So, how was your Labor Day weekend? You might say, “Oh it was a blast, we got together with family and ate some food.” Or, as I have heard since the holiday, “We stayed in and let everyone else get drunk.”

Oh! Ummm…ok. I’m glad you had a good time.

Anyway, I’m betting that most of your weekends weren’t nearly as interesting as mine. It started off as a normal enough trip to Oklahoma, and ended in a fight for survival!

Ok, ok. It was more of a “hunker down and pray that we don’t get hit by any stray bullets for survival” kind of thing.

Yeah, I said bullets!

Stray ones!

You see, my dear grandmumsy lives in one of the most … interesting … neighborhoods in Tulsa and sometimes the good folks down there just get their dander up. Here’s the dilly-o:

Sunday night, about 11:30, I heard gunshots. First there were five or six, then there was a lull, and then there were three more. Well, the third one hit something. I was up off the floor (actually, I was on an air mattress) and looking out the window just as fast as you can say “Sweet Onion Chutney!” I couldn’t really see anything, so I went to the room where my mother and sister were sleeping. They informed me that the bullet had come through their window. Yeah. We turned on the light and looked around, and found that the bullet had not only gone through the window, but had also gone through a wall on the other side of which was the bathroom. The bullet then ricocheted off the opposite wall in the bathroom and finally came to rest beside the toilet.

We called the police (obviously), and they sent someone over. The policeman asked us several questions, one of which was, “So, are you ready to pack up and move down here?” You’ve got to be kidding me. Anyway, a detective was on the way, but he was taking so long that I told the officer to call him and have him pick up some donuts for us, as by this time it was morning, and we might as well have some breakfast. He laughed at me. Hey, no harm in trying. While we were waiting for the detective, I did my nails. He was taking forever! Once, he got there, though, the rest went pretty fast, he took some pictures, bagged the bullet, and left.

On his way out, the officer told us what had happened:

Two girls were trying to break into a car at the apartment kind of across the way from us. One of them sliced her hand on the broken window, and the other went over to a man who always sits on a chair outside his apartment, and she started “chippin’ her teeth at him,” as the officer said. Well, he just ups and pulls out his pistol and starts shooting at nothing in particular. I guess he just wanted to scare them; hence the window-busting bullet. What makes me really mad is his total disregard to one of the most important commandments of gun safety:

Always know your target and what lies beyond it – especially if it’s me!

So, yeah! My Labor Day weekend was a blast, too!

Update:

The Mall Diva is my teen-aged daughter, making her blogging debut. She knows the rules of gun safety, having earned her DNR Firearm Safety Certificate five years ago.
– Night Writer

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