Freak me out, why don't you?

Yesterday the ponies had the day off so I showed up early to get the chicklets from school. They deserved a special treat because they had been getting good reports from their teacher and Macey had been eating all of her dinner (without time outs - this has been a struggle). I decided that we'd all go get Slurpees.

So we're all sucking down our Slurpees in the car on the way home. Just as I'm approaching our house and pressing the garage door opener, I see a man standing across the street from our house. He's dressed all in black, with a black knitted hat on, and an orange jacket. He took particular interest in watching me pull into the garage. I watched him write something down on the clipboard he was carrying, and then he slowly approached the house.

Doing a quick memory check, I didn't remember seeing any kind of utility truck around the neighborhood. I also didn't see any logo on his jacket to indicate that he was representing a company or selling something. I closed the garage door and picked up the phone.

Yep, I called 911. I wasn't panicked, but I wasn't about to leave my car with a strange man approaching the house. Although I'm short and I think I'm pretty tough for a chick, I don't think I'd be any match for man-strength. Truthfully I'd be less worried about me than I would for my beauties. I don't have confidence that I'd be able to keep them both safe if this guy was some kind of lunatic.

When I started to explain the situation to the 911 operator it dawned on me that this wasn't an emergency and I should have probably just called the police department. I mentioned this and she said yes, please call back on the police departments number.

Still in my car, I called the police department. Luckily the girls were quiet because of the Slurpees and I could talk to the police dispatcher. She asked if I could get into the house without going back outside, and I said yes. She said I should just go in, and even if he rings the bell I don't have to answer. Not that I would anyway, since I never ever answer the door if Craig is not home. So I went inside, and he was ringing my doorbell.

This was not at all surprising, since he watched me pull in and knew I was home. I whispered to the dispatcher "He's at my front door!" and she said "Just don't answer if you don't want to. If he doesn't go away call us back and we'll send a car out. Right now he hasn't really done anything so we can't really do anything for you." We ended the call but I continued to clutch my phone and peek out the front window, being careful not to be seen.

Sure enough, in about two minutes he went on his way. I called Craig immediately and asked when he'd be home. Hearing the strain in my voice he asked what was wrong, so I told him. He said he'd be home in less than ten minutes. As we hung up the house phone rang, and it was the police dispatcher. She sent an officer over to check the guy out, and he had a permit to solicit door to door for the phone company. Oops. I didn't really want him to be hassled by the cops. Well, at least he was legit.

Craig was taking more than ten minutes to get home, and I was getting a little nervous. About what, I'm not sure, but I just wanted my man in the house ASAP. When he finally came home he told me the man's name and what company he worked for. I asked "Did you drive around the neighborhood until you found him?" Craig said "Yes. When I found him I pulled over and asked what he was selling. The guy walked up and said 'Did you call the cops on me?' and I said 'Well, you kinda freaked out my wife' ".

Great. Now I got the guy pissed at me, and he knows where I live. Ugh.

However, he gave Craig his sales pitch. Turns out he works for our phone company, and as loyal customers we were eligible for a special deal, blah blah blah. Craig said the guy didn't seem mad or anything, which is good cause then I would not want to be home alone again for some time.

Everything worked out just fine, and next time I see something like that I'm just going to drive right past the house. Better to be safe than sorry. Craig didn't even make me feel dumb for getting all paranoid. That's just bonus points added to his valiant deed of driving around the neighborhood to find the man who made his wife twitchy.

Now that's love for ya.