Crazy Weekend

It seems that the weekends are getting busier than my work weeks. Errands, atteding a wedding, hosting a poker game, organizing and attending a going-away beach party for one of Cherie's friends, and playing guitar for Cindy's team at church made for an extremely busy time. We had fun at the beach (especially the kids). We finally got back at about 10 p.m. after a BBQ and roasting marshmallows. I couldn't believe how much traffic there was on the way home. It was bumper-to-bumper at 9:30 p.m. on a Sunday night!

Just when we got the kids and ourselves to bed, we get a phone call from a neighbor informing us that two police cars were in front of our rental house next door and policemen were approaching the door. Next came a knock on our door at 11:00 p.m. We spoke with two friendly policemen--one really big guy who did all the talking and one really small guy--looking for the guy who used to rent our house next door. We evicted him and his family a few months ago after a domestic violence problem that had his girlfriend afraid for her life and those of their two young boys. The commotion woke my kids up and, fortunately, Mike was there to usher them into one of their rooms and calm them while I tended to the gal, who was in hysterics. She said that he had been drinking and became violent--and that he owned a gun.

Naturally, that made the stress level increase significantly. I went outside to try and calm him down, but he wasn't having it. He took off just before a half-dozen police cars showed up. They captured him, unarmed, in the apartment complex behind our houses. He was arrested and spent the night in jail. Shortly thereafter, they were out of the house and we didn't hear from/about them, other than when I noticed a couple of small road signs advertising some local property that the young lady, who had teamed up with her father (also a realtor), had listed for sale.

Back to tonight. The policeman said that the man had been in a pretty serious car accident and had fled the scene. Reportedly, several people had been hurt, including a young lady that was in the car with him (it didn't sound like the same one that is the mother of his children). Apparently, he had been drinking again and was now in violation of parole. Unfortunatley for him, he left his cell phone at the scene of the accident. The most recent address the cops had for him didn't come up on Mapquest, so they were checking out our rental because it was the last known address. We gave the policemen his former girlfriend's cell phone number and wished them luck.

I have mixed feelings. Part of me is upset with that young man for making such bad decisions and hurting so many people around him. But, I also feel sorry for him. He was a nice guy with potential. But, something is eating him up inside and now alcohol is destroying him. I feel bad for the nice young lady that was his girlfriend and their two beautiful young boys. It's tragic. I tried to help him that night--to find out what was driving him to despair and to drink. His reaction made it clear that he was unwilling--or unable--to talk about it. So sad to see a young life spiral out of control. It won't be long before he's back behind bars. I hope God can get through to him there.