I think I am becoming Gladys Kravitz.

For the last few weeks we have had issues in our neighborhood with home and car break-ins, theft, and guns going off in the middle of the night. Things have been bad since the woman one door away disappeared Valentines Day 2008. Kay was never found, she was a retired schoolteacher and Sunday School teacher and was disabled by polio she had a a child. They found her minivan on fire down the street, but never found her. None of us can believe someone would ever want to hurt Kay, she was a very nice woman, feeding stray cats in the neighborhood, something I saw her do every morning for years, and maybe it was because of her regimented schedule that someone targeted her? or maybe she saw something she should not have?

Needless to say, I have not felt safe here since then, I keep my doors locked during the day and do not open it for anyone unless they are friends or family. At night I have trouble falling asleep, nothing new there, I am a longtime insomniac, but it has been especially bad since the gunshots became part of our evenings these past few months. I thought it was just me, but both my next door neighbors have heard them numerous times. I always call the police, and apparently my neighbors have been too. One morning at 1 AM I heard a police helicopter flying over my house, I could see the beacon shining in my back yard, talk about feeling vulnerable. I called the police and asked them if I should be concerned, they told me to stay inside and away from the windows. Oh gee thanks officer.

No one has ever been hurt, besides Kay anyway, no one ever told us who or why guns are being fired, and all of us are confused about what is happening. We vowed to watch out for one another. We do it anyway, it became a habit for Tom and I years ago when we were in the VIP program.

Tom and I were part of Volunteers in Prevention in the late 90's and early 2000, it is a Neighborhood Watch program with volunteers who drove around the neighborhood making sure everything was OK. Tom and I had the 10-2 AM shift on Saturday nights. It was a good time to talk, and sometimes the older kids would want to come with us, a no no, but they loved shining the one million candle power spotlight into the surrounding desert and watching rabbits freezing in it's light. We sometimes chased teenagers out of closed city parks. they were usually doing two things, either making out (or worse) or drinking, but we never encountered anything scary or dangerous, and quit because a control crazy gal took over running the program and she made it too hard to be part of it.

I was up near midnight last week and saw a gang of teenagers hanging out behind my house. Sophie, our Chow-Golden Retriever mix, was going crazy growling, barking, and throwing herself against the sliding door and I looked out back to see why. there were 9 kids, one talking to a person in a white sedan, just hanging out on a school night, it was 11:45. In lieu of the issues the neighborhood is having, I thought it would be prudent to call the police, I stood in the backyard looking at the kids as I dialed. They saw me on the phone and sidled away. They walked to a house 5 doors away, went inside and shut off all of the lights. I had a lot of trouble sleeping that night.

I have called 911 around midnight at least 4 times in the last month, I wonder if they have me down on a list somewhere as a local lunatic? I guess Sue and Anna are on the list too then.

Please pray for our neighborhood, it is unsettling to live here right now, it was always such a good place before, at least no more dangerous than any other place, now, it does not feel safe any longer at night, during the day it is OK, plenty of people out, kids playing...