Sunday, June 1, 2008

Quiet and Secluded or Dark and Creepy?

When you think of living in town, secluded and quiet are not words one would use to describe their home usually. My family and I are far from usual so why should our home be any different?

We live in a mobile home parked in a trailer park. Have you just painted a picture of the trailer lined streets filled with the folks that reside in them? Good now erase that. That is what is across the street from our home. But our landlady owns another small section of ground only large enough for three homes to sit on. This is where we live. The way our homes are set up on this piece kind of resembles a horseshoe. Our home is the one farthest away from the open end.

My neighbors are very nice folks. Well, what close neighbors I do have. On the left, is an empty home. There's talk that the park owner will be having that torn out and won't be putting a new home in it's place. My children are really looking forward to this. They will have more yard for riding bikes and whatnot. On the right, is Bill and Rosy. They are a very nice couple. The have a catering business and aren't home much at all. Now on the left of the empty home, is a modular home that was foreclosed on a couple of years ago and no one has lived there since. And to the right of Bill is an older couple. They have kids that come to visit with their kids every so often. So you get the picture it's a quiet spot to live for the most part.

I wish I had pictures of my home so I could just show you, but I don't and it's too dark outside to take a few right now. Besides this will give your imagination a good work out. So right now, you are envisioning a horseshoe driveway with three mobile homes around it. You are standing looking at my home with your back to the street. My yard is fenced around the sides and back. The front is open. On the other side of the fence is nothing but dirt. There was another trailer park there at one time. It was tore out a couple of summers back and rumor has it the new owners will be building apartments for empty nesters on the property. But for right now it's vacant.

When you think of living in town, what is another thing you think of lining the streets? Street lights..... There is one way down at the end of our driveway. It doesn't do much to light up our end of the driveway or our yard. So it's very dark at night.

Our yard has it's pros and cons. The front yard offers a large maple tree with plenty of shade in the summer. And the back fence row is lined with locust trees. Plenty of shade. And not to mention the fragrance in early spring with the locust tress in bloom. In late spring and early summer, our noses are treated to loads of honeysuckle vines covering the fence. Beware we also have plenty of poison ivy too! As long as the kids have their toys picked up, we have a really pretty yard. But once night falls, those shady trees turn into very dark hiding places. Which honestly didn't bother me until tonight.

I had went to bed shortly after 9. I've had trouble sleeping lately so I got up to get a drink at about a quarter till 11. My kitchen window overlooks the driveway. Right now my outside light doesn't work. Oh believe me it's on my to do list! But I happened to glance out the window and turn to walk out of the room when I did a double take out the window. Who's car is that beside me van?! Some small convertible was parked right beside my minivan. This made absolutely no sense at all! (Still doesn't.) If the car had been parked at the far end of the drive, I wouldn't have given much thought to it. The man that owns the empty home on the left occasionally comes in the middle of the night to sleep. But he parks closer to the road. Bill's friends and family always park behind his car.

So hear I am freaking out. I'm home alone with my three children. I don't even own so much as a baseball bat for protection. (Which after the scare tonight, this will change.) So I decide the best thing to do is call the dispatcher and have her send an officer out to check the car and find out why it's in my driveway cause it really shouldn't be. While I waited for the officer to come and check it out, I called my mom and talked to her.

So the officer came right out, ran a check on the plates. Turns out it was someone I know, but still haven't got a clue why they decided to park their car in my driveway. I'm not sure if the officer tracked him down or if he saw the patrol car and figured he better get it moved somewhere else.


I'm really glad it turned out to be nothing but still kinda of scary.





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