The Edge of Empty

For such a little guy, he sure can make you feel guilty when it is time to go to work.  He seems to be saying "Won't you play ball with me, please?"

A E Ferret may not ride a bicycle, but he is a connoisseur of all things leather so these biking accessories were fun things to play in and around.

Our CAD (computer aided dispatch) system places prefixes for streets at the end of the street name which is fine if that is where they belong. However, the Post Office prefers the prefixes to be in their proper place.  There is a difference between N Main St and Main St N.  In our area, some older communities have two addresses that differ only by their prefix.  For example, 100 W Main St and 100 E Main St.  Several communities also have streets that encompass the town center in circular form.  The only way to know where a store is located is to refer to the NE, NW, SE or SW designation.  Maybe natives of the area have some innate sense of where they need to go, but I have spent a great deal of time literally going in circles to find an address.   I  have noticed that our county property tax database is set up the same way, so I imagine that the data from CAD may have originated from the county geo records.  No matter what the source was, wh...

There are not very many places left in our house that A E hasn't explored.  He is a curious creature and gets into everything.  Occasionally though, something new will catch his eye. Yesterday, it was the umbrella crocks turn.  When things had been quiet a little bit too long (you parents know what I mean), I found him inside becoming one with the umbrellas.  Now that he has discovered the umbrellas, it won't be long before they disappear I'm sure.  

A E Ferret's favorite object to "steal" is plastic water bottles.  Here he is in the recycle bin feeling a bit forlorn since it was recycle day and there were no water bottles to be found.  His despair had only just begun because I had further plundered his hoard by gathering a full trash bag of bottles from the hidey spots in the depths of my closet.

Hello faithful readers.  I know that the weekly CryWolf® hints have not been as consistent as I would like.  I beg your indulgence as my unit continues to struggle with being short staffed.  That situation should be resolved in the next month or so and things should settle back to a manageable level. Even before the loss of one of my staff, I had made an investment in the CryWolf® web module to reduce the amount of time that staff members use each day processing registration renewals.   The module is an independent feature that can be purchased separately from the database to provide some additional functionality.  The addition of the module allows citizens to register and update their accounts online. It can also be used to allow registered alarm companies access to their customer lists. Authorized users can experiment with a range of canned reports.  And these are just a few of the many possibilities that this module offers. The module can be used "...

After one of our travel adventures, we discovered that A E had become acquainted with fleas.  Those fleas decided that they wanted to live with us, so they hitched a ride home.  Being fleas, they did what all fleas do and poor A E couldn't handle all the attention.  We finally had to go to the vet to get some relief because the poor guy couldn't sleep from all the itching.  He also was so miserable that he wasn't eating much either. Here he is checking out his weight.  The scale is a postage scale with a bread pan screwed to the top.  I believe that the scale was set to measure in grams and that weight includes the weight of the pan since the weight shown on his report was less than what is shown on the scale. He is feeling much better now.  We haven't won the war against the fleas yet, but we have won several skirmishes and things are improving.

A E loves to explore, but loves to tunnel under things even more.  The rug at our back door is one of his favorite places because it is heavy enough to make good tunnels, but not so heavy that he can't get under it.  Occasionally, he will pop up and look out to see if we are paying attention.

Most of the time, I capture A. E. wherever and whenever I am able.  For Halloween, I wanted the shot to be a bit more posed.  I knew that this would take some doing.  Of course, the week before Halloween went by so fast that I didn't get a chance to make the pirate hat until Sunday night.  This made my window of opportunity very short indeed since Halloween was on Monday and the post needed to be up before I left for work on Monday.  After I had finished the hat, I gathered everything that I would need so that I would be ready when A. E. appeared from his latest snooze. I also enlisted the Hubster to be the ferret wrangler and Ferrevite giver.  A. E. was quite willing to take part in the Ferrevite portion of the photo shoot.  I love how his hair is mussed up in this shot after he rubbed the hat off.  He seems to be thinking "Really? I can't believe you are making me do this."  He liked the pumpkin and was very willing to ex...

Just when you thought it was safe from a discussion of letters here on "The Edge", we are right back to them this week.  Since generating letters is one of the main functions of CryWolf®, it really is inevitable.  Have you ever wanted to print only one letter of the total in the queu?  Using the tools available in the Outstanding Correspondence window, it is possible. (Editor's note: forgive the horrible graphics, I will replace them ASAP) By selecting the "Further Limit Selection to" tab, you can choose one of seven options.  I usually know which account I am looking for, so choosing the Account # is often the simplest option.  The program will then list all of the accounts scheduled to receive the selected letter.  Simply check the appropriate account and the single letter can be printed.

Apparently, Ferrets like Sonic Route 44 drinks too!   A E wasn't thrilled with the noise at the Sonic Drive-in, but he liked the cups and attacked them with vigor trying to make them his own.  Youngest wasn't quite fast enough and A E won this battle.  The cup looked like it was attacked by a vampire and 44 ounces of fluids slowly seeped from the two tiny punctures.

