Ahhh. Thanks so much Cayu. I may have to look for one of those for my fone. hahaha. So far it is only the fone that I misplace regularly. Now I call myself and listen for a ring. However I have the habit of turning off the fone when I am not actually using it. Oh dear! Well, I shall look into those tiles here. Thanks again, mate.
"@Sjoerd a tile is a little device that you attach to your key chain, & it will set off a beep to help you locate your keys. It is paired with your phone, so you use your phone to locate the keys. Or vice versa. Very helpful if you are someone like me who is a bit disorganized despite monumental efforts not to be." S, this works via blu tooth. if your blu tooth is turned off on your phone it wont work. its kind of interesting that you can see all the ones around you too. everybody who has a tile shows up on your phone a a "location" spot. not who it is but where there is one.
My routine is the same MG ! I usually do wipe my shoes off on the door mat though ! Unless I am in a hurry and forget !
Just wondering if anyone here still remembers those Pink Panther movies? Where Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) had instructed his trusted Chinese butler Cato, to always surprise him with a new ambush everytime he would return home - So that the fighting skills of the good inspector always remained sharp. As he never wanted to give up his habit of "expecting the unexpected"... Now that's one coming back home routine which even I can't top!
I found all responses interesting and diversified. (I hope that word is used correctly). SH, I have great admiration for your standards. Some people are frightened of everything, but you stand tough. I use a kneeling bench in the garden and only change and shower if I'm finished. If my clothes are dirty, I remove them in the bathroom which is directly next to the laundry room. At the back door there is a shelving unit where shoes are placed. Slippers are usually atop the washer or dryer. When we use the front door, having been sitting on the front porch glider, there is a box for outdoor shoes. I'm neither spic n span nor filthy. When people visit, they may or may not remove shoes. I too recall living in a home without locks on the doors. In the country, most folks didn't lock doors. We now lock both locks and also the screen door. I usually leave the driver's car door unlocked in case some poor soul needs a place to sleep. Unlikely in our trailer park, but one never knows.
Hardly anyone use to lock their doors in my country also. Until 1979 - When Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan. As a result of which, millions of Afghans ran across the border into my country, and started living here as refugees. Since war in Afghanistan continued for many long years, majority of these refugees escaped from their refugee camps - And built their own illegal settlements around urban areas. So from these illegal settlements, (encroached on government land), emerged criminal gangs. Bringing into our society crimes which nobody had heard of or seen before. Like kidnapping for ransom, narcotics trade, and just about everything else you can imagine... So that's when our society changed forever. People started to put locks on their doors and windows. Parked cars also now had all their windows rolled up, (otherwise people often left car windows open, so the the interior of the car doesn't get too hot). Installation of security lights became common, (CCTV cameras didn't exist at the time). Parents just couldn't trust their kids to play outside on the street with their neighborhood friends, (someone responsible now always had to be watching over them). And for the first time ever - Kids were taught not to talk with strangers, (no matter how nice they seemed)... Now to be fair, had it not been because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Then it would have been something else. Because the truth is, that our society was too naive, and the people way too open, friendly, and trusting. So we needed to grow up fast! I don't remember 1979 very clearly, as my crystal clear memories start from 1980. But I am still old enough to have witnessed everything first hand, how our society changed, (in a way that can never be reversed).
SH, I'm reluctant to click the "like" but I like how you explained your security habit. I feel a sadness that these things changed your life forever and I hope you also have a bit of joy in your life. My five children were allowed free range in the 60s and even 70s. I gave little thought to danger, as long as they didn't play in traffic, because of the total freedom I had as a child. Then my five grandchildren were born and fear became some part of my life. I never live in fear, but I watched over them far more than I had their parents.
