You know it isn’t right to feed your dog at the dinner table…but just a little won’t hurt either. So goes the articles found in the Daily Hound. Hopefully, it is full of little scraps that you can use in your day to day.

Send us your tips and tricks of the trade, the little secrets you use that may be of interest to other investigators. Words to the wise for the crime scene investigator or property officer.

And, just for your submission, you will get a free bottle of Tracker’s Sludge, Crime Scene baseball cap or printed t-shirt. So get those ideas flowing, on paper or an email. We are waiting on YOU! C’mon. Get your tip published!!! Send it to lpv@peaveycorp.com.

Here’s what we have for you this month…

Our very own Tracker came up with this little tidbit. Makes a lot of sense.

If you really, really, really need a label or evidence tape to stick permanently…you might want to use a burnishing tool to make sure your adhesive makes full contact with the surface.

But first, you want to make sure that the adhesive you are using is actually permanent. Permanence is an often overused term. Is it “good enough for average consumer use?” Or is it good enough to withstand law enforcement use? Most label companies don’t know, because they don’t make it. Cheaper adhesives are out there…but will they work? Buyer beware.
Back to burnishing. A burnishing tool can be as simple as an eraser on the end of a pencil. Something to help you get some pressure on especially the outside edges. Without it…if air or moisture gets under the sealed area, you may be inviting problems down the line. Other ideas may be a credit card, paper clip or the plastic tip on the cap of a Sharpie marker.

A pain in the back side? Maybe. But are you really, really, really concerned? Will it work on every surface all of the time? Doesn’t hurt right?

You knew we had to be always working on something. Can’t quite tell you what Doug and his Team are thinking about…’cuz we’d have to kill you…but…what we can tell you is that they have been in there for many months. Strange odors are coming from under the closed door…weird drilling noises like in a dental office are coming from the walls. Incessant hammering noises…night and day.

Sounds like it’s going to be big…and when they are ready to go to the next level, sign up as a follower on our Facebook and LinkedIn page and you might be able to be one of the first to try it for FREE!

I digress sometimes. I haven’t written about this song in a long, long time. Over 25 years ago in fact.

I heard Harry Chapin’s ’74 song, “Cat’s In The Cradle” driving to work recently. If you don’t know it, Google it, YouTube it or Spotify it. You’ll remember if you forgot.

In an old Daily Hound, I wrote about this song while traveling at (another) trade show to visit with customers and peddle the tools that we make for crime scent techs. In my Off The Cuff, I asked if we were making enough time for our kids. Specifically Griffin, my first one. Jobs were a hassle and people tend to get hung up on their jobs, and the world was getting busier and busier. 25 years later, I can say it only has increased and gotten even more complicated. Building a manufacturing/marketing company comes with some challenges and some real trade-offs in life. I vowed not to become too busy for my kids.

4 kids and hundreds of mistakes later, I got the chance to take my 4 grown children to Florida in January, taking all the usual COVID precautions. With all the craziness of each individual life, combined with the pandemic, it would prove to be a real test. My benchmark was “did I live my life as the famous song went…or did I do at least a pretty good job as a Dad?”

Sure, we are in most cases our own critic. But what did they think?

To my surprise, maybe it was the adult beverages, but the conversation flowed smoothly without a hitch. We talked for countless hours about nothing and everything, individually and as a family group. I am not perfect…could probably have done more…but overall, still kept the family in tact…still laughing, reminiscing and talking. Funny, it helped get them all there if Dad was paying their flights.

I recommend trips like this…and if you need to, tie a pork chop around your neck by springing to pay their way…it was well worth every dollar spent.