TITS II and Spitting Rocks!!!

Rocks! I am ready to spit rocks!!! Or ready to spit something, but I'm not quite sure what. Last night the Kids and I were outside so they could "do business" around nine o'clock. It wasn't very late. And, last night was Wednesday night, here, in The Sandbox, or what is the equivalent of Friday night in the States. Our weekend is Thursday and Friday, so this morning - Thursday morning - is what would be considered a Saturday morning in the states... I woke up early - and let The Boy out to do business - but didn't go outside with him. He does what he needs to do and comes right back in. It is still pretty early and too early for our morning "leash aerobics" and besides, I hadn't even had coffee or a cigarette yet. The Boy comes in. I make coffee. I turn the TV on, unload the dishwasher, etc.

The Boy has an infection in one of his "digits" - he's got a very nasty infection in one of his front toes and it is severe enough so that the vet is actually considering removing the entire toe - if we can't get the infection cleared up with what is now our third round of antibiotics. Poor little guy... So, we haven't been walking as much as we would all like to - what I often refer to as "leash aerobics," and on top of The Boy's toe infection - I've got a bad knee - but that's another saga. So, instead of walking, after we're all awake and up and fed, and I'm sufficiently caffeined and nicotined up, we head outside into our totally enclosed back yard so that the Kids can "do business." I've got the newspaper with me and I'm going to just sit outside on my chaise with the Kids and enjoy the bright blue beautiful sky and the sunny 100 degree morning.

I go to sit on my chaise and I notice a rock on it - not a boulder or anything - but a rock - bigger than a "pebble." Hmmph. Where'd this come from. And then I REALLY noticed... Someone or several someones [guessing teenagers but can't say for certain] has tossed rocks over our "privacy wall" all OVER our back yard, covering the patio, and INTO the pool! I am FURIOUS! No. Furious doesn't quite describe my state of agitation. That's putting it mildly. I immediately call our compound Security and they come and ask "do you have suspects?" Ahh, yeah, I do, but since it obviously happened sometime last night after nine o'clock and before I came out here this morning and I didn't actually see them, then I can't identify them, and so even if I tell you who I think might be responsible that's not NEARLY enough for me to be saying "so and so did it."

Security is very nice and very professional. I am given all sorts of promises that the area will be patrolled more heavily at night from now on and that they will keep an eye out for teenagers who are wandering. The security guys were actually pretty nice - and then their supervisor called me after they left to see if there was any damage to the house. No, no damage to the house; just a yard and a pool full of rocks - from the gravel pit next behind our house. [A gravel pit which serves what purpose?!? I have no earthly idea. It's just there.] Lovely. Just freakin' lovely. I spend an hour cleaning rocks up out of the yard, the patio, my flower beds AND an hour cleaning the rocks out of the pool. Whatever.

I called the boys that live directly behind us "little terrorists" to their faces and in front of their Dad this past January when they were laying outside under a tree late at night making howling sounds just to get The Boy going - he'd bark - and then the two boys would laugh and howl some more. A confrontation DID occur, Security got called, and I was the one who almost ended up getting hauled off and in trouble - just because I called the teenage boys "TITS." [See, TITS: Terrorists in Training.] So, that certainly didn't score me any points insofar as being a nice neighbor - but I've not had any problems with those two boys, since. I've also called Security on some of the other neighborhood boys as well with situations we've had which involve their taunting and tormenting my Kids and over firecrackers going off at the crack of dawn. Okay, more points against me and for sure I am NOT known as the "nice lady with the two four-legged Kids who lives in the house on the corner."

Anyway, so tonight, sometime before nine o'clock, the Kids and I go out so that they can "do business," and we come back in - my DH is over at a friend's house - and just as I'm getting ready to put my "TV watching uniform on," I hear boys. [It's never girls - I guess the girls must not ever be allowed out - I NEVER see girls - just groups of young adolescent / teenage boys.] I go into the study and peek out the blinds and there's a group of ten or twelve teenage boys - yes, all locals - milling about across the street directly in front of our house. [Sure, you're keeping an eye out on our house with extra patrol cars! Doing a fine job, I might add.] So I call Security and am told they are sending a car right away. Great.