I'm fairly conscious about security. We live in crescent where all the houses are similar. All have bay windows in the dining rooms and the bedroom above. These give excellent views on the rare occasion anyone actually walks past the houses. Our front double-glazed door has a security lock where you have to rotate the key twice to either open or lock it. We've a lot of security lights. Two on the front of the house, one below the small bedroom window that comes on if anyone puts a foot on the beginning of the drive and a porch light that comes on if anyone approaches the front door. There's two on the side of the house that cover the whole length of the drive. Then there's the 8ft fence I built between the corner of the house and the corner of the garage. The most vulnerable area of semi-detached houses. It has a door which is kept padlocked. The garden has 6ft post and panel fences all the way round. Three further PIR lights cover the area of the patio outside.the French windows, another on the corner of the shed covering the small patio and a third on the side of the tea-house which covers the area in front of the back fence. We've got another dozen lights in the garden controlled by four switches on the wall behind the French window curtains, (which I rarely turn on, except just before we go to bed, mainly so I know they are all working) I keep the keys for the garden etc., and my car keys in the drawer of the shoe cupboard next to the front door. If the door in the fence isn't locked, I leave them on top of the shoe cupboard, to remind me to lock everything up when I've finished going in and out of the garden for the day. Same with my car. Though I have been known to forget to lock my car on occasions and leave it unlocked over night!
@Doghouse Riley I think you are a highly responsible person. As you are fully aware of the need for security. But at the same time, you are very practical about it also, (not letting security concerns takeover the entire thought process). There is always a balance to maintain here, which only the wise are able to achieve. So I really like how you have managed everything. @Growingpains I think I had an okay type of a childhood. I live near the beach, so I always was able to have fun - Specially with my Dog. But of course there were always differences. Between how I grew up, and how another kid of the same age and in the same time period grew up in the West... For example, from age 10 I was learning martial arts. Bando was my style, (Burmese in origin, which literally means "to trap and kill") - This type of style is extremely brutal, which is why it's often banned from competition. Because it's not really a sport, as it creates extremely bad fighting habits, (gives a type of muscle memory, which can be lethal). So attacking the eyes, throat, becomes part of your instinct. That's what I had learned during my childhood. So when I had reached my late teens, I was already at the master level, (I still am very good at it)... You can think of Bando as MMA, before MMA became popular. Bruce Lee (after be recovered from his spinal cord injury) created his own style. And he called it Jeet Condo - His idea was to have a fighting style, which didn't have any traditions to follow, nor any ethics to uphold. But would just win the fight very quickly, and decisively, (making sure that your opponent isn't able to get up again). So around 70% of Jeet Condo, is actually Bando, because of it's practicality, and extreme brutality... Israelis took it a bit further when they created their own hand to hand combat style for their military. Which they call Krav Maga - And believe it or not, but that too is basically Bruce Lee's Jeet Condo style reinvented, so this also has the same old Burmese style of Bando at it's core. Pakistani military special forces also today use Bando. And that's because of one man, Grandmaster Ashraf Tai, who brought this style to Pakistan in the early 1970s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashraf_Tai Hundreds of years ago, Bando too was a special forces military style, (exclusively for the royal guards in Burma). And the style is said to be "evil", which is why Bando martial artists are always dressed in black, never in white. It is the ideal fighting style in tight places, like inside cars and elevators. Today, there are now more Bando martial artists in Pakistan. Then in the entire world combined! And Grandmaster Ashraf Tai's students, some of whom have today become grandmasters themselves. Are now playing a major constructive role of keeping the youth out of trouble. So what was once an evil and extremely brutal fighting style. Is today having a positive effect in society. So that's what was my passion in childhood. Which gave me all the confidence I needed, to stop living in fear - And instead became ready to face anything. I also always use to carry a butterfly knife with me too. And I knew how to use it since age 12, (as I wasn't old enough to own and carry a licensed firearm). Plus I had a most playful but towards strangers a unbelievably ferocious Dog. So nobody in my house ever needed to worry about me walking or running with my Dog at the beach. Therefore I think I had a lot of fun growing up.
Doghouse Riley, you must a creature of habit, of routine, to remember all those lights, etc. I think it's wise and also a safety feature should you need to venture outside at night. We have a few solar lights around and motion activated lights to discourage thieves. Each door has two locks, plus a locked screen door on the front. I suspect that I will feel more vulnerable as I grow older and less physically capable of defending myself.
SH, I prefer being your friend as opposed to being your enemy. In your situation, it's a necessity to learn self defense as a youngster. My question is, are the females also taught this defense?
