Dying Man’s Daily Journal – Guard duty

Today started off with a bit of excitement and the kind I could do without. Nature called and I was up about 3:30am. I was wide awake and didn’t think I would just fall back to sleep so I went out on the front step to enjoy the coolness of the night air. The roof projects well out over the front step protecting it from the elements, which is perfect when I want to go out and watch a summer storm. This overhand causes a shadow over the step that I imagine would pretty much make me invisible from the street, being in the middle of the night as it was.

Our particular area of the city is about as safe as any area in the city, but we still do have an occasional auto theft, a few break ins etc.. Our neighborhood watch committee is constantly telling us to be vigilant for anything that looks suspicious to protect ourselves and the entire neighborhood. A great idea, I am all for doing my part.

OK, it is 3:30 in the morning and I see a car coming slowly down our street with no head lights on, enough to make you go hmm. Have company in for a few days, I will write about them later, that is an interesting story in itself. Their car is parked on the street in front of the house. Any way this car with no heal lights on pulls over and stops directly behind the car owned by our company. Now I am really watching to see what is going to happen and absolutely nothing did. No one got out of the car, nothing happened, it just sat there. I had all sorts of thoughts running through my head and seemingly all of them relating to bad guys “casing” the neighborhood or the car owned by our company. It had to be close to 5 minutes I just stood there and the car and its occupant(s) just sat there. I likely wouldn’t have given this whole thing much thought except for the no headlights as it was coming down the street.

As I am thinking about it that is when I really realize that standing as I am in the shadows, occupants of the car may not be able to see me. I think if I make my presence known, if indeed they are up to no good they will likely take off immediately. So that is what I did and that is exactly what they did. Almost as soon as I stepped out of the shadow the car started, this time with head lights and they sped away very quickly.

As per community watch instructions I immediately phoned the police telling them of what happened. Police also felt it was suspicious and said they would increase patrols in the area for the rest of the night. They also suggested we move the car to a safer location. Except, we really had no where else to put it. I decided it was better to be safe than sorry so I decided we needed an security guard to keep an eye on the car and the neighborhood at least until sunrise. Since I was the only one awake the job seemed to fall to me. I prepared myself for the guard duty. I armed myself with my trusty baseball bat, telephone with police on redial and the most important of all a pot of coffee. It was a beautiful night, I really enjoyed it, weather was perfect. Never saw the white car again but did see the police drive by a couple of times It was a bit of an adventure.

Another issue, I am so very happy to report our dear neighbor Elsie is happy. The roofers came, the new shingles were installed in a very professional manner and look very good. Elsie requested I be the construction foreman, keeping an eye on to make sure they do it right. I explained my lack of knowledge in the roofing business but did end up “keeping an eye on them”. It was apparent right from the start it wasn’t necessary to “keep an eye on them”, they were professionals and knew what they were doing and did a great job. Just the garage to deal with and we can put this to rest.