The Things that Happen on a Friday Evening
I realize I don't often write on the weekends. That is intentional and had things not changed over the past twenty-four hours, I doubt that I would be posting anything. I certainly missed my writing goal for the week, though I won't determine by how much until Monday sometime. I think I may be close to half the goal, which means I get to work this next week to catch up and to complete some assignments that are in need of completion between now and then.
However, the object of this post is what changed in Erin and my life last night.
I work weeknights until 11 p.m. During that time I am in pretty constant contact with Erin and we discuss what is going on, revel in things going well at work, and she commiserates with me when things are less than stellar.
At a little after 11 p.m. I got in my car and drove home. I live about five or ten minutes from work, so I get home relatively quickly. Except, when I got home last night and walked down the driveway to our entrance, I paused at the door leading down to our apartment and heard something large, someone large, making noise on the other side of the alcove to our door. There is a large pine tree and I refuse to scare or back down, which meant that the more the noise existed, and the louder it became, the more I am likely to hold my ground.
I said, "Who's there? Show yourself."
The noise got louder.
I said, "I am not joking. If you don't show yourself, I will be back with a gun."
Still more noise.
I walked down the stairs and proceeded to get my gun and a flashlight and immediately walked back out of the house with both, in hand, as I made a circuit around the house and yard, checking bushes for any sign of what (who) was out there. I didn't see anyone. The next step was to call the police and let them know there was some suspicious activity around the house. Followed by sitting wit Erin as, at this point, we both needed a little time to calm down after I raced out of the house with a gun.
After all of that, late at night, Erin started chatting with the kids upstairs and found out that they've actually noticed this as a problem, with the girl upstairs having called her father-in-law (also the owner of the house) to come and walk around the house. Her husband (son of the owner) ran off someone who was lurking outside of the house. The person ran off across the street and into the field.
We believe that whoever it is lives around here, is aware that the house is occupied by newlywed couple's, who also have their husbands working in the evenings. We believe that it is probably someone who knows the house, the neighborhood, and the house as well as who is living here.
However, once all was said and done, and we waited to see if the police officer that was sent to patrol the neighborhood was going to stop in and speak to Erin and me. He shined a light around the house, hopefully drove around the neighborhood to be seen, and then reported that nothing was the matter. The key, here, was that a record of events is being recorded.
We also informed the kids upstairs that, in the future, they should make a call to report suspicious activity.
My next step, after all of that, was to look up the sexual offenders that were in the area and made sure Erin saw them. Saw their faces. Then I had to go through the process of showing her how to operate a gun, with the intent, after months of promising, that we would go out and have her get used to shooting the thing.
Today, we followed the preplanned activity of Erin getting her hair cut. I wrote some, not enough, and then stopped to chat with Kelly, a friend from the play I was in two summers ago, and then Erin and I came home where I went to help James and then Erin and I went to look at more solid doors, window coverings, etc. (to include purchasing pepper spray) so that she is a bit more secure as she walks to and from the car. We then came home and hung things.
One of the side-effects of visiting James was that he gave me a Louisville Slugger baseball bat that I wanted to acquire so that we had something we could use that didn't include slug, gunpowder, firing cap, or Erin and her brother reciting, "I'd pop a cap in his ***."
The point, I think, in all of this is that we've felt that our privacy has been invaded and yes, this is not a house burning down or something completely drastic, but, you know, I own a gun more because it reminds me of a past that I did like (well, parts of it), and because I cannot fathom someone else having it and potentially using it. Last night was an interesting wake-up call for me. It was a call to realize that I am husband to wife, that I have a personal obligation to make sure that my wife is safe and taken care of, and, ultimately, we often don't know what will happen when we come home late at night or in a semi-rural neighborhood.
Needful to say, last night was a rude wake-up call. I don't like feeling unsafe and I don't like conversations about gun safety or what would happen if I was to walk around the house with gun in hand and see someone.
John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Cassandra West | Clockwork Princess
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