Looking Back On Last Week

Things were a bit wild and crazy last week, especially the latter part of the week.

On Thursday, when I went to boot up my laptop, I noticed that it wasn't there. I called Ariana to ask her if she knew where it could have been, and she had no idea.

Then slowly it had dawned on me.

My laptop was stolen.

That explained why I found the front door left wide open at 6 o'clock in the morning.

I just could not believe that someone had actually broken into my house, while we were sleeping, and took my laptop. It was hard to comprehend that it was actually gone. I kept looking at the spot where it had sat and was expecting it to reappear.

Talk about getting an intimate lesson in the mechanics of denial.

When I finally had to accept that my laptop was stolen, I called the cops.

Mitch, the cop who gave me my CERT training, showed up to take the report.

While talking with Mitch, I mentioned that it was unusual that only my laptop was taken. My iPod, which was right next to my laptop was still there. So were my cell phone and Nikon digital SLR, both of which were just feet from the missing laptop.

(While I'm very upset that my laptop was ripped off, especially since it had pix on it that are now forever lost, I am glad that my Nikon was left alone. The camera was worth more than my laptop, and it was my "baby.")

Apparently the crook(s) jimmied the lock on the side door, which was the only door without a dead bolt.

Mitch said that most likely the burglary was done by someone we knew ~ someone who had been in the house before.

He advised me to get a bolt for the side door.

After Mitch left, Ariana realized that her 16-gig iPod Touch was missing. So I called the police station, and they had Mitch come to the house to take another report.

After Mitch left a second time, I took a drive to get a barrel bolt for the side door.

A bit later on, thoughts and memories started coming together, and I thought that I was able to get a better idea of the time the burglary and why the other 3 items near the laptop were left alone.

You see, at around 4:00 AM, Gomez woke me up. He was very agitated. I tried to calm him down and get him back up on the bed, but he wouldn't go. Then, when I went to bring him downstairs so that I could let him go outside to the bathroom, he just sat on the top step and wouldn't budge. That was highly unusual behavior for him.

Eventually, I did manage to get Gomez downstairs.

I think that it was during this time that my house was being burglarized, that Gomez's behavior was due to the intruder(s) downstairs, and that all the racket that I was making startled the thief before he had a chance to grab the rest of the tempting goodies lying near the laptop.

That made a lot of sense. And it made sense why the side door was left open. As Ariana said, they didn't want to close the door because that would have made noise.

Upon reaching that epiphany, I called the police station to let them know that I thought I nailed the approximate time that the burglary occurred.

(Now that I think about it, I do not remember hearing a car engine. Already wide awake after dealing with Gomez's distress, I think I would have noticed the sound of a car pulling out of the driveway because I know that hearing something like that at the wee hours of the morning would have prompted me to exclaim, "What the f#*k?!")

Later in the day, Jeremiah came over, shortly followed by Carol and Leonard. Jeremiah installed the barrel bolt that I bought at Mahoney's, and he also screwed down a couple of windows in the workout room.

As an extra precaution, I blocked off the windows that would allow someone from the porch to see inside the house. I told Ariana to lock her door on the chill room side while I locked the door at the top of the stairs.

Ariana was especially upset with the break-in, especially since it happened the day before she was scheduled to testify at a murder trial, the thought of which was very stressful ~ so much so that she has been throwing up almost every day.

The following day was like something out of a police drama.

We had to meet our police escort behind the police station in the municipal parking lot and follow his car to the parking lot that was across the street from the court house. From there he walked with us to the court house, and then he led us through the legal library and up the back stairs into a room that served as a witness room.

Most of the time was spent waiting.

When it was time to get a bite to eat, we had 2 armed cops escort us to the diner and back again.

After Ariana testified and court was adjourned for the weekend, we had to wait until the people (which were blessedly few) cleared out and drove off. After that, the prosecutor gave us a ride to our car.

It was a long and draining day. Ariana was in a most foul mood from having to spend the weekend, not being able to do much ~ which in her case would have been visiting friends in New Bedford, the area that she was ordered to keep out of for her own safety.

Even though I did not testify, I felt beat and as though I had gone through the wringer.

Shortly after we got home, Roma and her friend Sheila popped in for a visit and to take us out to dinner. (Roma had wanted to see Ariana one more time before she left for Texas.)