As well as the three PIRs there's a dozen lights in the garden, 6 mains the rest low voltage plus three sets of fairy lights. Although we rarely turn these on I regularly check that they are all working. I'm the sort of persion that likes to know things are in working order even if I'm not using them, otherwise it's pointless having them.
Yes of course, I have seen girls as young as 4 years old joining martial arts, (just for the fun of it). One instructor of mine was Miss Dolly, not her real name of course, but everybody called her that, mostly as a joke. As she looked like a very delicate woman, who might actually die from fright even if a cockroach walked past her. It was a complete and total deception on her part. Because she was actually one of the most lethal women I had ever seen... Another girl named Uzma was a few years senior to me. So I witnessed her become a black belt first. She also could be unbelievably deadly - But only when she wanted to. Otherwise she was like any other collage going girl minding her own business. Another girl who's name I now cannot remember, once got into trouble with a few boys who were indulging in Eve teasing - So she taught them a lesson they would remember for the rest of their lives. But eventually the police was called. However at the police station, when the inspector found out that she was from Grandmaster Ashraf Tai's school - He simply refused to have any charges of assault placed on her... Why? Because he himself was also once a student of Ashraf Tai. So he said that now he was sure, that these boys must have provoked the girl beyond her limit of tolerance. Because no black belt from Grandmaster Tai's school would ever be irresponsible with their skills. So the inspector looked at these boys, (who were already black and blue), then said - Now what's it going to be? Me throwing you in the slammer for Eve teasing? Or you getting the hell out of my precinct immediately? And then there is my own elder sister, who they called "the breaker". As she specialized in breaking one and a half inch thick concrete slabs with her hand.
Speaking of security..... Ron has tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools and machines in his shop (converted detached garage) for work, and also a separate storage shed for work storage. Plus a large Ford Transit work van also filled with expensive tools. We live in an older neighborhood in a low crime area but even so, there has been the occasional attempted break in, cars being rifled through at night etc, and he just can’t afford the loss of any of his equipment. Not just the financial loss (though it’s all insured) but even more the time and trouble to replace stuff, which would result in loss of work/revenue. So, we have a floodlight system that activates after dusk when there’s any kind of motion and illuminates a good portion of the back yard where the shop is and where the work van is parked. We also have three motion sensor cameras mounted around the property. We had a rough time for a while adjusting the sensitivity settings. The alarm was blaring every time a cat or our friendly local skunk wandered through the yard! Once we solved that it’s been fairly smooth sailing. It will still occasionally go off if a deer wanders by but it needs to be at that setting to detect a human presence. Oh well. We have a front door, back laundry room door and back French doors. All get double locked by the last one to head to bed. And I think I mentioned in some other thread that the laundry room door is our primary entrance to the house and it has a security pad instead of a key. Though the work van is always locked and also alarmed when not in use, we leave his truck and my suv unlocked so that we don’t get windows broken should someone be determined to get in one and attempt to drive it away before Ron can get out there with his gun lol!! We just make sure to leave nothing of value in the vehicles.
I can identify with that. As for people like us, tools are our livelihood, (I'm sure many guys over here will understand exactly what I mean)... I actually don't even let anyone borrow my tools, as I can't tolerate irresponsible use of equipment. Which results in tools getting damaged... Being a survivalist and doomsday prepper, tools actually mean more to me then just livelihood, (which not many will be able to understand) - So I have made some very attractive looking fake tools also. Which are actually are booby trapped, (just to teach thieves a lesson they will never forget). But in my locality, I now have a reputation - So all thieves today stay well clear of my house, as well as my neighbors... I should actually be happy about this, and for the large part I really am! But sometimes there is an itch that I cannot scratch. As these booby traps are my inventions, (created out of pure passion, and utmost dedication), which unfortunately are still not proven in the field... Ever since I got a space age lathe and milling machine, plus an electric arc welding plant of 350 Amps, (among other things). I spent many long hours on my workstation PC, (using 3D CAD), to design these terrible inventions. So I really do hope that someone will ask to borrow these. Giving me the opportunity to test them out in reality, (as thieves are now too scared to come anywhere near my home). But so far, nobody seems interested in using these booby traps...
