Calling 911

We had the strangest thing happen late Friday night. It was raining and I was on the computer reading Facebook and blogs, playing solitaire, etc. Around 12:15am, the phone rang. Well, that's not a good time for a phone to ring when you have kids who live out of town, a mother with emphysma, a dad whose health isn't perfect, family, family, family living here. Get the picture??? Fear tried to grip your heart before you can even say hello. I answered the phone and heard "Hello, this is the L.H. Police Department. Are you alright? We just received a 911 call from this number." I said, "No, not from this number. I've not touched my phone and my husband is asleep. It couldn't have been this phone." "Well, we have an officer on the way to check on you." I said, "Thank you." and waited for the officer to come. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door and a police officer was standing on my porch. I asked him in while he was asking me questions. I had to produce my license to prove that I was who I said I was. He said sometimes the rain will cause a phone to dial 911. I never knew that. He left and I went to bed.

Next morning, Vance leaves for golf. I'm asleep on the couch and someone is knocking on my door. It's 8:15. I open the door and there's another police officer standing on my porch. They got another 911 call from our phone. I assured him I was okay and he said to call the phone company and have them come out and check the phone lines. I did and they said they would send someone out. Then, I got a little paranoid. What if someone was tapping into the phone line and dialing 911 and getting the police to come out several times. Would they come out if I really needed them? What if we were being stalked? I have been stalked twice in my life and it's very scary. Once as a 14year old. The guy would call and tell me what I had on, where I had gone that day, who I had talked to, etc. He was following me everywhere. I never saw him, but I got so scared every time the phone rang. This went on a couple of weeks. Finally, he called on a Saturday. We were out in the yard talking to my aunt. I freaked out, started shaking all over and crying. My poor aunt didn't know what to think. Mama ran in the house, answered the phone and cussed the guy out, told him the phone was being monitored by the police and he never called back. I was still scared to go anywhere and wouldn't go anywhere alone or be alone at the house. We never heard from him again and I don't know how much longer he watched me.

Then, after Vance and I got married, an old boyfriend started stalking me. He would sit out in front of our house and watch me. My next door neighbor came over and told me there was a guy watching the house. I looked out and sure enough, it was him. This went on for weeks until he followed us to a tennis court, walked out on the court, introduced himself to Vance and said "I'm -----. I just want you to know that I care deeply for your wife and if I ever hear that you are mistreating her, I'm coming after you." He turned and walked away and never even looked my way. We never saw him again, but I heard from someone at church that he had told them that he was in love with me and he better not ever hear that Vance was mistreating me in any way. I don't really guess you could call him a boyfriend, cause I only went out with him in a group from church. I never even kissed the guy. I remember he called about an hour before my wedding and tried to talk me out of getting married. That's the first indication I had that he really cared for me more than just friendship. I don't know if he ever got married. A friend told me that he always asked about me when he came into town and that went on for about 12 years. He had gotten a good job making a lot of money and traveled all over the world. I sure hope he found a good wife. Why on earth would anybody care that much for me when I had never really known them that well? Like I told Vance tonight - in high school, I was one of the invisible ones. Very quiet, never got in trouble, never called attention to myself, very, very shy; not involved in any clubs. Invisible......

How did I get off on this? I guess those 911 calls just brought all this back to my memory. Something I had buried deep inside until I started typing. Weird, huh? I guess that's why I became a little worried that someone might be messing with the phone lines. But, I'm too old and fat for anybody to want me now, so that should not be a worry. :>)

Vance called me around 10:00 Saturday to tell me that I had a flat tire. Good thing Ruth had called and postponed the photo shoot because of the rain. It would have really upset me to go get in the car and not be able to go. Of course, Ruth would have come and gotten me. We had already talked about that. So, I sat home all day, wanting to go someplace, anyplace..... Just cleaned house. Bummer! And Vance was late coming home because they sat in the club house for a long time waiting on the rain to stop. Some Valentine's Day I had! All alone, except for the dogs, a police officer and a phone repairman. Oh, he found out what was wrong with the phone. It seems the box we are connected in had been run over and crushed. He said it was a long time ago (probably when Chris had his fence put up). One of the wires got a short in it and the rain caused it to dial 911. He disconnected us and connected us someplace else until they could come out on Monday and replace the box. That eased my mind.

Sunday, we had a good church service. Pastor Sammy and Mrs. Sandi tag-teamed preached. It's always good when they do that. They were preaching on the idols we all have that keep us away from spending time with God - like TV, sports, hobbies, Facebook....ouch!

After church, I went to Chad and Tabitha's for lunch. Tab's mama was down and we all enjoyed time together. I walked in and there was this beautiful chocolate brown shag rug in front of their couch. I said "I like your rug." Tabitha said "My Father in heaven gave that to me." Then she explained how she had just been driving and decided to go see a friend. As she drove down her road, she saw the rug on the side of the road. Thrown out with the trash. She spent a few minutes with her friend and came back by the rug. She passed it and then decided to turn around and check it out. She figured it must be all stained up or something, so she rolled it out and there was nothing wrong with it. It looks brand new and there was a matching runner to go with it. God is so good. It looks great in her living room. We looked at the back of it and it really does look brand new.

I came home and took a long nap. I've had a headache since Friday. Sinuses I guess. I almost didn't go to work cause I was feeling puny, but I pushed myself anyway. Still had the headache, but I managed to forget about it while I was working. Had my performance evaluation and got a really good one. We talked about the new timekeeping system and how my office is really noisy in the morning and hard to concentrate. He told me I could come in any time I wanted to as long as I got my 8 hours in or just hang out at the coffee pot or talk to Kim until my office cleared out. He knows that I am faithful to my job and will work the 8 hours or more, so I am officially cleared to work flex-time. I told him to please communicate that to the guys so they won't think I'm just coming in late. He said he would. I get so much work done in the afternoon after 3:30 when I'm alone and between 12:00 and 1:00 when they shut down for lunch. I try to go to lunch at 11:00 so I can be there while they are gone. I probably get as much accomplished during that hour as I've done all morning. We would love to find me an office by myself, but there are none available.

Okay, it's now almost 1:00A.M. Tuesday morning, so I guess I better get to bed. I'm not tired or sleepy, but I need to at least try to sleep. Goodnight and God bless....