silverlance
March 24th, 2006, 02:31 PM
well, that was thought-provoking.
it's about 10 am here in sunny cali, and about half an hour ago i was sitting in the family room, watching Home & Bunker. This particular episode happened to be on mass murderers, Juan Correra in particulkar - some guy who hacked 25 migrants up in the orange farming valley thirty years ago.
the tv showed a clip of a migrant pulling oranges off of a tree, rustling the branches; voice overlay described the hourly wages.
watching half-heartedly, i came to think about how nice it is to have 6.1 sound, how even i must admit that it was a worthy expenditure - and that's when i realized with a bit of belated surprise that all the leaf-rustling wasn't quite coming from the speakers behind me, but rather from right outside my window!
my house is a standard cali ranch pad, front door, garage door, and two side alleys that lead to a gated backyard patrolled by my dog (who was ATM sleeping on my right foot). both sides are quite privately recessed, and verdantly overgrown. needless to say, i was a bit perturbed by the sight of a middling-tall, brown-armed person walking past my shuttered windows (we like it rather dark in this house. makes the night sights worth buying). in blitz of insight i mentally ticked off the possibilities: gardner: not today; ups: nah, they'd go through the front - besides, we know them quite affectionately; meter maid: wrong side of house, it's locked up and gated anyway; friends: who needs friends?
well, the dog went woof!, I hastily got up and retrieved my sidearm, and we both hurried back to the windows and flipped up one of the shutters.
nobody.
then man and dog scampered through the house, out the back sliding door, through the dog's room, and into the backyard.
nothing.
the dog peered intently down the side and out toward the street for a few long seconds, ears tilted forward. i listened; he listened. we withdrew into the house, set the rear perimeter alarm, and i quickly changed. somehow, in the five or so seconds that it took me to retrieve my gun, the person had retreated.
gun now holstered under a light jacket, i left the dog behind and walked out into the side alley. i didn't see any tracks. i probably wouldn't have seen elepahnt tracks, either, so i called the dog over. he sniffed, sat, and scratched his ear.
i put Stalin back into the enclosure, then walked over, still holstered, to my neighbor's house, and asked them if anybody had gone through the side, real friendly-like. the replied that no one had - the kids were all inside.
hmpf!
well, the lady of the house said that she had seen some big black guys hopping over our back wall a couple of months ago; the man of the house suggested it might be a meter man coming for him; the kids looked at each other. i thanked them, told them that the perimeter alarms had gone off in the back yard while i had been out to arrowhead over the past weekend, and so i've been on a rather elevated alert status. we promised to keep an eye out, and then i went home.
i'm not sure what to think of this whole, rather unimpressive, really, affair. i went to check on SoCal's gas company web site, and after scrutinizing and resizing their HORRIBLE meter check date JPEG, i figured out that today MIGHT have been a gas meter day for the neighbors - i think. it certainly wasn't for us. i also found out something interesting - when the gas co can't check your meter, they make a generous estimate of your bill instead. hm.
anyway, i'm still holstered, and now i'm off to go get my new M-N 91/30.
the dog has been set on "kill".
kev
it's about 10 am here in sunny cali, and about half an hour ago i was sitting in the family room, watching Home & Bunker. This particular episode happened to be on mass murderers, Juan Correra in particulkar - some guy who hacked 25 migrants up in the orange farming valley thirty years ago.
the tv showed a clip of a migrant pulling oranges off of a tree, rustling the branches; voice overlay described the hourly wages.
watching half-heartedly, i came to think about how nice it is to have 6.1 sound, how even i must admit that it was a worthy expenditure - and that's when i realized with a bit of belated surprise that all the leaf-rustling wasn't quite coming from the speakers behind me, but rather from right outside my window!
my house is a standard cali ranch pad, front door, garage door, and two side alleys that lead to a gated backyard patrolled by my dog (who was ATM sleeping on my right foot). both sides are quite privately recessed, and verdantly overgrown. needless to say, i was a bit perturbed by the sight of a middling-tall, brown-armed person walking past my shuttered windows (we like it rather dark in this house. makes the night sights worth buying). in blitz of insight i mentally ticked off the possibilities: gardner: not today; ups: nah, they'd go through the front - besides, we know them quite affectionately; meter maid: wrong side of house, it's locked up and gated anyway; friends: who needs friends?
well, the dog went woof!, I hastily got up and retrieved my sidearm, and we both hurried back to the windows and flipped up one of the shutters.
nobody.
then man and dog scampered through the house, out the back sliding door, through the dog's room, and into the backyard.
nothing.
the dog peered intently down the side and out toward the street for a few long seconds, ears tilted forward. i listened; he listened. we withdrew into the house, set the rear perimeter alarm, and i quickly changed. somehow, in the five or so seconds that it took me to retrieve my gun, the person had retreated.
gun now holstered under a light jacket, i left the dog behind and walked out into the side alley. i didn't see any tracks. i probably wouldn't have seen elepahnt tracks, either, so i called the dog over. he sniffed, sat, and scratched his ear.
i put Stalin back into the enclosure, then walked over, still holstered, to my neighbor's house, and asked them if anybody had gone through the side, real friendly-like. the replied that no one had - the kids were all inside.
hmpf!
well, the lady of the house said that she had seen some big black guys hopping over our back wall a couple of months ago; the man of the house suggested it might be a meter man coming for him; the kids looked at each other. i thanked them, told them that the perimeter alarms had gone off in the back yard while i had been out to arrowhead over the past weekend, and so i've been on a rather elevated alert status. we promised to keep an eye out, and then i went home.
i'm not sure what to think of this whole, rather unimpressive, really, affair. i went to check on SoCal's gas company web site, and after scrutinizing and resizing their HORRIBLE meter check date JPEG, i figured out that today MIGHT have been a gas meter day for the neighbors - i think. it certainly wasn't for us. i also found out something interesting - when the gas co can't check your meter, they make a generous estimate of your bill instead. hm.
anyway, i'm still holstered, and now i'm off to go get my new M-N 91/30.
the dog has been set on "kill".
kev