Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Hackles and Chickens

My grandma Mac was one of many in the family with a 6th sense. My siblings and I have some form of it, and there have been many times it made an appearance in our lives. My dad told me a few times how his mom would say "Something's gonna get to the chickens", and a couple days later, the remnants of a fox's lunch would be discovered.
This past week has been a series of otherwise innocuous events, but when you add them up, something's rotten in Denmark. My hackles are up, and I don't like being one of the chickens either. In the last week, we've had no fewer than THREE different solicitors for alarm companies at our door, wanting our business. Saturday, I saw the electric company technician slow and park next door. He then knocked on the door across the street, and waited for an answer. Lather, rinse, repeat a couple times. Then he went to the hose and it looked like he took a drink from the hose. Odd, and I'm sure against the company policies. I was trying to use my camera zoom to get a truck number in case it was needed. Then in the middle of that, two young guys pull up in a black Ford Focus and the passenger takes a picture of my house. I tried to get a picture of them, but my angle and timing missed their faces and the tag number. Then tonight, the doorbell rings and my oldest child answered the door without looking through the peephole, asking who it was, or just plain old ignoring the door. To top it off, the person asked if the parents were home and my son answered with "no". The urge to smack him (and then some) came to mind.
So all these scenarios keep playing in my head, and these are the kinds of things that I've had playing in my head for many years. One of them involves me telling an intruder to bleed on a non-carpeted floor because I am not trying to replace carpet.
And yes, we've told the children not to answer the door to anyone they don't know. While the new house is in a nicer neighborhood, it's not a secure compound either. It just all makes me suspicious of a lot of people and things and I don't like that feeling.