Our weekend starts on Friday around these parts. Some Park Denizens get an early start by calling out of work, that way they can start the happy juice consumption early. It has been active since yesterday with different things occurring.

I’m normally a calm person. My situational awareness has always been excellent, probably due to the years in police work. You normally can’t sneak up on me and startle me, loud noises don’t bother me. Since Friday, there has been a weird feeling, almost like some dark energy is hovering over the Park. For the first time in years I have been jumpy. It may be one of the new medications they started me on, or I’m just not as “cool” as I once was. Even my dogs are conspiring to see if they can contribute to the jumpiness.  So let us get started.

Friday morning, shouts from down the street, and spinning tires, caught my attention. The scanner on the desk revealed that the strange guy two doors down, that has the rebel flag in his yard, had called reporting there was a man and woman in his home with 2 children refusing to leave. I don’t know if they were relatives, or friends.

Friday evening another call goes out from a mother, in the back area, of the park, that had signed a warrant on her 27 year old son. He had returned to her residence and was arguing with her. Her Son takes off running down the street just as deputies arrive. He only makes it to the Dollar General Store where he is captured. Maybe he was looking for cheap justice. I could hear my ex-partner in my mind saying, “Don’t run, you’ll just go to jail tired.”

Later Friday night a call about someone burning obnoxious smelling material. The caller told 911, If they didn’t send someone out, they were going to kill the offender. Deputies came, no one killed.

That keeps you on edge, I don’t have to listen to the scanner, but if there is weird stuff happening, then I want an edge if some crazy that has just been in an altercation, bangs on my door frantically wanting to borrow the phone. That was enough for one day.

This morning, Saturday, I’m sitting here reading blogs and a HUGE boom is heard right outside. Something about that awful sound put me on edge, I was full-blown fight or flight. My first thought was someone fired a magnum sized pistol, or shotgun very close, or it was a huge impact of vehicles on the highway outside. Or, it could be 2 doors in the other direction where they man makes knives on a homemade forge. It may have blown up. Turns out it was a power transformer that blew the fuse on the pole. For those that don’t know. The “link” in the line is opened by the firing of a 410 shotgun shell charge that forces it apart to break the circuit.

I get back inside to the safety of my office and try to relax. Max and Midnight our male and female Shepherds are tussling on the floor behind me. I admonish them a couple times. Let me set this up some, I have a donated office chair that the MIL didn’t want after buying another one. It’s a nice chair, it has one little thing wrong. It has a pneumatic shock that you can adjust up and down for comfort. The lever is located on the right side under the seat. With age apparently the locking spring has weakened. You are supposed to set the height, push the lever in, and it locks in a notch so it can’t be bumped to let all the air out of the shock at once. Apparently they didn’t design it for rambunctious large dogs playing near.

They had once again started the wrestling match just behind me. I sat back in the chair and was about to shout at them to stop, when the world apparently dropped 10 or so inches. I swear I thought it was 10 feet. One of them had managed while wrestling below the chair, to strike the lever just right, unlocking and lifting it releasing the compression fully.

I decide to sit down in the living room and watch some TV on the 50inch. I lean back, let out a deep breath as I relax, and I turn it on. It winks/blinks at me and goes dark after selecting different. I check it as best I can, and can hear Doctor McCoy of Star Trek in my head saying “It’s dead Jim.” I suppose I can take comfort that it didn’t give a loud pop and smoke when it went out.

I’m recovering somewhat as I post this, but I swear,  if it gets any crazier around here, the laptop and I are going to the closet. Michelle can slide snacks under the door.

Comments welcome,