False Alarm

I almost walked back in the house to grab my cell phone on the way out the door today. We were just headed over to Jacob's Friday playgroup to drop him off and I'd be back in 15 minutes so I thought "nevermind...I'm not going to need it" as I locked the door behind me and headed for the car.

I pulled up to the house 15 minutes later as 2 police officers were swiftly scaling my driveway with their weapons loaded and aimed at my house. Honking my horn at them to let them know I was behind them probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but as I pulled up in the driveway they wouldn't turn around to look at me and I didn't want to them to turn and shot. It was just a little tap on the horn to say "hey...I'm right here and this is my house". They both gave me extremely dirty looks and as I explained to them I lived here they told me to stay in the car while the checked out my premises. I think I kind of blew the element of surprise they were trying to conduct with my little tap on the horn.

You see, when we bought this house "out in the country" ( that's a big overstatement but compared to where we used to live in a downtown area...this is as "country" as Orange County gets.) I wasn't used to being able to look out the window and just see nothingness. I wasn't used to not sharing a wall with another family or listening to my neighbors toilet flush from my bathroom. We've always lived in an apartment or condo and living in a free standing house was a bit, well, scary. It was really weird having to actually walk down a driveway and across the street to reach the neighbor's house. So...I insisted that we put in a burglar alarm for all those late nights during tax season when I'm all alone with black staring back at me from the windows.

The thing is, I hardly ever use the dumb alarm because every time I do I set it off, not remembering that it's on! It doesn't make any sound at the house when it goes off...just at the alarm company. So until they call me and say "your alarm is going off is everything all right at your house and what's your password - I don't even remember that it's on in the morning when we wake up.

Well, of course I set the alarm last night because Dave was out of town, and of course I forgot to turn it off as we rushed out the door this morning, and of course I didn't listen to that little voice that said grab your cell phone as I rushed out the door. If I had my phone I would have received the call from the alarm company and wouldn't have to return to 2 police officers with loaded guns walking up to my front door.

After they "secured the perimeter" they let me go back in the house after taking my name and birth date, and giving me a lecture about not honking next time in case someone is inside my house and I let the "perpetrator" in on the secret that the police are approaching. I didn't tell them I had just left and tripped the alarm myself. Something about the guns they were holding made me really nervous.

Dang! There goes my one freebie false alarm. Next time the alarm company whacks me with a big fine. I better start leaving big notes for myself reminding me that the alarm is on!