Happy Holidays, punks.

So, J and I made an unpleasant discovery yesterday. The wind was blowing pretty badly, and we thought we heard some stuff flying around outside. He looked out the window and saw that two of the slats in my gate had broken off at the top. Sheeeeeesh, we thought! That's *some* wind!

I then went outside and discovered that one of the posts on my fence had also broken, and the fence was swaying in the wind. That fence cost me $1800 six years ago and has been absolute crap. My father has had to shore it up every year in one place or another with long bolts, and the stretch that was swaying yesterday is one of the last sections that my dad hasn't had to secure, so I wasn't surprised.

As I'm looking at the fence, though, I spot something on ground near the gate. It was the solar screen from the window by the gate. It was on the ground and twisted on one side, and the two pieces of broken-off slat from the gate were under it. "Good grief!" I'm thinking. "What's going on out here?" But my immediate concern is the fence since the whole thing is just swaying now, like it's going to come down.

I go in and tell J, and he grabs his tools, and we go out and secure the fence, at least temporarily. We also bring the screen in to look at it. It's fixable, so he bends it back and replaces it. But the more we think about it, somethin' ain't right.

We look at the gate. The broken pieces were inside the fence, but you know what? They broke off the other way. And the gate is pulled out by an inch or more at the bottom. We look closer at the screen. There's a thumb mark. Shit. This wasn't wind damage - someone tried to break in.

J called the cops, and a really cool deputy came out. He verified that it was an attempted break-in - he pointed out some other evidence that we hadn't noticed, and he said that there had been a rash of break-ins in the cul-de-sac around the corner. He said he had some suspects, but the other people hit wouldn't press charges, including one lady who had been hit multiple times. I know this lady - she doesn't speak English, and to be honest, I'm surprised she even called the cops. J told him that we'd press charges if they caught anyone, though. Here's the best part about the damage to my gate: the gate on the other side was unlocked. Idiots. Criminals and idiots - great combination.

So, we'll be stepping up our safety precautions around the casa. We're not sure what scared the punks away from actually breaking into the house after they'd already damaged it and started their attempt to break in, but whatever it was, hopefully it's permanent and they won't try here again. We'll keeping a vigilant eye out, though, and we'll be making sure the new house has an alarm system installed before we move in there. Too bad that bad people force us to live in wired fortresses, isn't it?