Okay - back in my right mind again! Or at least as close to it as I'm going to come. That last entry was a real good example of how anxiety can impact a person's thinking - and by that I mean even their logical reasoning skills.

Of course I can keep the same phone number. And I'm not dead in the water just because I don't have my trusty digital camera I had gotten so used to. This is an opportunity to use the camera that Rob has given me on long term loan ( and I admit, I'm more afraid of it than I am the meetinghouse snake)

Oh, speaking of the meeting house snake....

my Mom and I thought of an excellent way in which he could be of help to me. Mom suggested that I get a cheap designer look alike handbag, we pop the snake in there with maybe a hot water bottle to keep him toasty warm and comfortable....then hang that bag by the back door where the last one was. Leave the door unlocked, and if lightning struck the same place twice - surprise!

She came up today and gave me some money to replace my advair disc, while Dad helped The Hub install motion detector lights outside. It was so nice of them, and especially calming to see them.

Of course, now the back yard is lit up like a used car lot. The motion detector goes on every time a cat, or rabbitt, or squirrell or anything goes by. At first The Hub couldn't get it to go off at all.

"So, you're saying that if somebody enters the back yard at all it goes off?"
I asked.

"I'm saying if somebody enters THE COUNTY it goes off" The Hub grumbled. He always grumbles while doing projects at home, more so now, that he can't grumble on the job. Well, he could, but it's not exactly inspiring to have your handyman wandering around muttering to himself.

I think my practically "gone tharn" ( to quote Watership Down) anxiety had to do with sort of re-living the time a guy got in my kitchen up in MA, and the greyhound scared him off before he could do me too much harm. But that's all in the past, nothing like that happened this time.

Winston was there to protect me - and looking back on it, he really was in a protective stance. Winston, and I think mastiffs in general, have this thing where they turn their bodies sideways to try to form a barrier between you and what they perceive as a threat. I remember thinking "I'm not gonna bother to see what he's barking at, he's blocking the door anyway." The police officer who responded to the call has a female OEM, whom he said reacts similarly to "intruders". Long live big dogs!!

Still, even though I'm starting to feel better and come out of that shocked-what-the-heck-is going-on attitude, I'm still pretty mad. I hope the thief stepped right in one of Winston's ploppers. A big one. And slipped. Really I do.