For some reason this past Fourth of July the fireworks in the neighborhood seemed to be extra loud. It could've been because there wasn't much in terms of fireworks in 2020 due to COV-ID. As Dom and I were settling in the living room for an evening of Mr. Selfridge, we couldn't help but be distracted by the explosive action happening just two doors down from us. As an aside if you haven't watched Mr. Selfridge you're definitely in for a treat. The series focuses on the life of the extravagant Mr. Selfridge as he works his way to opening his self-named London department store. And it doesn't hurt that the man playing the title role is none other than hottie actor Jeremy Pivens whom I've had a crush on for years. I even dated this guy years back for longer than I should've because at certain angles he resembled the actor.
But back to the issue at hand. So it got to the point that as the fireworks progressed, we even saw flashes of light coming through our living room window. At that point Dom had enough and ran up to our mud room to yell at the offenders (who were a bunch of preteen boys). I ran up behind Dom trying to tell him not to make the situation worse. From my vantage point it looked like the boys momentarily stood still when hearing Dom yell and I saw an adult emerge to seemingly direct the kids to back off. But as I figured would happen, they were back at it within ten to fifteen minutes and it seemed to get worse before they finally stopped two hours later.
As I thought more about the situation, I was realizing how my reactions mirrored how my Mom used to react in similar situations. There were many times growing up where certain things people did would set my Dad off and my Mom was always trying to calm the situation much to the chagrin of my Dad. The worst one I could remember was when our old neighborhood was in decline and drug dealers were pretty much taking over the street. They would even leave their drugs under our front mats. There were a couple of them that would decide to pee right by our side door. My Dad decided to confront one of them directly. My Mom and I were very nervous and she tried to stop my Dad but he wouldn't listen. Thankfully nothing happened and for a New York minute, the peeing stopped but of course it resumed again.
I chuckled when realizing that Dom and I were playing the roles of my parents. Dom himself is definitely not afraid to confront people when they're doing wrong whereas I prefer a more passive aggressive approach.
Unfortunately one thing I worry about is that I see myself getting overly worried about our house when we're both gone for several days. Sadly we did get our home robbed in 2016. We immediately suspected a no-good former Church member who I mistakenly invited to pick up an old dresser that I wanted to get rid of. That person came over with the shadiest "friend" that looked like someone who did time in prison. They wanted to get in the house but Dom wouldn't let them (since he found the friend suspicious as well) and we all just walked to the garage from outside where I had the dresser.
A few days later Dom and I left home for a trip to Vegas. We were gone for about 5 days and when we came back our home was robbed. We immediately suspected the aforementioned former Church member and his shady friend. Unfortunately we couldn't prove it and the Gary police department wouldn't even do their job. The officer refused to go in our house to see what had happened and when we asked about fingerprints, they said they wouldn't do fingerprints unless a murder was committed. Plus they didn't interrogate our neighbors like I thought they would to see if they saw something. As a not so funny aside they labeled Dom and I as "roommates" on the official police report.
The one mistake I made was not talking to our next door neighbors myself. The thieves gained entry way through our back door and often our neighbors would be outside in their yard and from their vantage point they could possibly see from their kitchen window who was going in and out. Plus at the time they had a yippy dog who always used to bark whenever one of us came out in the yard. I felt like they may have saw something but due to my personality, I didn't talk to them.
A potential opportunity came a day after the robbery when Dom and I were coming back from walking around the block. I told Dom that while we were outside we should go up to the neighbor's door and see if we could talk to them. He didn't want to so we didn't. But hindsight being 50/50, I should've gone myself to do so. If nothing else to let them know a robbery had occurred and to see if there was a history of that in the neighborhood.
Ever since that happened I've developed a complex about leaving the house empty even if it's for a few hours. This was something my Mom used to do as well. I remember always telling her that things would be okay and Dom tells me the same. She would refuse to go anywhere and it got worse when she was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1999.
Dom and I have gone on trips since that robbery and thankfully haven't had anything happen. We also since have gotten "The Ring" installed around our property and have purchased a couple timers to plug our lamps to come on at different times of the evening. Plus we use a security lock in the back. But I still worry. In fact we plan on being gone again for a few days in the near future. I'm sure things will be okay. But again I still worry. I haven't gotten to the point where I'll refuse to go anywhere but I can't help but wonder if that may be my future as I get older.
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