They Come in Threes...
So, this weekend was supposed to be a quasi-stressful one, filled with meeting new extended family members. Lets just say, it definitely started with a bang.
Friday afternoon, I leave work, marveling at my wicked maneuvering in the parking lot and somehow make it to the FIRST of the exiting line (we don't have a light and really do need one...Sitting at a stopsign 50 cars deep for 20 minutes every afternoon is NOT my idea of fun. Must have been an USC engineering student that cursed us with this). I make it onto the interstate in record time, heading to pick up miss Elene from her dad's office. Almost as soon as I exit onto the interstate, we come to a complete standstill. Seriously. No movement whatsoever, no wind even!! On the up-side, I managed to exit the interstate in about 15 minutes and take surface streets to the office. And, while waiting those 15 minutes met some really cool hippies from Maine that were traveling up and down the east coast. Hippies rule! So, I pick the babe up and head home only to find...Our door standing wide open. Ok, so being a country (naive) girl, I thought...hmmm, lets call Gene and find out if he left the door unlocked and the cat somehow managed to open the door and get inside (no, the cat doesn't have opposable thumbs, but I envisioned the bees had helped somehow). Nope, not the case. And a very irate husband now informs me to NOT enter the house, go next door to the neighbor and call the police before I enter. We do all of this, and mercifully, Elene falls asleep while we are waiting for the ETERNALLY SLOW police to show up. Now, I know they have a hard job, but damnit, when I need them, I need them NOW and a 30 minute wait is just too damn long. Before the cops make it to the house, Gene actually gets through 2 patients, leaves 2 at the office with the explanation that he will return in 10 minutes (one of the dear people actually volunteered to come with him) as we live all of 3 miles from his office. He makes it to the house and goes inside to make sure no one is still there, quasi-assesses the damage and then leaves for the awaiting patients. 5 minutes after he leaves, the cop FINALLY shows up. He seemed very reluctant to be at the house and much more interested in all the fun little codes his radio was hammering at him. I'm sure that all the other crimes were much more fascinating than our robbery, but I wanted his full attention. So, I managed to keep him at the house dusting things for half an hour...29 minutes longer than he had planned on staying, I am sure. But, hey, I had to wait half an hour on him, he could stay half an hour with me to make me feel a little less invaded (and, no, telling someone that they would more than likely never catch the people that did this was NOT good PR. Seriously, don't DO that!). So I get Elene off to bed for the night only an hour or so past her bedtime, and proceed to packing for the morning trip to the Mountains while cleaning off the really nasty black dust stuff used to search for fingerprints (we never did get a good one, no matter how many times/things I got him to dust). Although both our door and my father-in-law's door (who had nothing taken) were kicked in, we managed to salvage them for now with new locks and such. Thank goodness as the budget currently isn't set up to allow for two new steel doors!
The mountain folk turned out to be pretty darn nice, if a bit on the 'Rebel' side. Maybe its the culture up there, but the abundance of rebel flag t-shirts was a bit astonishing (especially the gal at the local grocery outlet that had on a rebel shirt and a button about the wonderful organic section of the store...I had to giggle about that one). OH, in addition to the matching family rebel t-shirts, chewing tobacco was prevalent as well! I have NEVER seen a young momma hold a 6 month old with one hand while managing to get a wad of chew in her mouth with the other hand. I was amazed at her agility! All in all, it was a good trip, got to meet some very interesting people, and no one seemed to want to kidnap me. I guess they had heard about our assassin bees.
So, we make it home Sunday afternoon and start putting the ransacked house back in order. Gene and a neighbor went through the neighborhood talking with other robbery victims (there have been several, come to find out) while I worked on cleaning the carpet and laundry. Around 8, Gene and I were working on a mental list of stolen items for the assessor when we hear a very loud bang. We really didn't think too much of it since Ft. Jackson is very close by and often emits such sounds. 15 minutes later, the nice neighbor comes by to tell us that a tree in our yard had just fallen, crushing our fence and his car. Nice.
This morning, I rush out the newly-equipped, recently-destroyed front door to the car only to find that my car absolutely refuses to start. I think it was punishing me for a weekend of being left behind. Moody Honda. It was feigning being out of gas, so after a quick refill from Gene's gas can (thanks honey for running to the gas station in your shorts), I finally make it to work.
Can I get a refund on my weekend??
