Update...

I've been busy with Elance clients, no other excuse. That's a great excuse to have, though -- don't you think?

I just ordered two yard signs from Vistaprint for the front yard. I figure I may as well hang out my shingle locally too (not just virtually) and see if any neighbors need a copywriter... or know someone who does. I got some business cards, too. Will mail them out with a letter at some point to local businesses who are likely to use copywriters from time to time.

Our neighborhood has been hit with a rash of burglaries the past couple of months. Many homes have been ripped off twice. Cars, guns, flat screen TVs, laptops, PCs are the "grab and go" targets.  They use the stolen cars to get around in until they run out of gas,then abandon them and steal another, often leaving drug paraphernalia behind.

These "scumbags" (John Walsh of America's Most wanted has  a spot-on vocabulary, don't you agree?) break into homes that are unoccupied during the day after they've knocked at the front door to be sure nobody is home... so of course I'm not real thrilled to consider that my door may be knocked on at some point!  Guess if it is, I'll take a peek while dialing 9-1-1 from now on! If no one answers the front door (which I wouldn't do without seeing a legitimate delivery truck), they go around into the back yards and break down a door so they can load where no one can spot them.

I also ordered the aforementioned yard signs as a defensive tactic -- to let the burglars know that someone is in this home 24/7/365. I work out of this home and Jackie and usually several others are here whenever I go shopping or out to teach a class. So ours isn't a home that's likely to suffer a loss.  That said, we ARE a home that watches our own house and our neighbors' homes and always watches as we travel down  adjacent streets to make sure everything looks okay.  We've had relatives ripped off (twice) and so we're perturbed and way more than a little angry.  We have a baseball bat or a golf club at every entry way, great dead bolts and hotel-style bars, and access to a phone at almost every step -- so we're ready should we be visited by these thugs.

We're gonna catch the perpetrators -- it's just a matter of time.  Sooner rather than later, too. There's a phalanx of lay volunteers driving "security duty" and the Pierce County Sheriff's Department is ready to roll at a moment's notice because these dirtbags have recently robbed a nearby bank with guns drawn (driving  a vehicle that was stolen two days earlier from our neighborhood), so the law is gunning for them, too. It'll be a great day when they're apprehended "in the act" and toted away to stand trial and be taken off the streets. Keeping a neighborhood at high alert and stressed out is a lousy way to "make a living"/score $$ for drugs.

Please pray for a quick resolution to this ongoing situation. And if you have any idea who might be benefitting from the thievery, call the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. Thanks!

This weekend for a few hours I'll be teaching Writer's Edge members (and anyone else who's interested) how to self-publish. Jackie and a friend will be working in the yard putting bark into the flower beds while I'm gone.  I also need to go shopping while there's "backup" at the house because I haven't been out in over a week. It's time!