About four minutes after I posted that at work I received a call from the county sheriff--from my home--to tell me that I had been burgled. Both computers, a tv, other small electronics. Amazing, a neighbor spotted this, stood on her brakes, backed into the neighbor's driveway and got the license #. My cats are okay, and I wasn't home, so no home invasion. That's good. But everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is on my computer, little of it behind even a password. So I may be shit out of luck and fighting a credit and id battle for a while.

Here is the boilerplate message I sent to friends just now:

Hi-

This note has been composed on my old laptop computer and sent to a few folks to let you know that I'm offline for now. The house was burgled this morning (2-18-05) and both computers were stolen, along with all of the peripherals. This is a problem since a lot of financial information was in them, and because I work at home and many of my files are gone. Hopefully the computers will be returned, because a neighbor interrupted the burglary and got the license number and description of the car and three young burglars.

Of course, all of my email that was downloaded is gone along with all of my addresses, etc. (if they find my computer I will be so relieved--it even has my latest tax return in PDF form in the files). I'm sending this via web mail to addresses in that address book.

I am going to have to replace two computers, their peripherals, a tv, and a broken turntable pretty quickly, but it won't be instantaneous. Meanwhile, the kids are okay, the cats, who were in the house at the time are okay, and thankfully I wasn't at home, though I usually work at home on Fridays. The burglars evidently knocked on the door first (footprints in the grass from where they parked) and with no response, broke in. I wonder, if I'd answered the door, if they'd have pushed their way in. So, if it was going to happen, better to not be at home, and the cats hid like all cats should. (Beth, who called it in, said the sheriffs were kind of cute, because they kept telling each other "shut the door--the cats have to stay in!") At another juncture, the sheriff on duty took the crime scene guy through the house. They got to my bedroom and he told the CSI guy "they ransacked this one good." To which I had to reply, "actually, they didn't touch this one. It's my mess." Really funny--but here is where I keep my dismantled antiques, and I'd dumped a load of clean laundry on my bed this morning, planning to fold and put it away tonight.

The contractor who worked on my house when I moved in is coming over tomorrow to look at the door, and we'll see about not only repairing but reinforcing it.

I'll send this now, and in the next couple of days I'll try to check my mail once or twice a day, but don't expect to hear from me much for a week or so. I'm going to be on the phone a lot to make sure that I track the credit information and block any accounts that might have been compromised. I've already arranged to close my checking account and rearrange direct deposits and withdrawals.

It sure would be easier if I had my computer to do all of this work. . .

Amos has my email address, but I think he has one that is blocked. So ask Amos for my address if you want to write and don't mind that I won't see it right away--but instead of the stillyriversage part, use dwy5812syc@ Put that in front of the other part that Amos has and you can reach me.

This is the pits, by the way. Everything was backed up--but they got the backup drive. Little shits dropped and broke a perfectly good turntable, too. Cassette cases strewn on the floor like leaves on the strand (isn't that a poem or song?)

I'll recover, I'm mostly just pissed off at all of the lost papers (my book chapter, my thesis, several MS level papers) and photos and such.

SRS