Home Security

As of late, home surveillance has become my newest obsession, but as not to completely compromise the details of my top-secret security layout (lol), I'll just say that I've gone a little overboard - it's a little like baby London in here! Adults & children alike, should have absolutely NO expectation of privacy upon entering my home. 

It's not that I've had any issues with security, I simply enjoy having that added peace of mind, even when I'm away. Over the past several months, I've added quite a few enhancements to supplement the standard security system currently installed in my home, all of which have remote monitoring capabilities for the added ease of deployment of law enforcement or emergency personnel should something happen. 

Throughout the home, I'm now monitoring interior movement, air climate/carbon monoxide levels, lighting conditions, wireless data management, so-on & so-fourth. But in an attempt to at least preserve the sanctity of the sleeping quarters, I've managed to minimize the camera coverage in the most upper level of my home, but that area is indeed surveilled too, lls. Certainly, there's no way to completely prevent a break-in, but if one does indeed occur, it damn-sure won't be a secret to anyone & that's my primary goal.

Every event captured on video goes straight to the cloud - those days of holding your captive(s) at gun-point, all the while demanding the video surveillance tape before making the great escape are long gone,

lol.

I love stuff just as much as the next man, but that's not at what motivated my efforts here... at the end of the day, the items I own aren't as important to me as the safety of those I love - their safety reigns paramount! In that regard, each of the above described upgrades were worth each & every penny spent.

So Much to Do...

Over the past two weeks I’ve become a frequent visitor at Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Lowe's & also The Home Depot. As you might expect, I've been purchasing new cookware, appliances as well as furniture to make the place mine. I also got myself a taste of my very 1^st home repair bill just days after moving in, as the existing washing machine needed immediate repair! So it didn’t take long at all for me to realize both the joys AND pit-falls of home-ownership, lol.

I got the security, water, gas, electric, Internet & television services all up & running rather quickly & care packages containing many necessities from close friends & family continue to roll-in as well - I really couldn’t be more blessed. Each day, something new gets bought, installed or assembled - it's looking more & more like a home.

I'm hoping to throw some sort of a Super Bowl party/housewarming in February (though I'm not at all a huge party thrower) - that should give me the time I need to finish decorating & without going broke to do so! Should everything continue to go according to plan, I'll have the spot looking the way I want it to by year's end.

So far, I've very much enjoyed coming home to my place daily, right now, it gives me a new sense of purpose... I don't even hate going to work (so much) now, lol.

DIY...

In recent months, I've been asked upon more frequently, by various friends & family members, to assist with some of the more standard do-it-yourself repairs, here & there. 

Most recently, while assisting a friend one day, she made fun of my tool bag (or lack there of, rather), a reusable grocery bag, lmao! 

So the following weekend, I made it my business to go to the hardware store & purchase a more appropriate (lol) bag to tote my most commonly used tools. Well... what began as a simple trip to the store for a bag has essentially become a complete over-haul of my entire tool/hardware collection. 

Thanks to my brother's garage clean-up effort this past summer, we now have 1 tool chest, versus the 2 separate tool collections we'd each maintained in years previous. The new consolidated tool chest was full of sh!t, some of it was my bro's, some of it was mine, hell some of that crap was my father's even. First thing I needed to do was figure-out which tools belonged to who! 

Once I'd finally knocked-out that process, I began taking an inventory of the tools that I currently owned, still needed & also the ones that had gone missing over the years. After days of trudging thru various auto parts, tools & hardware, I managed to come up with a complete listing of the things I did & didn't have. 

After spending the subsequent weeks acquiring much of the missing hardware & tools, I'm now happy with the current organization of my tool collection. Though many of these tools have been pretty cheap to replace, others were a bit pricier than I'd recalled. Nonetheless, I now have a decent tool bag as well - or 1 that should command far less laughter anyway, lol...