It is Thursday again and time for our continuing series of helpful hints for the alarm billing software CryWolf®. I know it is scandalous, but we won't be looking at letters today. Today, we will focus on the subjects receiving those letters. No matter how careful data entrants are, duplicate accounts seem to appear in the database.  I have discovered that these duplicate accounts are opened most frequently during alarm processing.  If CryWolf® doesn't find a match for the alarm site automatically, the manufacturer recommends manually searching three times before adding an account.  I think this is because the normal duplicate prevention measures built into the system don't work when an account is added during alarm processing.  Even following these measures, duplicate accounts will slip in due to misspellings or some other error.  As a result, it is a good idea to check the system occasionally for possible duplicate accounts. To run a report that will list ...

A E Ferret is shown here choosing his preferred seat (under a seat) on a recent road trip.  Most of the time, he travels in his carrier for safety, but on long trips, we sometimes allow him a little bit of freedom to stretch his legs between naps.  As you can see, he only has limited freedom.  He wears a leash so that he can't go play in the driver's foot well.

For cyclists, the Tour de France may be the only reason to sit on a couch in front of the tv instead of in the saddle.  Of course, the cyclist in my house often sits in the saddle with the bike on a trainer to watch the Tour.  In our area, one of the major advertisers for the Tour is Conte's Bike Shop.  What I didn't know was that all of that advertising had planted the seed that Conte's was Bike Mecca. This year during the tour, Conte's revealed their new name of  Fresh Bikes . The Hubster has been wanting to make the trek to Fresh Bikes for a long time.  After some less than stellar tuneups by local bike shops, I agreed that it was time to find something better. When his birthday was getting near, I surprised the Hubster by agreeing to a trip to Bike Mecca.  From the moment we walked in the door, I have to admit that this shop truly seems to deserve its reputation. I know that the Hubster enjoyed the visit very much. 

When travelling with a ferret (and other pets), it is good to bring along familiar toys and bedding so that they are comforted by something that they know. Hotel rooms are full of mysterious smells and places to explore so to keep A E out of mischief, we usually try to introduce a new toy to keep him occupied.  This time, we brought along a box filled with biodegradable packing peanuts.  I had seen the idea at the Doctors Foster & Smith website  and happened to have a bag of the peanuts on hand. He loved it!  Back at home, the rice bin is still his top choice, but the peanut box will go on car trips because it is light, easy to transport, and not messy. If you missed the special Halloween edition of Ferret Friday on Monday, be sure to check it out here .

Many of us inherit the tracking and billing software that we use daily.  For those of you who have the opportunity to compare systems, I am listing the options that I have found. AOT Public Safety Corporation's CryWolf    ATB Services'  Alarm Tracking & Billing Digital Design Group's False Alarm Software EnablePoint Corporation's False Alarm Information Tracking Software Moose Rapids Technologies' False Alarm Tracking PMAM Corporations' False Alarm Management & Reduction Solution Purvis Gray Technology Group's False Alarm Reduction System Many CAD vendors also have some version of alarm tracking software as well.  Have fun comparing the options. If you are a member, FARA has published a guide to choosing software that may be helpful. If you know of other programs, please let me know so I can add them to the list.

You might think that working in law enforcement might help insulate our family from crime.  In some ways it does, I suppose, because we work hard at keeping ourselves from being easy targets.  However, random crimes do sometimes visit even the most vigilant as we learned the other day.  Some moron thought it would be quite funny to slash tires on several streets in the neighborhood.  Our tire was just one of several on our street. "Pranks" like this can sometimes be the start of other activities.  You can bet I will be on the lookout, and will counsel my neighbors to lock their doors and remove valuables from vehicles or at least out of site.

Welcome to a special edition of Ferret Friday on Monday.  A.E. wants to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween!

At yet another rest stop, A E seemed to be thinking "It's a big scary world out there, but I feel safe here."

I travelled into Maryland last week for a training session.  I must say that I love driving through Maryland because the  road signs are always amusing to me.  There is no pussy-footing around for the Maryland sign makers.  They are not afraid to use all caps, different colors, and brevity to get their message across to drivers. You will have to forgive the lighting and angles in the pictures below. When you are driving, you can't stop in the middle of the road to frame a shot.  In Maryland, you can't drive and use a hand-held cellphone either.  I wonder what they would say about a camera? Anyway, I left my house at 5:30 in the morning and the sun was just coming up as I saw this sign.  The sign says "ALTERNATE RIGHT OF WAY". Now this is what drivers should do in a merge zone, but this sign leaves no doubt about it. A bit farther down the road, this sign appeared.  "Form single lane NOW".   No wonder it seems that Maryland drive...