Whew! What a busy, hectic couple of weeks it’s been! I’m happy to say business in the shop has picked up, but that’s kept me away from the computer. And our internet at home went down over the weekend. It was in and out for about a week, but went kaput Friday night. We think it’s because of the rain. The internet was actually out here at the shop yesterday morning, too.

But onto more interesting things. Friday morning, I had a list of estate sales in the Birmingham area to attend. It looked good. The list. But I had a package to ship before leaving town. At 6:30 a.m., I pulled up at the shop. First thing I noticed was a 1″ x 2″ stake neatly leaning up against the side wall. That was odd. So out of place. I wondered what it was doing there? As I pulled forward, I could see something across the glass, front door.

We’d been having problems with that door lately. The oil had leaked out of the thing that keeps it from slamming shut, so that it slammed when people would come in. Lisa had opened it one windy day, and the wind caught it and blew it up against the building. It seemed to be scrubbing at the bottom, so she thought maybe it was bent and pushed on it. It came off in her hand. It was being held on by the thingy at the top. We had to call to get it fixed. The handy man fixed it temporarily, but was waiting on a part. So……

When I glanced at the front door Friday morning, I saw something across it like tape or a strip of something. I’d been gone on Thursday and thought maybe HandyMan had been there and put something in front of the door to keep us from using it. I got out and walked up, saw that it wasn’t tape, but was a strip off the door which seemed to be broken.

I’ve always read of your mind not being able to make sense of what it’s seeing, but that usually refers to carnage or mutilated bodies. But let me tell you, my mind absolutely could not make sense of what I saw. The glass was broken and lying on the floor inside the door. I still thought that somehow the wind had broken the door, so I stepped inside. It wasn’t until I saw the laptop gone that I fully realized what had happened.

I took off to check on things throughout. Everything in the shop looked undisturbed, but I heard a noise. Again a noise I couldn’t make sense of. I could see wind blowing through a window pane, but the noise (which turned out to be wind blowing on a Wal-Mart bag) scared me. I got out of there and called the police. It’s pretty boring from there on out, but turns out the thief had tried to get in the back window first and when they realized the metal grids wouldn’t let them, went to the front.

But here’s the amazing part. The part where I know God had His angels working in my behalf. That laptop? It was past its prime. I used it as a calculator and it would serve a purpose when we went on a trip since our other home laptop is now a lap-desktop. But they left easy money not a foot away. Money that will NEVER be left overnight again. Actually, it’s money that’s rarely even here at all.

How do I stop this from happening again?

Glass pieces after removing the chunks from the floor. The big chunks pictured below:

They had kicked the glass in, but unlocked the door to walk out.

You know what weirds me out the most? Knowing some crack head or meth addict was in My Space, messing with My Stuff. Ewwwwww.