I woke up with a terrible headache, like I do sometimes. I opened the curtains and looked at the back yard. A very strong wind storm was forecast, and I worry about the big old maple, and the parking lot’s oak. When I opened the blind on the door in the back porch, a strange sight confronted me:
My heavy duty cart was crammed into the corner at a strange angle, the plywood that I had ziptied to the chainlink fence was down and there was a large branch. Did the wind do this ?
I fed the cats then put on my winter coat over my pyjamas. It was chilly, damp and very blustery. Nope, the wind certainly did NOT blow the cart into the corner. It was tied to the chain link fence in a mysterious fashion. The tie was cut from a discarded gas station promotional sign thing – those ugly misshapen fabric ones, on stands. The gas station dumps them in the strip by my patio instead of just throwing them away. The zip tie had definitely been cut off. The strip is typically filled with garbage that no one from the station nor their periodic-cleaner upper ever touches. Two buckets were turned upside down, to better access my yard I guess ?
What creeped me out the most was that whoever had done this carries a knife, a sharp one.
I guess they couldn’t get the gate open (the latches on both sides of the door are working) so they attempted to drag the cart over the chain link fence. Between my 4′ lower elevation and the weight of the cart (about 50 lbs) this wasn’t easily possible. I suppose the branch was being used for extra leverage or maybe it was just in the way ? Maybe they tied up the cart to secure it to come back later, or to tell someone else where to find it ?
My head was throbbing in its horrible way. I felt quite unnerved. I ran around the yard to see if anything else was missing, but nothing was.
I cut it down and brought it inside.
I spent the rest of the day taking pain medication and sat watching the backyard out the window. At first I assumed they had done this at night, but since none of my plants were crushed and there were some logistical details to consider it seems more likely this happened in the very early morning after the sun was up.
The extreme glare from the lights over the gas station’s tire compressor makes it impossible for me to see much of anything in my yard after dark, unless I am standing outside shading my eyes.
The storm was scary but the trees stayed stuck and nothing was damaged.
To compound my stress, there was another horrible gas vapour infiltration that afternoon, with a very strong gas stench in my front yard and inside half the rooms in my house. With a northwest wind gusting up to 68k/hr this is not surprising.
Migraines make me useless. I had lots of time to ruminate about the negative possibilities through my haze of pain and OTC meds.
The storm wound down and when I woke up the next morning most of the pain was gone.
I had put the plywood up in the first place to prevent the cats slipping through the gap by the posts. I decided I would reattach it, with wire this time. I was even madder about the pile of crap dumped in this location. On warmer days, I had been smelling an unpleasant swampy dead smell from over there. I got mad enough to put the buckets, cut sign and broken vaccuum cleaner by their dumpster, so at least these weren’t handy to stand on to climb over the fence.
I modified my plywood with a message. The message reads well in daylight and after dark thanks to all the misdirected light.
Black Picket Fence 