JUST ABOUT TODAY IN MY LIFE-What About Street Lights?

Street Outside My House from front porch, after dark!

Street Outside my house from front porch, after dark!

Street Outside my House from my front porch, after dark!

I had never really given much thought to street lights until the last couple of days.  There's nothing like a carjacking at your home to alert you to providing safety measures to prevent such an occurrence ever happening again.  As you can see from the pictures above, there are no streets lights along my street.  I'm in the city limits, so I'm researching what it will take to add a street light.  I first checked with Alabama Power to see if they installed the street lights.  I sent them an email and received a response within an hour, which I thought really good.  They will install security lighting as well on an existing pole, not sure what that means, so I sent another email for clarification.  Wondering if they could install on a house or tree. I haven't received anything back yet.

As far as street lights, they will install if the city is willing to pay the monthly charge.  So I had to call the city clerks office who took my information and will pass it onto the mayor who should get back with me whether or if they will pay the monthly charge and when it would be installed.  Does anyone know the city's responsibility in this type of situation?  So far everyone has been helpful, now I'm just waiting to see what the results will be.

I know that I'm working through feelings of anger, fear and the loss of my sense of security, so I hope y'all will bare with me.  I'll try not to be too morbid.  It's just that I think so many of us, especially women, don't pay attention to their personal safety as they should.  That being said, hindsight is always better than foresight.  But one thing I do know ladies is that there is no can of mace or a gun that awill help you if you turn the corner to step up on your deck or porch and meet the fist of a 5'10" to 6'1" man! I'm just grateful his intent was only to steal my car and not do any further physical harm, though he did push me down! When that fist hits you in the face, you see stars and are so stunned that any kind of action is prevented.  A fist knocked me back and around, so that all I could do was to keep my knees from buckling causing me to fall down.  Since my arms were loaded with those plastic grocery bags that I hang on my arms so I can bring in seven bags at one time, my body wanted to sag due to gravity, and my mind said "stay upright", but once he grabbed my keys and gave me a push, I went down. I've had people tell me to go out and buy a gun. What if I had been holding a gun, he could have snatched it from me and shot me.  I'm angry because there was nothing I could do!  I can write the sequences now, but it all happened within seconds, and my car was gone and I was left there alone in the dark, my face hurting and me screaming!

What about y'all?  Do you have sufficient lighting on your street, and if not, will your city provide street lights? I think it's important to find out! You have a vote and they will usually provide an answer to your questions.  Such as I found out this past summer that the owner of an empty house is responsible for keeping the yard cut and keeping the lot clear.  All I had to do was notify the city, they in turn notified the owner who didn't come and cut the yard, so the city did and charged the owner.  It must have been a hefty fee as the owner did keep the yard cut the rest of the summer!

Usually the city clerk of a small city or town goes out of their way to help people, or at least the one here in my city does!

One thing for sure, Saturday morning I didn't need street lights to see what was outside my windows!  See below!

Saturday, Dec 5th, 2009-see it coming down! Isn't it beautiful!

You want to see some good "first" snow of the season, go the "On Larch Lane" HERE, Lou posted some new pictures, she's even animated her post to seem like snow is falling on her post.  I've got to figure that one out!

Thanks for listening!

NOT THE USUAL DAY IN MY LIVE-The Carjacking contd...

The Lighthouse or maybe "Stormy Waters Ahead", by Judy 1997

When I wrote about what happened to me Tuesday evening, December 1st, I thought that having faced threality I would be able to get on with my life.  I mean it could have been worse.  There are several emotions that I'm having to deal with that I wasn't expecting.

I keep having one flashback, that of stepping around the corner and the black shadow coming to life. 
Then the realization that it was a person.  I remember the raised fist and then stars, I don't remember his fist connecting and hurting.  I do remember screaming and being stunned.  The rest of what happened I'm managed to deal with.

The second emotion that keeps popping up, when I have the flashback, is anger!  I'm angry because I didn't and couldn't do more.  I'm angry because I want to personally meet him again and beat him senseless, and if beating him ended in his dying, so be it! I want to feel a physical connection and see him hurting.  The other night I was watching an episode of NCIS.  I think the young girl who works in the lab is named Abby.  She was kidnapped by someone who intended to kill her.  When Jethro and the rest of the team came upon the van that she got into, you could hear someone yelling, but when the van door opened Abby had used her stun gun and was shocking her kidnapper, she did it several times.  Each time she shocked the man, I understood the anger running through her and why she wanted to hurt him.  I'm grateful that I wasn't hurt worse than I was.  I know that as a Christian I should forgive the man and let God handle the punishment.  I know I will reach that stage, but not tonight!

The third emotion I have is being afraid to come home after dark.  I leave lights on inside and out.  Thursday night was my first night back, but I arrived home before dark, and I was still nervous.  Friday I decided to attend our Sunday School's Christmas dinner.  Unfortunately, we met at the church at 5:30 PM and this meant I would arrive home late and after dark.  I went anyway.  It was 7:30 PM when I arrived back home.  The whole time I stayed at the dinner, I made myself nauaeted and dreaded coming home.  I hurridly got into the house and turned on my burgular alarm.  Saturday night my brother gave a surprise 60th birthday party for my sister-in-law.  It was at 6:30 PM, meaning I wouldn't arrive back home until 9:00 PM or 9:30 PM.  I didn't think I could do this again, so I called my neighbor and asked if he would meet me at 9:00 PM outside my house and walk me in.  He said he would be happy to and he did! Thankfully he would be at home and could do this and he did!  This fear bothers me the most!  I need to go to the grocery store, but I don't want to arrive home after dark, so I'm going on my lunch hour.  I hope this goes away soon!  Because if it doesn't, it means he wins! 

