks advertising water ice.  Of course, we aren't above amusing ourselves by poking fun at things that strike us as unusual, and something called water ice certainly falls into that category.  Now,  I don't know what they make ice out of normally in Philadelphia, but everywhere I have lived, water seems to be the main ingredient.  What ran through your head when you read the title for this post? Anyway, I felt guilty later about poking fun so I decided to do a little research.  My research shows that water ice is Philly-ese for Italian ice.  Having never been to Italy, that didn't shed a lot of light on the subject for me.   More research turns up that it is not water at all but fruit juices or fruit puree frozen in a similar fashion to ice cream.  By composition, it more closely resembles sherbet but is made without any da...