SLOB
OR SLOP?
I have something of a reputation for accumulating excessive junk.
One day, Barb was reminding me to clear away some mess I had left
laying around for a bit too long. Mispronouncing
herself, she said, "You're getting to be a slop!" We both laughed when I replied, "Wow, that's pretty bad.
I'm not even a slob anymore, now I'm a slop!"
Over the summer, Mike got a call to play the guitar at The
Main Street Theater. He did
the first few shows, but some scheduling conflicts took over and he
could not complete the run. He
and other musician friends from school occasionally play parties and
social events here and there.
On November 21 Mike performed in a Senior Recital put on by
John D. McMahon, a Jazz Vocal and Composition major.
Three of the numbers were original material that John had written
in his years at Temple University. As
you might expect, it was not familiar music, but nonetheless, we enjoyed
seeing our son perform it. Mike
was suffering from the virus but still did a fine job.
Mike has been commuting to Temple.
He wants to get an apartment in the city, has just looked at a
couple of places around Rittenhouse square.
Has a potential roommate lined up.
Things are turning full circle, now.
Mike has been asked to coach Vlad, a n exchange student from the
Ukraine, with a guitar part in the QCHS Jazz Band.
We have something new to which we can look forward after thinking
our Jazz Band days might be over.
Sadly for us, David had already marched the last field show of his High
School career on Thanksgiving Day by the time I had finished printing last year's
newsletter.
In the spring, with Mike away at Temple, life with David became a
big blur. David finished
off with a bang his senior year at QCHS.
To screams of delight from his many admirers, he appeared as a
rock singer in the annual Talent Show, taking an award.
He played once again in the QCHS Jazz Band, taking the
Outstanding Soloist award at the "Music in the Parks" festival
at Great Adventure. It was
the crowning touch for his final High School Jazz Band performance.
He traveled with the Chorus to Virginia, where among other
things, they sang inside the Luray Cavern; D.C., where they saw Ray
Charles in concert and visited The Hard Rock Cafe; then up to Broadway
for shows. He took Jenna Leedom to the Senior Prom, borrowing Mom's more
refined and sedate car for the occasion.
Afterward, they went to the Shore with friends.
When he returned, we discovered his long hair was cut down into a
crew! Many hearts were
broken, but an equal number of others were pleased.
This well-traveled individual then went to Florida for a third
time, on the Senior Class trip.
David found a deal on another Toyota last spring.
This one, a gray '82, had engine troubles.
After buying it from another student at QCHS, he had it running
in just a few days. He then
stripped the doors and all the nice parts and the stereo system out of
his white one and painted the new one blue with help from Mac D'Arville.
One day, I drove it through town, and all the girls kept waving
at me, thinking I was David.
Over the summer Dave and about seven friends rented a cottage
for a week on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They had a couple of days on the beach. David lost his wallet out on the dunes. When came the hurricane, they evacuated inland to stay with a
relative of one of the kids. They
didn't take time to pack their belongings, instead leaving most of it
behind in the cottage. They
spent a few Saturday morning hours waiting in a line of traffic for the
"all clear" to go back out on the island.
When they got back to the cottage on they found all their clothes
and things piled on the front porch by the maids who had prepared the
place for the
next tenants.
David had applied to Bloomsburg, intending to study Audio
Recording. He was accepted,
but would have to start with the summer session.
When we did a visitation the music professor met David and wanted
him in his marching band. David
was relieved that he pulled a few strings to get him into the fall
admission.
David 's dorm room - at first too cold, now too hot.
David started off the year in a rough way, with several
rounds of virus and a case of walking pneumonia. David missed quite a few days of school to recover.
Just recently I came down with it, and before I was over the
crest, Barb came down with it.
Barb
and I had not been able to get involved with watching the
sports at Mike's two schools, Ithaca and Temple. However, with David being in the Bloomsburg Marching Band, we
were once again in the bleachers to watch football. They have a gorgeous stadium with a spectacular view from
atop a mountain. The Hot
Chocolate is not as hot as QCHS, though.
