I woke this morning to a message from my neighbor. She said that she had found evidence of someone in her yard during the night, of multiple things moved, and a single black sock. Her large dog was highly excitable on her pre-dawn trip outside, which got my neighbor curious enough to look around, to find a chair moved, as well as the bricks that mark old pet graves. Of all the things to disturb? She suggested I look around, but I couldn't find anything that seemed out of place in my yard. I did recall that the aggressive barking that happens with the post-midnight pee run seemed a little more enthusiastic than normal, but I assumed it was a reappearance of the evil rodents from the swampier areas at the edges of the Park. There has been a rash of car and garage break-ins in the area so far above normal that they had a portable lighted sign at the entrance to our development to warn about it a week ago. This has been going on since late summer. When I think back to the jokes I made about hanging up my shooting range target with the tightly grouped shots all in center mass, hoping to deter anyone looking in the windows, maybe I should go back and do just that. The bright pink would contrast nicely with the white door on my coat closet. And not for the first time, I find myself tempted to go back and buy one of those girlie-sized .22 semi-automatic pistols that fit my hands so well. I haven't run out and done it today, but the impulse is there. It's stronger after I learned the neighbors on the corner reported someone in their yard last night as well.
I've gotten a bit complacent, feeling isolated in my own personal world. But the lush Park that provides privacy away from a busy street can also make me feel more vulnerable than I care to admit. I had to teach myself to lock my doors when I moved here. It's something I have rarely done, through most of my life, through most of the places I've lived. I admit, there was a two-month stint in Barstow, California that involved a lot of door locking and looking out windows at the never-ending stream of cars going up to the creepy neighbor's house, but other than that, I feel like my home is my sanctuary and no one can touch me. I learned that just because I've developed the habit of locking the doors when I'm home doesn't mean I'm smart about traveling with keys yet. Last year I dropped my car off at the dealership, and accepted the shuttle to my home, and it wasn't until the driver was turning off of my street that I remembered that my garage door remote was in my car, at the shop. I sat at the table on my deck, using my own wifi, until the battery died on my tablet, and I started to get cold (this was November, I think). I called the mah jongg master to take me back to see whether my car was ready yet. Since then, I'm better about traveling with keys.
I stay up late most nights. Like well into the wee hours of the morning, late. The red-headed dog stays up with me, having appointed himself my guardian from the first moment he woke up (from a head injury) in the back seat of my car, hearing my voice talk to him soothingly as we searched for a 24-hour vet. I don't know whether he remembers the "before" time, before he lived with us, but after the rescue he has sworn fealty to me and is happy to protect me from all threats, foreign and domestic. The professional eater dog is usually off sideways somewhere, snoring so loud it rumbles the subfloor under the landing at the base of the stairs where she sleeps, or up at her spot by my chest of drawers (like she is doing right now). I don't recall my protector barking at the windows anytime lately. But since the neighbors put me on edge, now I don't know how good I feel about being awake so far past midnight with all the lights on in the house. Is that a deterrent to monkey business in the yard, or an invitation for someone to snoop? I don't know the answer to that, and it makes me feel like a sour, grumpy old person. These intruders need to stay off my lawn.
(I don't usually do this, but since tonight's inspirational song is from a band one of my honorary kids plays in, here is a link to the video of it: http://www.blackrosestheband.com/videos.html)
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