Decision to Privatize

I know I'm being totally paranoid and overdramatic, but I still feel fine with my decision. Here's why I made it.

So a couple of weeks ago we had a very weird experience. It was a Wednesday night. Around 12:30am our dog started whining like crazy. I couldn't figure out what he wanted. Noah feeds him a lot of strange things so I thought maybe he had an upset stomach. I let him out in the backyard but all he did was pee. I went back to bed, but he just kept whining. By this point Brian was also awake. As we lied in bed feeling frustrated, we both noticed the sound of a large diesel engine idling outside of our house somewhere. We both found it extra annoying at this point and wished it would go away. After about 5 minutes the truck finally left, came back briefly, then left for good. The dog settled down and we went back to bed.

The next morning I opened the blinds to our front window so that Gilbert could enjoy the view for the day. I immediately noticed something sitting on our front steps. It looked like a small copper pipe standing on its end. As I left the house I walked around the garage and looked down at the object. I had no idea what it was. It kind of looked like a flashlight, but it kind of didn't. I called Brian on my way to our daycare provider's and asked if he left something on the step. He had no idea what I was talking about.

When Brian got home from work that night, he inspected the item. He was still unsure of what it was. We both thought back to the odd events of the night before and started to feel pretty creeped out. Whatever this object was, it was very conspicuously left on our step. I decided to call the county non-emergency line. I thought the dispatch would just laugh at me, but they sent an officer out within the hour. He showed up and stood in our driveway with binoculars to figure out what it was (I'm sure the neighbors were curious about that). He felt pretty certain that it was a flashlight. He took a long broom from our garage and tipped it over from a safe distance. And yes, it was a small gold flashlight. He inspected it inside and out and determined that it hadn't been tampered with in any way. We shared with him the strange things that happened overnight, and he agreed that it was all very creepy. He asked us to report any additional suspicious sounds or experiences to the police immediately. That really made me uncomfortable. I had all these visions of some weirdo wandering around our house overnight. I worried that maybe this person was tapping into the baby monitor, so I unplugged it. I made booby traps inside the house and lit up the outside like Fort Knox. I posted signs on the community mailbox to ask people to report suspicious activity to the police. (And people did respond by keeping their lights on overnight.) Nothing has happened since, and I've now considered several more innocent possibilities for what happened. But when it comes to Noah I'm not into taking chances. Is some weird stalker following my blog and planning to kidnap Noah from his bedroom overnight? Highly doubtful. (But did you hear that weird story from Kansas City about the 10 month old who went missing from her crib overnight?) So yeah, I'm paranoid, but I'm pretty sure those of you who left a comment asking to continue following are the only people following this blog so it may as well stay that way. Thanks for sticking with me and my craziness!