Regarding scaring them off. Would have been the smart thing. And, I was blinded. My house had been sorta burglarized twice in the previous year, I'm sure by a couple of neighborhood kids who could crawl in through the dog door from the run into the garage. I wanted to catch 'em. Actually, I wanted to catch 'em pretty badly. I was sure it was them, as the dog hadn't barked, and the dog knew them. I was really surprised when the figure I saw turned out to be bigger than they are.

I hadn't wondered why she hadn't turned on any lights, as I wouldn't have needed any, but then I live here. There was a street light shining in the front window, and a night light in the hall I had for out-ot-town visitors. Apparently there was enough for her to see.

Was a wake-up call to me. And I knew that virtually every tragedy like that involves a series of breakdowns. In this case it was the previous burglaries and my wanting to catch the people, my car being gone, my sister not being able to sleep, none of which was all that usual, and certainly not on the same night. The biggest breakdown was in my thinking. I don't have anything in this house, or the world, worth what that mistake could have meant.

I remember as a kid reading about two little old ladies living in a big house in a rural area. They would pop a paper bag when they heard noises, and it was always, according to this story, enough to scare off the burglars.

Arf