So Tired

I am usually pretty tired on Mondays.  Sunday, while being a day of rest, usually winds up being one of my busiest.  Since we moved, it hasn't been quite as bad for me...since I'm no longer serving in the young women's organization.  That is one busy calling, and it keeps one on her toes!  I suppose that yesterday should have been extra restful, since it was General Conference, and we got to lounge in our jammies for longer than usual.  That was nice.  (By the way, my new calling as of a few weeks ago is Activity Day leader!  I'm excited about it!  Hoss's calling is 1st counselor to the Elder's Quorum President.  He has really liked it...especially since the president is very gung-ho)!

But what really has me so tired today was the events that transpired last night...okay, well technically early in the morning.

Well, let me back up.  We got to bed at a reasonable hour.  My new goal is to go to bed by 10pm every night (with the exception of date night - Fridays).  I tend to stay up way too late... causing me to pay for it the next day.  It has become a cycle that I've developed over the years.  So, last night, I
did pretty good!  I was in bed by 10:30 pm.  I feel asleep, drifting down into my bazaar world of dreams.  I think I was a spy last night.

I'm not sure what time the trouble started.  But it did... we've had issues, in our current subdivision, to be awoken many times a night due to various noises nearby.  Multiple nights, we would wake up around 2 and 3 in the morning to our next door neighbors screaming at each other... outside.  That was always a little bit awkward.  But they moved out last night, so I was so sure that we would have a night of uninterrupted sleep!

First, I was awoken by our neighbor's dog, who is pretty much directly behind our trailer.  The walls are thin, and this dog was barking lividly.  I turned over and fell back to sleep.  I think I had been dreaming of barking dogs...because that dog didn't seem to stop barking at who knows what.

Now, we don't live in the best part of town.  But we surely don't live in the most dangerous part of town.  Other than our quarreling neighbors, and the occasional territorial dog, our neighborhood is quiet.

So, the dog is barking.  "Yap yap yap yap yap yap yap yap..."  Faster and faster, angrier and angrier.  I grumble in my sleep, thinking about the poor neglected thing that seems to have been abused in the past.  He looks like Bolt.  **Cute thing really.  I think we give it more attention than its owner.**

Then a sharp "BOOM!" rings through the house.  I bolted up right, slapping at Hoss.  I ask, "Did you hear that?"

His sleepy reply was, "Yes... I heard it."

I laid back down, then, "BOOM!"

I was more awake.  I sat back up, turned to Hoss, who was also sitting up.  "Yup.  I heard that one too." He said more awake than before.

It was definitely gun shots.  My adrenaline was pumping.  I knew it was close to us, but I wasn't sure where exactly.  I went a poked my head out our front door...which is on the same side of the house as our window, and our other next door neighbors who are very quiet.  I saw nothing, so I shut the door, and was heading back to the bedroom, where Hoss was still laying in bed.

"BOOM!"

He then motioned for me to join him at the window, which is directly in front of our bed.  I laid down to peek out the blinds.  There on the back step of our quiet neighbor's house was a large shadowy figure.  (Our front doors are on one side, closest to the front...or the driveway, and our back door is on the opposite side, closest to the backyard.  The same is for our neighbor.)  So we could see their back steps directly in front of us.  And for the first time since we moved in, their back porch light was off, plunging the steps in shadow.  I wouldn't have seen the guy if Jason hadn't pointed him out.  I began to wonder if I was in danger when I poked my head out the front door.

This was very similar to our neighbor's porch.
Our bedroom window is closer than a stone's throw away.
Directly across, I might add.

As we watched, a dark lithe figure stood up, and slunk around the back of the house, hood up, and inconspicuous. 

The dog was silent.  We feared the worst.  He had to have shot the poor dog, who just wanted to be let into the warm house.  My adrenaline was going, and it took me so long to fall asleep.  It seems like I had just fallen asleep when Hoss's alarm went off, signaling the start of this long tiring day.

Part of our morning ritual is to take the dog, Titus out to do his business.  We have to go out with him, because our yard is not fully fenced in.  Sometimes, we send one of the girls to do it.  But I was adamant about doing it myself.  I didn't want them to find the poor dog dead just across the alley.  They would have been heart broken, and quite possibly scared.  So as Titus and I approached the alley, he sniffed around to "perform", and I warily looked for the dog.

He poked his head around the side of the house, sniffing Titus and got up and hop-walked toward us (He can't seem to walk normally...due to the abuse I assume).  I was relieved to find him well and whole.  So I scanned our backyard, side yard, and our neighbor's yard.  The only thing amiss was a piece of luggage...or a woman's large traveling makeup bag in our quiet neighbor's backyard with the contents dumped out.  Mysterious if you ask me.

What happened?  We will most likely never know.  Either the guy was only trying to scare the dog, or he was a terrible aim.

You might wonder why we didn't call the police... my answer is that it happened so fast that it didn't even cross my mind until it was over and done with.  I think this post took more time to write than the situation took to play out.

Who knows what the next shenanigans will be!  Exciting times in New Mexico.  And that is why I am so tired today.

***UPDATE!!  10/9/2012***
As I was turning off the lights and heading to bed, we got a knock on our door.  Scared me half to death.  Anyway, it was the property manager.  She asked if we saw anything suspicious in the last few days.  Anyway, we gave our account.

It turns out, that our neighbor was out of town, and that some punks broke into his house!  To make matters worse, it is the 3rd time he has been robbed!  And he's pretty sure it was the same guys as the previous times!  I was surprised, since our neighborhood is so quiet!

The gun shots we heard were made by a BB-gun shooting out the exterior lights!  The bag in the back yard was due to the thief's haste to get away (possibly because we heard them, and disrupted their fan fair).  So, we reevaluated our situation, and determined that we needed to be extra careful with dead bolting our door, and making sure our dog is in the main living area.  A robber would be extremely disappointed about robbing us, as we don't have much of value.

There it is folks.  There is something in getting to know your neighbors.  Had we even known what he looked like or how he behaved, we would have known something was wrong.  We would have been watching out for his property, knowing he'd be gone.  Take this as an example... get to know your neighbors.  I know we will.  It will take some active seeking them out for us, since most everyone seems to avoid each other.  I'll be getting 2 new next door neighbors within days of each other.  We'll be taking cookies over!  I know he wishes we would have called the police.  I think I need to work on my response to such situations.

Evie