I'm afraid that with all the day's draining drama, neither one of us was good company. Fortunately they were understanding of our situation and did their best to avoid imposing themselves on us.

After they left, I called Expedia to change Ariana's flight, which was originally scheduled for Saturday. As exhausted as I was, I needed to get that done before Ariana's flight was scheduled to take off.

There was a bloody $150 fee for changing (or cancelling) the flight. I tried to talk the Expedia rep out of having us pay that extra cost. And after that proved unsuccessful, I had him wait on the line while I made a 3-way call to Carol so that she could give the Expedia guy her her credit card information.

When that was done, I changed the flight to Wednesday morning. In fact, it was the same identical flight ~ right down to the flight numbers.

It was amazing, as I talked to the Expedia rep, the change popped up on my computer instantaneously. Oh! I just love computers and the Internet!

After that was done, Barbara and Jeremiah showed u for their usual Friday evening visit.

They didn't stay too long. It was obvious that I was exhausted. In fact, I was so exhausted that it was even a chore to drink my glass of wine.

It took me a long time to decompress that night. Those 2, very leisurely sipped glasses of wine helped.

The next morning we both slept in late.

Saturday was a blessedly quieter day.

Carol called in the morning. She felt bad that Ariana's iPod was stolen and wanted to buy her a new one so that she would have something with which to entertain herself while she was on the plane.

Because Apple does not offer any discount prices on its products, Ariana wanted to go to the Apple store at the Providence Place Mall.

So we took a trip down to Providence.

I'm afraid poor Carol was utterly lost and out of place in the Apple Store. It's a veritable Geek Kingdom that oozes extremely high concentration of über-nerdity through its countless pores.

(Oh! Would I love to have the tech-savvy that was vibrating madly and bouncing off the walls in the Apple Store! I could most certainly appreciate it, but to immerse myself and be able to swim in its swift currents without drowning would have been an altogether different experience.)

Not only did Carol so generously replace Ariana's iPod Touch, she allowed Ariana to get an up-graded model ~ 32 gigs! My puny 8-gig pales in comparison!

In addition, Carol got Ariana a rubberized protective case and a pack of fingerprint-proof and anti-reflective screen protector films.

Ariana applied the film in the store, as it did not have any of the pet hair that perpetually floats around in our house.

After getting her new iPod, we went to Fire & Ice for a late lunch.

(If one had seen all the food I put away, one would have accused me of eating like a pig. Little would they had known that that was my only meal for the day.)

Once we were done eating, we headed back home. Ariana was exhausted. And I, myself, could have used a bit of a rest.

The rest of the day was spent not doing much of anything.

Come Sunday morning, Ariana told me that she discovered, the night before, that her new digital camera ~ the Nikon CoolPix that she bought not even 2 months ago with her own tax refund money ~ was missing.

So, on our way to church, we stopped at the police station to have that added to the police report. I was grateful that Mitch was on duty. That way I did not have to worry about having a message relayed to him.

When we got to church, the folks were very happy to see Ariana. Although she got sick (throwing up) just before the service started and spent the entirety of the service downstairs, she lingered a bit during fellowship hour to give Father Stan and each one of the parishioners a farewell hug.

Once the nausea and sick feeling had passed, Ariana and I drove to Best Buy so that we could get her a replacement camera that Neil had offered to put on his debit card.

Unfortunately, as I had suspected,the folks are Best Buy required that Neil be there in person with his card. They would have not permitted to have him give the card info over the phone.

But rather than lose a sale, they suggested to Ariana that she apply for a Best Buy store credit card, which she did and got approved for.

Instead of deciding to get a camera, Ariana decided to get a netbook because her laptop was on the edge of crapping the bed, and she had no way to connect to the Internet in order to be able to download music and movies onto her iPod.

So, Ariana got a sweet Asus EEE netbook. (I may want to get one myself after the insurance check comes in.)

After downloading her favorite music and movies and copying her picture files onto the netbook, Ariana spent the day with her friends in the tri-town area.

Barbara had invited us for a cookout, but I was feeling rather out of it. I really needed to spend the day at resting at home.

I needed the rest, and I got it. After all, the next day I was up and about enjoying a nice Memorial Day picnic at Carol's.