Electronics Rule


Wherein Our Heroine Pens an Ode to Gadgets.
I love gadgets and the various features of gadgets if they really work. That's a pretty big "if" - in order to satisfy, a gadget or feature not only has to function as advertised, but it has to fill a need for the user. So, TiVo? Love it. It brings me the TV I want to see and lets me skip commercials. The voice-dial function on my cell phone? Adore it. I have a lot of people programmed into my phone, and I don't want to go searching for them or try and remember what the speed dial number for my mother is. My PDA? Meh. Its integration with my computer is not optimal, and the menus are overly complicated. Our late, unlamented coffee maker? Hated it. It drove my husband bananas and when he's communing with the tropical fruits, I get very tense. It is not a good situation.

We have a new love in the electronics department. It is a bit on the specialized side (you're getting worried now, aren't you?), but it allows for peaceful, unbroken slumber. Dash, our normally delightful cat, is a horror in the morning. We finally banned cats from the bedroom because of his duvet-digging, so he changed tactics to picking at the carpet in front of the bedroom door, and doing a sort of reverse-paw claw thingy under the door, in a vain effort to open it. Occasionally, we even heard sounds that indicated that he was trying to manipulate the doorknob. This noisy, irritating behavior is awful at five AM, and rage-inducing at four.

After spritzing him with water, spraying the area with ketone cat-repellent, and even letting the dog out when he started his morning routine, we were at the end of our respective ropes. Nothing stopped him in his quest to get us to get up (and since we had to get up sometime and he was tireless in his efforts, his bad behavior always ended up being rewarded).

It may be too soon to say, but our problems may be at an end. The gadget that is saving our slumber (and saving Dash from getting his neck wrung) is a ScatMat. A little bit of plastic with wires strung through it, and a battery. He steps in front of the door, and gets a little static shock (yes, we have both tested it ourselves - it is startling, even if you're expecting it, but not injurious). The silence in those predawn hours is golden.

Posted: Friday - April 08, 2005 at 07:56 AM         | |

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