Face Down

Remember this guy? Yeah, the jack ass she threw out? I don't remember if I told you that she finally threw him out. It was wonderful for about 6, maybe 8 weeks. Just her and the girls. She came out and visited, the girls came over to play, sans the WILD little "step-brother" who is always hungry and wants you to feed him.

Well, he was living with his mother somewhere on the west side of THE river and SHE (his mother) THREW HIM OUT!! He came back to M's house looking to just crash on the sofa for a couple of days until he could figure everything else out. You know how the rest of it goes. He was, obviously, irresistible. What, with the belittling, and the verbal abuse, not to mention the physical abuse. What's not to love? So, now he's back...with the crazy little boy.

I tell you all of this to tell you this story...

Tuesday evening while the boys and George were at practice, I went to Wal Mart. I haven't been shopping in WEEKS and the pantry was down to pretty much corn starch and brown sugar. Now, I'm a pretty creative cook, but I need a little more than that.

So anyway, I was at Wal Mart. I had just gotten there and had 2 things in my basket, hairspray and a pack of razors, when my phone rang. It was an operator from ADT Security. (We got an alarm system about 2 1/2 months ago--best money ever spent.) He said that the burglar alarm was going off and did I want him to dispatch the police? I was so surprised that I told him I didn't know, and what do people usually do in this situation? He said, "It's up to you Mrs. Ragsdale," probably choking back a laugh at my idiotic question. I said sure, go ahead. He turned off the alarm, dispatched the police and asked me about how long until I got home. Zachary's a pretty small town, so I was only about 5, maybe 7 minutes from home. I beat the police home.

Now, let me tell you this. Shredder was in the house, so I had the alarm set for "stay" so he wouldn't set off the motion detector. I left the back door unlocked because I wasn't sure if George had his house key. The gate across the driveway was closed and all of the gates around the backyard were closed. When the alarm is set and you come in, there is a 45 second warning beep before ADT is notified and the big alarm goes off.

When I got home, the back door was ajar and every light in the house was on. Luckily, Shredder was still inside. When I leave Shredder in the house, I close all of the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom so we don't get any surprises on the carpet (We've thrown away the living room rug. It was beyond cleaning. It was also over 10 years old, believe it or not.). I wasn't afraid to go in the house because I'd figured out what happened while I was on my way home.

I went around and turned off all the lights and looked around. Everything was fine. Still no police.

I went to the backyard and could hear the backyard neighbors (whom we really like) outside and could see the jackass with them. I opened our back gate (which we put in when we replaced the fence after Hurricane Gustav so the kids could get to the block behind us without going around the block. Perhaps you remember that we live on a pretty busy street?) I was a little more than perturbed when I asked them if they heard the alarm going off. The neighbors (whom we like) both shrunk up like little children in trouble and said they didn't hear anything. The jackass said that Ethan (hell child)went over and knocked on our back door but came back because no one was home. I, of course, went high and to the right and said that the police were on their way because our burglar alarm alerted the ADT people who then dispatched the police.

I, then, waited for the police. When the cruiser finally arrived, I told him that the back neighbor set off the alarm and everything was okay. In the mean-time, hell child came back to jackass to talk to him. My other neighbor (whom I like) asked hell child if he opened our back door. He said yes. It was only then that jackass acknowledged that there was something to say to his boy.

***Aside. The boy was in our house for at least 45 seconds; probably longer. He had enough time to turn on every light in the house!!! Close aside.***

OKAY...Now skip to Tuesday. (I began this post on Monday, immediately after all of this. Tuesday just piles it on. I'm finally pulling it all together on Wednesday.)

George and the boys are at practice. Jackass finds George at the ballpark (because his "step" daughter is playing softball) and tells him that I was incredibly rude to him and he didn't appreciate it. George, being the consummate gentleman and situation smoother, said that his wife does have a temper (he's walking on shaky ground here) and she was scared and nervous that she was called from shopping to attend to a potential burglary call at her home.

George came home from practice to tell me that jackass found him at the ballpark to tell him all of this. His solution is to not invite the (diagonal) back neighbors over and place a lock on our back gate. That's fine with me. My attitude is...if he wants to belittle or abuse a woman, I'm there. I will take him on. I'm taller and bigger than him. I can (will) take him.

George reminded me this morning when I dropped him off at the church, for the first of his several youth trips this summer, not to engage the neighbor. Before you all go crazy; I know, I will not engage this crazy man! I just know that he's a loser, but I'm not afraid.