Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Inglorious bastards

I risk telling you this because you will most likely make fun of me. 
But I'm afraid of the dark. 
More specifically, things that go bump in the night.
Like ghosts and demons.
OK, OK, I'll give you time to stop laughing.
Look, it's a phobia. That's how I excuse myself. Yes, I know how stupid it is. Yes, it's completely illogical to hear the house squeak at 3:30 a.m. and believe that some shadowy horned thing is disrupting your sleep. Yes, I know. Hey, stop laughing!
But phobias are not logical. Not at all. Kate is deathly afraid of snakes. Like Indiana Jones afraid. Only worse. She's refused to go into the reptile house at the zoo. She won't pick up Jayden's stuffed snake. And it probably doesn't help that her husband LOVES snakes. Seriously. They're my favorite animal. I'd own one if I could, but owning one would mean instant divorce. And she used to think that I liked them just to irritate her, but Mom confirmed that, yes, I read about a dozen snake books as a kid.
It's a phobia. It's not logical.
I saw "Poltergeist" as a kid, and that's still the scariest movie I've ever seen (and I've seen scary). As a kid, I used to yell in my room, "If there's a ghost in there, please communicate my moving the pen I've set on the ground."
I saw "Paranormal Activity" just a month ago, and I thought I was over my little quirk. Oh, no. I saw it more than a month ago, and I'm just now getting over it.
And why am I getting over it?
Well, we returned from a weekend in Winter Park to find our front door open. We generally remember to do things such as close the door before we leave for three days, so we knew something was wrong. And something was wrong. Our plasma TV was gone. Kate's jewelry box was gone.
Kate found our back sliding door open. I had forgotten to lock it or the gate. We even had three days' worth of papers in the yard. Stupid, I know. I'm still kicking myself.
They were thoughtful thieves. They set our ceramic snowmen gently on the floor. They didn't trash the place. They even left $1,000 in cash I had from my Vegas trip in the basement. Suckers! They only took the TV. And Kate's almost worthless jewelry.
How nice of them.
We're hearing from our neighbors that we think they were over there Friday night. And that makes us wonder if it's not someone we knew who knew we were leaving. I'll never post a vacation on Facebook again. That was stupid as well. But could it be a co-worker? A student of Kate's? We'll probably never know. 
The thieves did me one favor. I don't think I'm afraid of the dark any longer. Thoughts of ghosts and demons haven't kept me awake the last couple of nights.
Why would I worry about those when I need to take a hard look at humans?



4 comments:

StB said...

Really sorry to hear about the theft. Thankfully no one got hurt and possessions can be replaced. think about it this way... YOU ARE GETTING A NEW TV!!!!

Jordan said...

Damn that sucks. I'm just glad that they didn't do more damage. That ceramic snowman might have prints on it, btw.

The NL Wife said...

The scared of things that go bump in the night is a little funny, coming from a guy who has no qualms about balancing on precipices miles from sea level. :)

If you get sent to jail for kicking some thief's butt, I'll totally bail you out, though.

Funny that they took the jewelry . . . like my jewelry box, its full of costume jewelry and pretty things, more than valuable things. Hope they think its worth it.

Just remember the important things, like family now . . . as you watch ghost shows on your new TV.

smokkee said...

bloggers getting their shit jacked during the holidays blows.