At this point I've grabbed my cell phone - so I can take photos! - and I'm walking outside to keep an eye on the boys - as they start heading up the street next to our house - and I call Security back to tell them to send the Security patrol up Raspberry Street and not to come to our house on Main Street - we're on the corner - the group of boys continues walking up the street as Security shows up - or what I thought was Security for MY call and what does the Security officer do? HE PULLS OVER A LITTLE JEBLEY WORKER ON HIS SCOOTER! I have been outside - I saw the little worker leave the house he's employed at and get on his scooter to go home. The poor guy has, no doubt, been working for fourteen or fifteen hours today - tomorrow - Friday - is probably his ONLY day off every week - he's looking forward to finally being done working for the week and enjoying his ONLY "weekend" night off - and he's getting pulled over by Security - for DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHATSOEVER . The group of teenagers has continued on their merry way and is now out of sight!

I see the Security officer asking for the worker's ID and license or whatever - and then the Security worker goes back to his truck - and after a minute or two of waiting, a second Security officer shows up - and then the little worker's employer or sponsor comes out of a house across the street to talk to the first Security officer. The little worker IS NOT THE PROBLEM! But that's Security's main concern right now. I go to talk to the second Security officer that has shown up for this non-existent problem and explain that I'd called Security five minutes ago - that I'd had a major incident with rocks - that I was told that Security would be more diligent in patrolling and on the lookout for teenagers - and THIS LITTLE GUY THAT'S DONE NOTHING is getting a load of crap just for being an imported worker! Mr. Second Security officer says, "Yes Security is coming. There have been two accidents tonight. We are very busy." Busy, my ass you're busy. Busy harassing little workers - but stopping a bunch of teenagers which would be SO MUCH MORE PRUDENT is off the radar for you, I guess. The little worker is allowed to drive off and both Security guys leave, leaving me standing there with steam coming out of every orifice in my head!

A few minutes later the Security officers - two of them - responding to MY call show up. I bring them into the back yard and show them the bag of rocks that I'd had to pick up earlier and explain what the problem is and how NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE THAT THERE ARE DOZENS - YES, DOZENS!!! of teenagers all wandering around the streets - doing absolutely NOTHING constructive - and how I was promised that there'd be more patrols on the look out, blah, blah, blah... Again, to pacify me, I am told by this Security crew that there will be additional patrols in the area. Okay. Good. Go nab all the teenagers in the entire compound and lock them up. Yeah - I know - unrealistic of me to even consider this as a solution, but...

Not an hour - forty-five minutes at most - after Security leaves, I'm sitting in the study, I have the back screen door open - The Boy is in his room [his crate in our bedroom] and The Baby is laying at my feet - and I hear "WHAP!" What the hell was that? The Baby starts barking - The Boy isn't at all concerned and doesn't even bother to get up - and The Baby and I head outside to the back yard. WHATTHEFUCK!!! I've got ROCKS AND TOILET PAPER in my pool!!!!! I am outraged and for a brief second considering my own vigilante justice - but since I didn't see anyone throw the crap into my pool and by the time I get my shoes on, grab both the house phone and my cell phone and get out the front door to go around the back - nothing - there is no one there. I heard the "WHAP" at exactly 9:47P. I call Security. Again, two Security officers show up. I bring them into the back yard and show them that I've got rocks and toilet paper in my pool and explain that two other Security officers had just barely left, after promising that the area would be patrolled and now, thanks to the diligence on their part, I've got more rocks AND toilet paper in my pool. Mr. Security says to me, "Oh, we are very sorry, Madam. We are very busy tonight." Yeah, busy harassing little workers - but NOT the fucking teenagers who are harassing me!!! More personal assurances from the two Security officers who are going to be on the shift all night promising me that I will have no further problems with teenage boys. Okay. Security leaves; I'm getting ready for bed... Thursday night is "crime night" on Discovery Channel. Can't miss that. Perhaps I'll learn something that will help me solve the crime in my own back yard - but doubtful, since tonight's first show is on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians.

