Friday 25 June 2010

Burglars & snakes. There's paradise for ya...

Maybe it was just a matter of time, the state of crime being what it is in these parts, but we've been robbed. Almost everything of value is gone: laptop, jewellery, DVD player - even my LL Bean backpack, apparently appropriated by the thieves to carry their haul away. I'm trying to be upbeat but seriously? It was horrible. It still is. I alternate between wanting to throw away whatever the thieves left behind, scrub the house again and again with every detergent and antimicrobial agent known to man, and planning elaborate and extremely painful retribution for the perps.

Can there be a silver lining to this cloud? The answer may surprise you. Come join me as I post today on the Novel Spaces author blog: Adversity: Friend or Foe?

Oh, the snakes. I promised snakes. Yup, we've been busy around here. As the repairman finished fitting a new back door to replace the one the thieves broke down to gain entry to the house, he trod wearily out the front gate - it was nighttime, after all, and he'd had a long day - only to start dancing around and shrieking because he had almost stepped on - you got it - a mapepire right outside our gate. Mapepire is the local name for fer de lance, a deadly pit viper. We have lots of them around here, and believe me, they're not what one wants to face after a hard day's - and night's - work.

Never a dull moment, I tell ya.

12 comments:

Jenny Beattie said...

OMG, I am so sorry to hear about that horrible experience. Thank god the repairman didn't actually step on the snake....

Heading over to Novel Spaces, now.

Chennette said...

oh no Liane. That's awful. Did it happen while the house was empty? That's so ugh skin-crawling to think of people in your house looking over and stealing your things.

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Oh Liane that is so awful. I'm so sorry to hear you've been burgled. Rotten sods.

Poor repair man must have nearly had a heart attack to stand on that.

Liane Spicer said...

JJ, thank you for the commiserations, and thank God indeed he didn't step on the snake. Snakebite drama on top of everything else would have been much too much.

Liane Spicer said...

Chennette, mercifully no one was at home at the time.

It really is awful. I've been in a funk since, and totally disinclined to even start looking for a replacement laptop (there goes the little vacation I was planning for July). I have a few wonderful friends, however, who refuse to let me wallow in my misery. They've been taking me out for comfort food, dispensing hugs liberally, and MAKING ME LAUGH when I thought it would take me months at least to even summon a smile.

And I've found the laptop I want. Somehow going through the process of looking and comparing has been helping me to move forward.

Liane Spicer said...

Debs, rotten sods indeed! I keep having to ask God's forgiveness for wishing them the most dire of fates!

That poor repairman. And he's no spring chicken either. Now that it's all over, though, the image in my mind of him jumping around and screaming just gives me the giggles.

Chris Stovell said...

Sorry to be late getting over here, but I'm even sorrier to hear about your dreadful experience. I know it's not much consolation to you right now, but my thoughts are with you. Cx

Liane Spicer said...

Chris, much appreciated. It's going on two weeks since it happened and I'm getting over it nicely. Shopping for new gear certainly helps! :)

Anonymous said...

This is a delayed comment : I am starting to feel like you that it's only a matter of time before I become a victim again. I was so angry when I read about "your" burglars I didn't want to comment because I didn't think you would have appreciated those 4-letter words. My neighbor's house was broken into a couple weeks ago and someone was in my yard two nights ago and chased away with her shriek by a eight year old neighbor. Maybe you should consider an alarm system.

Liane Spicer said...

akalol, I doubt those 4-letter words would have upset me because I've been using so many of them myself this last couple of weeks. While workmen were here over the weekend fitting security doors we saw signs that someone had been in our yard again. This sh** has got to stop.

A friend had warned me that the back door was vulnerable. I didn't make changing it a priority and I've certainly come to regret that inaction. Now both he and you have suggested an alarm system. Thanks for the advice. I'm looking into it right now.

A nice ladylike little Glock would help matters too, but you know those are illegal for law-abiding citizens. Doesn't seem to be a problem for the criminals, though...

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

Sorry to hear about the robbery.

Do the police have any leads?

Liane Spicer said...

nyc/caribbean, the police said there were no fingerprints and unless they made a raid somewhere and found the items that was pretty much the end of it. We got a few leads of our own recently, though, from friends in the area.