I'm also having to deal with why are all these events happening now in my life.  Why not when I was younger and could handle it better.  Since December 17th, 2008, I've had a total knee replacement, turned sixty-one, had two trees to fall on my house requiring the roof to totally be replaced.  Do you know what it's like to hear seventy miles an hour wind, at night, and feel the thump of a tree falling onto the roof, not once but twice, each at different times! And have your earnings drop $800.00 a month and then be attacked which resulted in my car being stolen! All within a year!  I keep asking what I'm suppose to learn.  I know I'm under God's protection, he's proved that, I mean each event could have been life threatening, but thankfully it didn't happen.  Where am I suppose to go with this knowledge?

Max

NOT Just A Day In My Life-The Car Jacking!

I know that I posted I wanted to do the 30 posts in 30 days, that was my plan, unfortunately, an unusual, and I hope never again event happened in my life.

Usually I arrive home from work between 4:30 PM and 5:00 PM.  However, this past Tuesday evening, December 1st, I went by the grocery store and arrived home at around 6:30 PM.  Usually if I know I'm going to be late, I leave the carport and front porch light on.  I didn't this past Tuesday, so my house was dark both inside and outside.  I have a motion sensitive light on my deck, but you have to go to a certain point before it will come on.  After pulling my car into the carport, I opened my car trunk, pulled bags that had fruit in them that I intended to take to work, placed them close to the back of the backseat, fussed around for a few minutes.  Then gathered up the remaining six or seven bags.  I clicked the car doors as though unlocking them so the headlights would come on and I could see how to step up on the deck without falling.  I had my car keys in my left hand.  As I got to the steps, I slightly turned to lock my car doors and at the same time realized there was a figure standing there with his right arm raised, I glanced up as he stepped toward me into the headlights glare and I saw a partial face of a man wearing, the thought ran through my mind, a navy hooded sweatshirt type jacket, I think it's called a "hoodie".  At this point, his fist connected with my lower jaw, stunning me.  I always wondered if ever I was in this type of a situation would I be able to scream or would my voice freeze. I now know I would scream and keep screaming! I started screaming even as he felt among the grocery bags, grabbed the car keys, pushed me to the carport floor, then he raced to the driver's side, jumped in and cranked it.  The only time I experienced fear was as I lay on the carport floor, the thought ran through my mind that he could pull the car forward and run over me as I lay in front of the passenger wheel.  So I jumped up and got on the side door steps, still screaming.  He backed out of the carport, headed east to the stop sign, turned left and headed out of my area.  Later two of my neighbors who ran up the hill two blocks over told me he passed them as they ran up the hill.

I continued screaming until my neighbor S, three houses down, ran up the street to my yard at which point she said, "I'm almost there, you can stop screaming now!"

She called 911 and reported the crime and asked for an ambulance as my face was bleeding and I had blood on my face and hands.

He didn't steal my purse as it was still on my left arm, so I reached in and found my spare set of car and house keys. I unlocked the side door and went into my house.  At some point, the Sheriff's department asked if I had OnStar, I told S, "Yes".  They suggested I call and see if they could track my car. Which S did.

The paramedics arrived, then a deputy Sheriff who looked an awful lot like Wesley Snipes.  One of my neighbors even asked if he'd been told that by anyone before.  He rolled his eyes and said, "Yes."

The paramedics determined I needed to go to the emergency room for stitches as he had hit me hard enough for my tooth to cut the skin all the way through.  It took one stitch on the outside and two on the inside. Plus I had to get a tetanus shot and an antibotic. When I woke up the next day, the area under my eyes had turned black and my mouth was swollen.

One of the best points of OnStar is that they were able to locate my car within twenty minutes enabling the Sheriff's department to find my car within thirty minutes of the crime.  It happened at 6:30 PM, they had my car by 7:00 PM.  Unfortunately, the person wasn't sitting inside the car.  They took my car to the downtown County Sheriff's building.  Let it sit overnight, then proceeded to process it as a crime scene.  They found two items in the car that wasn't mine as well as being able to lift a good finger print and DNA.

If you don't know your neighbors, make a point to introduce yourself and exchange phone numbers.  This will pay off, even if you don't become best friends.  They at least know who you are and will be aware you live in the neighborhood! I thank God I had done this!  It made a difference!

One thing I won't do in the future, go in through my deck door where my neighbors can't see me and aren't aware I'm having trouble until too late.  NEVER leave my house in the winter time without leaving lights on!

Of course, the last two days I haven't been able to talk as I strained my vocal chords, but at least I know how to scream, I mean, neighbors three blocks over head me and came to check on who was screaming and find out why.

Neighbors are really part of your extended family!  Get to know them!  I found out how wonderful and caring my neighbors are.

Oh, my car, I picked it up today without any damage.  I do need to run it through the car wash to remove all that black powder, but hey, such a small thing in the scheme of things!