Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2007. Mattie was five years old and was at the US Botanical Gardens. A family tradition around the holidays. While walking around the warm and humid Gardens, which was wonderful in the cold days of winter, we came across this LONG plant. Mattie stood underneath it and we laughed because it looked like he had a big head of green hair.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 22,129,231
- Number of people who died from the virus: 372,384
This afternoon, after I cleaned up linner and my dad was relaxing in his chair, my mom and I went out for a walk. We find this is the best way to manage the daily chaos and stress we are coping with.
While walking up the driveway, I heard a noise coming from the side of the house. At first I thought it was our resident raccoon. But as I got closer, something did not seem right.
So I had my mom get in the house and I went through the house to the backyard. Mind you it was around 5:45pm, so by this point it is dark out. I included this photo that I took two weeks ago. On one side of this wooden door is our driveway and the other side is land that runs along the LA River. The LA River is completely fenced off from the public. So to walk on this land by the River, one would have to scale and climb tall fences.
In any case, the noise I was hearing was coming from behind the wall/gate. I was able to determine that what I was hearing was a person walking on very dry leaves. So there was a lot of crunching of leaves. So I shouted out...... is there someone there? WHO'S THERE?!! I CAN HEAR YOU. At which point, a male responded that he was there and was trying to climb through! I told him if he comes over our wall, he will be on private property and he has to leave NOW. He asked me how to do that! I told him to retrace his steps IMMEDIATELY and leave.
I couldn't see this man, as it was dark and I had no way to climb up the wall where he was located (as he wasn't near this gate, which I could have easily climbed). I ran into the garage to grab a ladder but by the time I got back he was gone. I could hear him crunching on the leaves and walking away from our home. I did call the police and filed a report, but the police wouldn't come over because I never saw the person in question.
I contacted the owner of the house and also contacted the neighbor who shares a driveway with us. She is getting a lock for her gate (surprisingly enough she doesn't have one now), as she has the same issue as we do....... with her driveway running along the area near the LA River. Once the owner of my parent's house got here, we walked the land by the LA River and saw no one there now. But we will be going to walk this area by the daylight so that I have a better understanding for how people maybe able to get to this enclosed area.
Needless to say, I was shaken up and given how stressful days are here, this is the last thing I needed this evening. I am not sure what would have happened if hadn't heard that noise tonight or if I hadn't gone out to investigate? My guess is he would have jumped into our backyard.
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