Cathy always loved the idea of owning her own bed and breakfast
by the shore. After her husband passed away, she found a note he
left for her, encouraging her to follow her dream even though he
couldn't share it with her. He had taken out extra life insurance
just to surprise her with one final gift, and she invested it in
a beautiful Victorian mansion overlooking the beach.
She didn't count on her town's archaic rules to make life so
difficult in that first year. Even though she enjoyed a pretty
strong business during the summer, her town council demanded that
she provide security for the part of the beach adjacent to her
property. At first, she hired some guards to roam the premises,
but it was hard for them to do their job with the town's light
ordinance in place -- no lights on the beach after 11p.m. And she
certainly couldn't afford to keep two people on staff year round.
Wayne, a sympathetic alderman, dropped by for tea one afternoon
and shared a little secret. Cathy didn't have to actually patrol
the grounds the entire time. He showed her the camera he used at
the campground he owned -
a discreet little device that mounted unobtrusively on the side
of a building. Wayne suggested she use the built-in infrared LEDs
to flood the beach with light just for the camera. With a range of
150 feet, it could scan all the way down to the end of the pier,
allowing one guard to watch all the beach activity from the comfort
of the building's pool house.
Wayne's suggestion worked wonders. Cathy could cut back on her
overtime payments, and her security team enjoyed a little more
sleep. Even when the tropical storms hit at the end of the summer,
the camera worked just fine -- a waterproof housing kept the
electronics safe and dry.
Before the start of the next summer, she wired the camera's feed
into her in-room television system, so guests in rooms that
didn't overlook the beach could enjoy a nice view, day or night.
She always chuckled at the idea that someone might drive all the
way to the beach only to watch the ocean on television.
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Wednesday, November 22, 2006
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