THE ROBBERY!

Last Thursday after work I came home & opened door that takes me from the garage into my dining room. Immediately something was different... my desk chair was in middle of living room, papers and random stuff from computer armoire were scattered on the floor. What was my first thought? GAWDDAMN CATS! Then I thought, no… it was that raccoon! Then my still-clinging-to-an-innocent-answer brain realized that the raccoon would not have visited in broad daylight and even if it did it would have gone for something tasty in the kitchen, not a pile of papers.

Then reluctantly, my brain accepted the astoundingly and ghastly truth – my house had been burglarized! I took a look and sure enough, my computer and monitor were gone. I checked the remainder of the house – the rooms were all ransacked & the window in the front door was broken, the latch opened, glass scattered about everywhere.

I got on my cell and phoned the police. Within a half hour an amiable sheriff appeared who took a report and sent for the fingerprint person. The fingerprint lady came and dusted things the thief may have touched with black powder.

I called Barbara – who had been burglarized some twelve years ago. I’m glad I did because she directed me to call my insurance company & to be sure to request an emergency services company to come out and board up my door – which they did.

*sigh*

In the end I rather got off easy. Someone I knew at work had had a relative burglarized by vindictive arseholes who not only robbed, but destroyed everything they could get their hands on – ripping holes in a water bed & tearing up books and the like – so you can understand why I say that I got off easy.

What was taken was my beloved, never crashes Dell Computer, my fancy new Canon camera, its lens, its flash cards, my junk old camcorder & my birding spotting scope. Also among the missing is my ceramic jar in which I collect change ($30-50), a set of 50 State’s quarters as well as the pillowcase off my bed!

Inexplicably NOT taken were my new HP printer, piles of quarters and loads of lose change lying about on my computer armoire, my shiny new camcorder, my some jewelry, the big-screen television, two VHS players, one DVD player, and all of my kitchen appliances.

I am certain I was hit by an opportunistic thief who was connected with the fall of the Heritage Oak Tree last week. There were dozens of men tramping on & off my property, repairing electrical & cable lines, cutting up and hauling away the old oak, etc.

I remembered how I took my Canon over to the neighbor’s house to photograph the tree being cut up - perhaps one of the workman knew a good camera when he saw one. Or maybe the electrician's creepy assistant that worked in my garage came back or even accidentally mentioned something to some creepy other somebody.

I feel far more robbed because my sense of security is now gone forever. The sheriff recommended a home security system. Barbara told me hers costs $30 per month – yet another $%#@&ing monthly bill. Every time I turn around there is some new cost to pay for just remaining at status quo. As I was whining to Barb, the security companies do NOTHING 99% of the time and yet charge $360 a year - a legal rip-off.

On the bright side, all my written works ride on a string around my neck, always safe on my San Disk pen drive.

As luck has it, only a few weeks ago I noticed a 2 Gig pen San Disk pen drive on sale – cheaper than the 256 San Disk pen drive I bought 2 or 3 years earlier. The new drive has the larger capacity but the same physical size – it is smaller than a Bic cigarette lighter.

I had downloaded loads of stuff onto the new 2 Gig – but sadly – I neglected to download any of my recent photos so I lost all my most recent pictures, save for a few that are posted on this blog or my birding web site.

I had been invited - please, no derisive laugher out there – to photograph some LEGO scenes for a web site that reviews toys – no pay, just for a lark. I set up and photgraphed 8 or so sets – which I happily & carefully constructed and photographed. It was fun work which required me to use my tripod and to learn to shoot pictures with broad depth of field. I was very happy with and proud of those LEGO photos and they are, every last one of them, gone - Boogers.

Setting the pictures up again won’t be too difficult now I’ve done them already, but still – it is aggravating. The pictures aren’t needed for at least a couple of months so I have plenty of time to reshoot when I get a new camera – my insurance allows me to replace all stolen objects.

The thing is, because my just ripped off Dell Computer never ever crashed meant I was lax about backing up. To the contrary - my previous Gateway used to crash & lose all of my work every 3 – 4 months like clockwork, which forced me to be quite careful about backing up all my work. In future I will treat my lovely Dell computer like a crappy Gateway computer – just in case.

As for the thief, just for St Patrick’s Day which is this Friday, I invoke a famous Irish curse – ‘May the thief have only one tooth in his head, and it aching!’