10 Ways to Burglar Proof Your Home While You’re on Vacation

If you’re taking a vacation this year, there’s no reason to leave your home unprotected. Here are 10 ways to be sure that burglars don’t choose your home:

1. Be sure the doors and windows are locked.
2. Install outdoor lighting that makes entrances to your home visible from the street without causing glare.
3. Put random lights, televisions, and radios on timers so that anyone watching your home will think you’re still there.
4. Prune bushes away from your home so that there aren’t any places for a burglar to hide.
5. Contact your post office and newspaper delivery service and stop delivery while you’re gone, or have a neighbor you trust pick up your deliveries.
6. Arrange for a neighbor to park in your driveway if you’re taking your car with you.
7. Close the blinds so that anyone walking by can’t see what goodies you have.
8. Install an alarm system. Prices vary, but if you leave your home often, it may be worth the $50-$100 per month investment.
9. Install safety and security window films near windows that are close to door handles to make the windows tough to smash.
10. Get a dog. And a dog sitter.

Have a great time on your vacations this year, but make sure your home is safe!

Is Daylight Saving Time Bad For Us?

 

Here’s a graphic representation of the shift in time and daylight when daylight saving time begins at 3:00 AM on Sunday morning. Why do we have DST? 

The great part about Daylight Saving Time is that the evenings are longer – extra time to bike ride with the family or weed your garden. People who suffer with the winter blues (often called Seasonal Affective Disorder) can put away their blue lights. But that first few weeks create some health and safety concerns that may not get the attention they deserve.

Is DST bad for us? The first few days, and for some people weeks, into and out of DST disturbs people’s sleeping patterns and make them more restless at night. A 2011 study shows that there’s an increase in heart attacks during the first week of DST and a decrease in heart attacks during the first week after DST ends in the fall. A 2009 study showed that workers were injured on the job more often and more severely on the Monday after switching to DST than any other typical Monday.

Perhaps DST is good for us – In 1975, the US Department of Transportation estimated a 1.5 to 2% reduction in traffic fatalities during DST and in 1995, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimated a reduction of 1.2%, including a 5% reduction in fatalities of pedestrians.

In the 1970s, the US Law Enforcement Assistance Administration found a 10-13% reduction in violent crimes during DST.