I picked the wrong week to give up coffee

Fortunately, I didn't actually give up coffee. It's not yet 11 and I'm about to go get my second cup. I'll have a diet soft drink with lunch and probably another cup of coffee after lunch. At 12:20 last night, Lori and I had just drifted off to sleep. All of the sudden the security alarm started going off. Scared the hell out of me. We didn't react as clearly as we ought to have, but if that happens again, I'm gonna be ready. I had my big, bad mag light (the kind with 27 d-batteries in it) ready, but I wasn't ready. I was freaked out.

We have a really sensitive trigger on one of the doors and something caused it to go off. Not sure what, not sure why. It's not a really accessible location and of all the doors I might try to use the break into my own house, this wouldn't be my first choice. So I'm pretty sure that it wasn't someone trying to gain access to our house. But when that thing goes off, seconds after you'd fallen asleep, you're not thinking too clearly.

It took me a little bit, but then I was both scared and angry. Armed with my maglight and broom, I was ready to hit someone. But still, utterly scared beyond belief. But I've definitely come to some conclusions. I need to replace the security light in the backyard. Shortly after we moved in, it decided to stay on. It's so high up that I just let the lights burn out. But I got a new ladder for Christmas and I'm going to get a new fixture and soon. Secondly, a 60-watt fluorescent is a poor choice as a porch light. As I checked one of the doors, I flipped on the light and threw back the curtains, just expecting to see someone standing there staring at me. Instead all I saw was the empty dog lead and thought "Boy, I chose the wrong weekend to give up the dog*. I could have sent her out there to sniff and lick anyone who might be lurking in our yard."

I could not get that image out of my head and ended up spending the next few hours playing SimCity with a lot of lights on. Only because I knew it had to be late, I finally gave up and went back to bed where I spent at least half an hour laying there unable to sleep.

Not sure which is worse... the peace of mind a security system can offer or the ignorant bliss of not having something that can scare the hell out of me in the middle of the night for absolutely no reason.

(*There's a separate post, made via Picasa, that seems to have disappeared.)