We were thrilled when they presented their field show at
the first home game. According
to David, the show itself was not a major challenge, but it was a
special treat for Barb and me to see an entire band of well-experienced
marchers take the field in very upright and dignified form, to do a very
professional show, unmarred by the missteps of inexperienced players. In their neatest move, during "Malaguena," they
swirled a convergence into a box which rotated about a half turn, then
suddenly split apart in opposite directions.
My Classic blue '81 Toyota
Station Wagon was unable to pass the last inspection
due to a rusty frame rail. It
has been sitting awaiting the body shop.
I can't complain, it went over 340,000 miles, and except for
that, it would still be on the road.
SECOND
STORY BURGLARY ON THE
RISE.
Some
brazen "Second Story" burglaries have been reported throughout
the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
The thieves are evidently operating on common knowledge that most
home security measures are aimed at stopping ground level entries. Cash and jewelry seem to be the prime targets.
URGENT
PRECAUTION:
One
family in the West Oak Lane section of Philadelphia, whose home is
protected by an otherwise extensive and well-maintained security system,
discovered that a burglar had entered and left through a third floor
window while they watched television in their first floor den.
Both the second and third floors were quietly ransacked.
It was believed that a ladder was needed to reach the point of
entry. A window fan and
screen were found on the floor. The
burglarized area was in large disarray, suggesting the burglar spent a
lot of time there. Some
jewelry was stolen.
The
home has a long history of occasional burglary attempts.
Fearing a return visit, the family promptly had Reliance Alarm
Company install additional
security on the upper floors. True
to their intuition, another entry occurred within a month, during which
a third floor window was broken. A
preliminary report indicates that upon setting off the alarm, the
burglar left immediately without taking anything.
This
type of break in is not new, of course, but there are two genuine causes
for concern. First is the
sudden increase in burglary to alarm-equipped properties.
In the past, it was assumed that the existence of a security
system provided substantial deterrence.
Second is the apparent lack of concern over a homeowner being on
the premises. It has long
been theorized that burglars will ring the doorbell first, to make sure
nobody is home, with a pretext in case someone responds.
This crime wave does not adhere to either rule.
Second
story burglary has a relatively high success rate and a strong potential
for direct confrontation and personal harm.
At Reliance Alarm Company, we have adjusted our philosophy of
electronic protection to take this development into consideration.
If you have an existing system, it may be time to reevaluate and
update your coverage.
The
choice to install upper floor detection is mainly one of cost. For years, we have touted statistics that upwards of 80% of
burglaries occur through ground level doors and windows.
The high cost of protecting upper floors against the remaining
15% to 20% of likely attacks did not seem to make good economic sense,
and thus provided a basis for focusing almost all detection at ground
level. We theorized that if
a burglar got in upstairs, he would sooner or later go downstairs,
tripping a motion detector. This
philosophy has been suspended.
Upper
floor protection is a complicated design challenge. The system needs to be easy to use and highly resistant to
accidental alarms. People
want freedom to go up and downstairs any time, but they may have to
sacrifice some convenience to achieve upper floor security throughout
the day. We have several treatments to suggest. At one extreme we can arm the upper floor under a separate
subsystem. If the
protection were based on interior motion detection, it would need to be
disarmed and rearmed every time the upper floor is visited.
This would be most tolerable if visits to the upstairs are rare.
Perimeter devices like window contacts, alarm screens and glass
break detectors would be a better solution for a high traffic situation,
but they are more expensive, and ideally, they should still be backed up
with some kind of interior detection that would be set when you are
away.
At
the other end of the spectrum is a "Layered" approach, in
which basic daytime protection consists of upstairs motion detectors
driving some type of chime downstairs.
When the main system is set prior to a departure, the upper floor
detectors would become a part of the overall protection.
If the owners are turning in for the night and end up on the
second floor, that motion detection must be bypassed or it must have
time delays to allow passage, and be arranged to provide false alarm
resistance. Here again,
window contacts, alarm screens and glass break detectors are a more
user-friendly alternative.
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