Before I can even turn the TV on, and before I've got the lights all out, and the house locked up, etc., I hear another "WHAP." The time is 22:49, or 10:49P. Yes. Those little motherfuckers are at it again! I race out the front door with no shoes on and cell phone in camera mode to get to the back of the house and there's no one there. [Here's a clue, though: It took me all of about four and a half seconds to get out of the house and around back - if whoever it is just threw something into my pool then they have to be close because otherwise I would have been able to see someone leaving, right? Yes, I am getting quite the crime-solving education from the true-crime shows on Discovery Channel!] I am on the phone, dialing Security, AGAIN, and telling them that they have to send someone immediately to our house. Within three or four minutes, Security shows up, only one Security officer this time - guess I don't get two anymore - because Security is probably just writing me off as some "crazed lady who lives with two four-legged Kids whose husband isn't home calling Security for the umpteenth time over teenagers just out having fun by throwing crap in her pool." There is more toilet paper in the pool - no more rocks - just what looks like an ENTIRE ROLL OF TOILET PAPER which is now dissolving into a fibrous mess in my pool. I am beyond furious!!!

This time I am not calmly and quietly talking to the "nice" Security officer. Oh no. I'm on off on a tirade about how we as American's were invited to come live here, that this is supposed to be an American compound and that because it isn't anymore we all have to suffer the consequences and that the boys who are out and about causing problems - no matter what the problems are - nothing happens to them because their Daddy's are bigwigs with the company whose compound we live on - and that we are supposed to be able to feel safe here and there is NO feeling safe when I can't even enjoy my own back yard and that now I've got crap to clean out of my pool again tomorrow and why, why, why isn't ANYONE DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS!!! And that I'm calling the head of Security on Saturday morning to complain that Security DOESN'T care about things that are actually happening - that Security NEVER stops the young men racing their cars through the compound at all hours and doing whatever else but up to no good - but will send TWO Security cars to stop a little worker that has done nothing wrong - and that something has to be done with these little twerps [I refrained from calling them TITS, and that was a good thing] who believe they are above the law and that it's time someone puts a stop to this!!!

Mr. Security was kind enough to let me vent my outrage on him and really, really tried to convince me that he was going to be patrolling all night and that he would be in our area as much as possible, that he was going to go off right then to round up teenagers and keep them away as best as he possibly could and that I should feel free to call if I had any more problems. [Oh, don't you worry. Security's telephone number is on speed dial on our home phone and on my cell phone and if I have to, then I'm going to sit up - outside in my back yard - all night to make sure that whoever is throwing crap into my pool is caught!] In the meantime, I really am tired, I'm missing my crime shows on Discovery Channel, and I just dread getting up to see my pool filled with more rocks and toilet paper and whatever else the little TITS decide might be fun to throw in it. All I can say is that they don't want me to catch them. Because, because, because - I'll, I'll, I'll - ahh hell. Even if I catch them, there's nothing that I can do, and probably nothing will be done to them either. We'll just have to wait and see what Security says on Saturday because I AM going to request that additional cement blocks be added to our privacy wall AND for security cameras to be installed!

[The two photos at the top do not show the rocks - or the toilet paper rolls - I didn't take pictures - I should have. But, didn't. The very top photo shows where we put an extension up on the privacy wall - the wooden section above the cement blocks - because when we first got to this house the neighbors used to stand in their windows - yes - they really did - and watch us while we were outside using the pool! So much for "privacy." The photo below that is where we had the back yard enlarged - which is where the Kids "do their business;" in between the cement block wall and the house behind the wall is where the gravel pit that has no purpose is. And the bottom photo of this post? Well, that's just a picture of two very, very adorable Kids keeping close eyes on a triple-chinned whale floating in a pool that has NO rocks OR toilet paper in it...]