Long time no see. So how have you been?

Hey all,

Post number 6 represents the interruption of the silence from me over the past week or so. I had planned to write a nice entry about 5 days ago but my life was turned upside down by one of those things you hear about all the time but never think can happen to you.

I'll be brief because I have a lot to do and not much time to do it but I'll tell you why I've been inattentive to the blog this week.

I spent Fathers Day weekend with my kids and had to return to work on Sunday night. As a Paramedic, I work 12 hour shifts so I left for work around dinner time on Fathers Day. My girlfriend is a Registered Nurse and also works 12 hour shifts and was scheduled on Sunday night as well. We both worked our night shift on Sunday and returned home around 7am on Monday to find our doors hanging open and just about everything we owned except furniture and clothing gone. That's right, we were burglarized in the night while we were doing our jobs and helping people. It was a swift kick to the stomach that still has me reeling. The loss of the items is big. Lots of electronics went missing and what was recovered was broken to the point that it is a total loss. The cowards cost us a lot of money but most of all they cost us the feeling of comfort, security and safety of a home and that is a cost that no insurance policy or shift of overtime can ever replace. Knowing that some filthy bastards were in our home, rummaging through our things and doing their absolute best to steal everything that we work hard to have leaves me disgusted and angry and wishing that there was something I could do to fix it. The fact of the matter is, they will probably never be caught. Our stuff now belongs to someone else and we will never feel the same in our home again. The security system installer is on the way as I type this and I'll be spending my weekend installing motion detector lights but none of those things will make us feel like we are as safe and secure in our home as we were before this happened. The thing that is really scary is that we know that these people were our neighbors or someone who knew our neighbors. They know we work long shifts, they know we are both often away for 13 hours or more at night and someone told them, that day, that we had both left in our uniforms and would be gone all night. Our neighbors, someone who lives next door, or across the street. Someone who says "hi" as they walk by while we're out in the yard. Because of our long shifts we are home a lot so if there were suspicious people or vehicles watching our house we would have noticed. Someone knew how we lived our lives and watched us come and go. Someone studied us and got all of the information they needed to successfully violate our home and take things that belonged to us and not them. We never work the same days or nights so there had to be someone giving information to the perpetrators so they would know when to strike. That is another thing that has been stolen from us, the ability to trust the people we live near and meet in our neighborhood on a daily basis. Maybe our neighbors didn't commit the crime but I have to believe they gave information or help to those who did. If not, the burglars would not have known when to make their move. I'm not condemning all of them because one of our neighbors interrupted the burglars on their way back for another load(unfortunately it was the last load and everything else was already gone) and stopped by to tell the police what he had seen and done the night before when he had called 911 and reported something going on in the neighborhood although he didn't know where. I'm sure its not more than 1 or 2 people that live near us but because of all the things the thieves had to know to make this a successful operation, I have to believe that someone we know and see on a daily basis is probably involved in some way. How sad. We never did anything to them.

I am thankful that we were both at work, my kids were with their mother and our little Chihuahua was spending the night at my girlfriend's mother's house so nothing that really matters was taken or hurt but I have to wonder what might have happened if someone was home and had taken the burglars by surprise. Our neighbor met them between houses as they were returning for the last load of our stuff and he knows that one of them had a gun(luckily he had one too and they were, after all, filthy cowards and ran) so what would have happened if I stopped by to grab something(as I often do) or my girlfriend came home early? Would one of us been shot, killed or hurt in some other way? It makes me sick to think of all the possibilities and makes me thank God that our home was invaded and our things stolen but nothing that really matters was touched.

So there you have it, the reason I've dropped off the grid for the last week or so. I will try to get back to the business of tabletop gaming or fun stuff as soon as I'm able but for now, please try to be understanding and forgiving of long lapses between posts or posts that are short on content or quality. I am busy and distracted and dealing with things I never thought I would have to and its pretty exhausting.

Now, for your pearl of wisdom, that little nugget of awesomeness that's your payment for reading this mess:

"Trust no one." Deep Throat