C.S.I. - Granite Falls

It's been a while again since I last entered something.

I injured my back at one of my jobs and haven't been able to do much.
I've made 8 trips to the chiropractor and made my kids plant some of the flowers that still needed to get in the ground, but other than that I've been pretty useless.

This sucks bigtime. I have things to do.

And then one morning as I'm outside looking around and seeing everything that's not getting done, Boy 1 asks me if I'd taken the keys out of the lawnmowers.

And right away I knew there was a problem. Boy 1 and Boy 2 know that I get pissy when a rake or a shovel is not still where it was when I used it last. They would certainly know better than to mess with my more expensive lawn equipment.

After a quick search of the two lawn mowers there were no keys to be found. This meant that it wasn't simply one of my co-workers messing with me. It means that a kid has been to our house and pilfered my keys. So...I had my kids call all of their friends who'd been over recently, knowing full well that no kid would actually admit to taking the keys - but I still felt it necessary to have my kids be aware that the situation is cause for some concern.

It's not a huge deal as lawn mower keys are pretty universal. If you have a Craftsman key, you can steal...um, I mean start...pretty much any Craftsman lawnmower. I know this because mom has a Craftsman lawnmower and two of mine are also that brand. (And yes, all of them were bought new and not stolen!) Plus, the spare keys to the Cub Cadet were still where I left them, which only leaves me with the task of finding keys to fit the "red" lawnmower.

But what really put things in perspective was the sight of the big white "Crime Scene Investigation" van that was parked a few blocks down the road from my little dead-end street today. The house it was parked in front of had the entire yard blocked with that "Do Not Cross" yellow plastic.

It's not a run-down house. And it's not one that leaves the light on all night and has people of various ages that stop by for about a 6 minute visit like some houses that I'd be sure to stop at if I wore a badge, carried a gun, and operated the canine unit. It's just an average house.

I don't know the full story yet, but I've heard there was a multiple stabbing there this morning that left at least one person dead. (Unconfirmed at this time, of course.)
At any rate, there's been a lot of police traffic all day at that address.

Lawnmower keys be damned. Things could be worse.