Friday afternoon, I leave work, marveling at my wicked maneuvering in the parking lot and somehow make it to the FIRST of the exiting line (we don't have a light and really do need one...Sitting at a stopsign 50 cars deep for 20 minutes every afternoon is NOT my idea of fun. Must have been an USC engineering student that cursed us with this). I make it onto the interstate in record time, heading to pick up miss Elene from her dad's office. Almost as soon as I exit onto the interstate, we come to a complete standstill. Seriously. No movement whatsoever, no wind even!! On the up-side, I managed to exit the interstate in about 15 minutes and take surface streets to the office. And, while waiting those 15 minutes met some really cool hippies from Maine that were traveling up and down the east coast. Hippies rule! So, I pick the babe up and head home only to find...Our door standing wide open. Ok, so being a country (naive) girl, I thought...hmmm, lets call Gene and find out if he left the door unlocked and the cat somehow managed to open the door and get inside (no, the cat doesn't have opposable thumbs, but I envisioned the bees had helped somehow). Nope, not the case. And a very irate husband now informs me to NOT enter the house, go next door to the neighbor and call the police before I enter. We do all of this, and mercifully, Elene falls asleep while we are waiting for the ETERNALLY SLOW police to show up. Now, I know they have a hard job, but damnit, when I need them, I need them NOW and a 30 minute wait is just too damn long. Before the cops make it to the house, Gene actually gets through 2 patients, leaves 2 at the office with the explanation that he will return in 10 minutes (one of the dear people actually volunteered to come with him) as we live all of 3 miles from his office. He makes it to the house and goes inside to make sure no one is still there, quasi-assesses the damage and then leaves for the awaiting patients. 5 minutes after he leaves, the cop FINALLY shows up. He seemed very reluctant to be at the house and much more interested in all the fun little codes his radio was hammering at him. I'm sure that all the other crimes were much more fascinating than our robbery, but I wanted his full attention. So, I managed to keep him at the house dusting things for half an hour...29 minutes longer than he had planned on staying, I am sure. But, hey, I had to wait half an hour on him, he could stay half an hour with me to make me feel a little less invaded (and, no, telling someone that they would more than likely never catch the people that did this was NOT good PR. Seriously, don't DO that!). So I get Elene off to bed for the night only an hour or so past her bedtime, and proceed to packing for the morning trip to the Mountains while cleaning off the really nasty black dust stuff used to search for fingerprints (we never did get a good one, no matter how many times/things I got him to dust). Although both our door and my father-in-law's door (who had nothing taken) were kicked in, we managed to salvage them for now with new locks and such. Thank goodness as the budget currently isn't set up to allow for two new steel doors!
The mountain folk turned out to be pretty darn nice, if a bit on the 'Rebel' side. Maybe its the culture up there, but the abundance of rebel flag t-shirts was a bit astonishing (especially the gal at the local grocery outlet that had on a rebel shirt and a button about the wonderful organic section of the store...I had to giggle about that one). OH, in addition to the matching family rebel t-shirts, chewing tobacco was prevalent as well! I have NEVER seen a young momma hold a 6 month old with one hand while managing to get a wad of chew in her mouth with the other hand. I was amazed at her agility! All in all, it was a good trip, got to meet some very interesting people, and no one seemed to want to kidnap me. I guess they had heard about our assassin bees.
So, we make it home Sunday afternoon and start putting the ransacked house back in order. Gene and a neighbor went through the neighborhood talking with other robbery victims (there have been several, come to find out) while I worked on cleaning the carpet and laundry. Around 8, Gene and I were working on a mental list of stolen items for the assessor when we hear a very loud bang. We really didn't think too much of it since Ft. Jackson is very close by and often emits such sounds. 15 minutes later, the nice neighbor comes by to tell us that a tree in our yard had just fallen, crushing our fence and his car. Nice.
This morning, I rush out the newly-equipped, recently-destroyed front door to the car only to find that my car absolutely refuses to start. I think it was punishing me for a weekend of being left behind. Moody Honda. It was feigning being out of gas, so after a quick refill from Gene's gas can (thanks honey for running to the gas station in your shorts), I finally make it to work.
Can I get a refund on my weekend??
posted by ChiroMum at 9:14 AM
6 Comments:
as i mentioned in my other comment, holy crap on a stick.
exactly. And we are still finding things missing (that's how seriously they trashed the place). I think Gene is most bothered by the newest thing gone...his backpack with a very expensive (so I've been told) compass. Ugh.
i'm sure the robbers will be just thrilled with a compass, find what little pleasure you can in their dismay at finding camping tools in the loot.
Yes, I'm sure that compass wasn't on the list of things that are great to steal! Also taken - 2 quart jars of green beans. At least they seem to have enough confidence in my canning skills to risk botulism! :)
hey, maybe you suck at canning and they'll get the botulism.
One can only hope! I'll make a mental note to let Gene taste all the food this winter before I do.
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