Eric Mills

educator, researcher, internet test-pilot

Archive for the ‘Real World’ Category

Lost Pets: be patient

Tonight I was helping a good friend and his wife locate their dog. They thought it had escaped their house and yard so around the neighborhood we looked. I mentioned that they should re-investigate their house, but they said that was already taken care of. Long story short? Dog was under the couch. No fault of theirs.

This is the third time I’ve experienced this situation: pet is “lost”, owners scour neighborhood, pet is hiding in house. (Or, to be fair in most recent case, stuck). Advice? You betcha.

If you pet is missing, and you’ve already looked in all the normal spots, WHILE other people are scouring the neighborhood, go into each room in your house, call the pet’s name with normal tone or clucks, or what not. Be patient and quiet, wait. Listen for footsteps above you (cats like to get above dropped ceilings) or listen for whimpering in strange places (bugle pups can get stuck under reclining couches). You never know. If you don’t find the pet indoors after repeating these steps in EACH room, join the outdoor team. And good luck.

Internetting from the right-side of the brain: My Mileage Marker

milemarker1.jpg

File under: the internets

My Mile Marker . com is a great way to keep track of your car’s fuel economy (or lack thereof). I know these things can be accomplished in spreadsheets, but it’s nice to have someone else take the headache out of it for you, plus there are neat graphs to view once you establish your MPG (ie, fill your tank more than once, consecutively). And, we all know that if your MPG is decreasing, something is wrong with your car. So give it a go, and help the planet a bit while you’re at it!

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