Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2010-07-10 10:55 pm
edenfalling) wrote2010-07-10 10:55 pm
burglary aftermath and related rambling
After the madness yesterday, I called my dad around 9am, and my landlords around 9:30am. Then I slept from 10am to 3pm, after which I got up to run errands -- both because they needed doing, and because that's what I'd planned to do on Friday anyway, and I was not going to let some fucking thief throw me off that much. Or something like that, I dunno.
Anyway, it began pouring rain two minutes after I got home with my groceries, so laundry did not, alas, happen. It will tomorrow, though.
Hmm. I spoke to Vicky, Susan, and Cat on the phone about the burglary, and to PM (my manager), and to the nice teller at my bank who comes into the smoke shop almost daily to buy cigarettes.
I was mostly okay through the evening, but when it got dark, I turned on significantly more lights than I usually do, and after a while I pulled a hammer out of my closet and kept it at hand. Also, I found that I could not sleep until I turned on a nightlight in the kitchen, put the hammer on my nightstand, and held my railroad spike in my hand under the sheet. Which made me feel kind of silly, but what the hell -- it worked, which is the main point.
Today my landlord came over to talk about window safety options. We have agreed that he will make or buy screens in fixed frames that can fit where a storm window would usually go, and be nailed or screwed into place. It's not objectively a lot of protection, but I think just the extra few minutes of work (and the resulting noise) should discourage a lot of would-be thieves. Also, he replaced the broken Venetian blind, which is good because I no longer have a visual reminder right at the foot of my bed, and he bought some expandable exercise/closet bars to put in the windows and keep them from being lifted further than they are already by virtue of sitting on the little expandable screens.
Also also, and mostly unrelatedly, he took away the kitchen drawer whose front panel fell off and which I kept not getting around to fixing. He says he will rebuild the drawer and bring it back on Monday, when he works on the windows.
Anyway, then I went in to work, which was slow and also a good way of both getting me out of the apartment and grounding me back into my everyday life. So that was helpful.
Now I am going to try doing some writing or editing or something of a creative nature, because A) it is no longer so hot I can't think, like it was all last week, and B) I want to reassert my self and my life. Which means words.
The bedroom window's still locked, and I still have my hammer nearby, but it's a little further away than last night and I think I may not need to be actually holding the railroad spike tonight. So yeah. I will work through this.
Anyway, it began pouring rain two minutes after I got home with my groceries, so laundry did not, alas, happen. It will tomorrow, though.
Hmm. I spoke to Vicky, Susan, and Cat on the phone about the burglary, and to PM (my manager), and to the nice teller at my bank who comes into the smoke shop almost daily to buy cigarettes.
I was mostly okay through the evening, but when it got dark, I turned on significantly more lights than I usually do, and after a while I pulled a hammer out of my closet and kept it at hand. Also, I found that I could not sleep until I turned on a nightlight in the kitchen, put the hammer on my nightstand, and held my railroad spike in my hand under the sheet. Which made me feel kind of silly, but what the hell -- it worked, which is the main point.
Today my landlord came over to talk about window safety options. We have agreed that he will make or buy screens in fixed frames that can fit where a storm window would usually go, and be nailed or screwed into place. It's not objectively a lot of protection, but I think just the extra few minutes of work (and the resulting noise) should discourage a lot of would-be thieves. Also, he replaced the broken Venetian blind, which is good because I no longer have a visual reminder right at the foot of my bed, and he bought some expandable exercise/closet bars to put in the windows and keep them from being lifted further than they are already by virtue of sitting on the little expandable screens.
Also also, and mostly unrelatedly, he took away the kitchen drawer whose front panel fell off and which I kept not getting around to fixing. He says he will rebuild the drawer and bring it back on Monday, when he works on the windows.
Anyway, then I went in to work, which was slow and also a good way of both getting me out of the apartment and grounding me back into my everyday life. So that was helpful.
Now I am going to try doing some writing or editing or something of a creative nature, because A) it is no longer so hot I can't think, like it was all last week, and B) I want to reassert my self and my life. Which means words.
The bedroom window's still locked, and I still have my hammer nearby, but it's a little further away than last night and I think I may not need to be actually holding the railroad spike tonight. So yeah. I will work through this.