Madness In My Method

Our next door neighbors' kids have taken to shooting their Air Soft rifle.

The first time was earlier today at around 7-8pm, shortly after Kevin and I got home from work. Kevin came darting out of his room with Eileen following closely behind after she saw the pissed look in his eye. They were shooting just outside their bedroom and at one point even managed to hit the window. Kevin spoke to them and issued a stern warning that they had better stop aiming towards our house and/or any of our stray cats.

They didn't listen.

At right before 2am they were doing it again. The first shot woke me up, but I was still dazed and not even sure if I was roused by an external noise or just a noise in my dream. Then came a couple more shots, and I instantly knew what it was. I can't say for sure, but it sounded like they were aiming for our windows (or at least hitting them from bad aim). This worries me more than anything, because I know the strays roam into the front yard quite often via a path just under my two windows.

I got up and carefully peeked through one of the mini blinds, quite aware that this might be a retaliation stunt by the brats, if not just pure stupidity. I didn't see anything at first. I looked some more and just at that moment saw a cigarette get thrown from their front porch and a second later the lights in the house get turned off. Then drove by a police car. At that point I decided to make a report of disturbance, seeing as how there was no question where the noise came from, and someone else had obviously heard it. While I was on the phone, Jeanne and Tom came out - it had also awoken Jeanne, as one of their windows is right next to mine and also faces the neighbors' house.

I got off the phone and went back to being nosy through a slit in the mini blinds. I watched as the officers in now two cars carefully approached the house. Right at that moment their mini van drove up, as neither of their two cars were in the driveway previously (while the cat's away, I guess). The phone rang - the 911 operator was calling to see if we had a description from our earlier encounter. Sadly, I had to wake up Kevin and Eileen for that. Kevin provided a description of the miscreants (you know I just wanted to use that word somewhere in this post). I hung up the phone and again checked for warning signs from the neighbors', but the police had already left. Then the mini van left for a couple of minutes and then returned. My guess was that they took home one or more of the little jokers - party's over.

The dad just pulled up at about 3:15ish. I bet he was completely unaware. I hope the kids get in trouble with the parents. More than anything, I hope someone turns them around and pops them in the ass with their own Air Soft just to teach them a lesson.

I've since taken a shower as well as type this up in an effort to calm down and relax. Nothing like having rifle shot noises in the middle of the night after an earlier confrontation to startle you awake.

Shitheads.