It was a dark and stormy night. I was sound asleep in my bed on\nthe main floor while my two little kids were fast asleep upstairs in their\nbeds. As a single mom at the time I was always\nkeenly aware of any sounds I heard in the house late at night. But this particular night I had fallen asleep\nto the sound of the rain outside. \nCRASH!!! I jumped out of bed so fast it would have made your head spin.\nCRASH!!! I heard it again. What in the world\ncould it be. My heart started racing a\nmillion miles a minute and my hands became clammy\u2026.someone was down in my\nunfinished basement\u2026. Not knowing what else\nto do I picked up the phone and dialed my Father, who happened to be living out\nin Ghana Africa at the time. I clearly woke him up as it was probably around\n4am in the morning for him. \u201cDad\u201d, I\nwhispered frantically, \u201cSomeone is in my house! \nI can hear them crashing around in my basement!\u201d My father responded, \u201cThen hang up the phone and\ndial 9-1-1! \u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo\u201d I responded, \u201cJust stay on the phone with me while I go downstairs\nand see what the sound is\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking back at that moment its like watching a horror movie\nwhen you start yelling at your TV screen, \u201cDO NOT go down those stairs into the\ndark!!!! How dumb can you be!?!??!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clearly I wasn\u2019t the brightest crayon in the box back then\nbecause I literally grabbed my flashlight and clutching the phone against my\near I began slowly walking down the wooden stair planks into the unfinished\ncement basement. What was I thinking???!!!!\nSeriously\u2026so dumb\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I pointed my flashlight down at the stair planks as they were\njust wooden boards and I could have easily tumbled right down them. As I began to descend the stair I could hear\nmy father on the phone saying \u201cYou realize I\u2019m all the way in Africa and there\nis nothing I can do from here\u2026\u201d I didn\u2019t\nhave time to respond because just then I got to the last step and turned my\nflashlight toward the large empty cement room only to have the flashlight catch\nthe reflection of two enormous black eyes staring right at me!!! AARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!! I screamed the loudest scream of my entire life\nand just about jumped out of my own skin\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can only imagine what my father must have been thinking on the\nother end of that phone call half asleep\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the two black eyes on a deer that had fallen down into my\nwindow well and was staring right through the glass at me. CRASH!!! It tried to jump its way out of the\nwell again only to smack its back legs into the metal sides of the window well CRASH!!! It tried jumping again. I\u2019m fairly certain I scared that deer as much\nas it scared me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a deer in my window\u201d I yelled to my dad, just as the deer\njumped once again, this time clearing its way out of the well. I was shaking like a leaf\u2026all I could do is\nstand there thinking\u2026\u201dWhat is wrong with me that I was dumb enough to come down\nhere?! I could have been killed by some serial killer in a hockey mask for\nheaven\u2019s sake!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moral of the story is this \u2013 quit watching scary movies that\nteach you to do stupid things like walking down a dark staircase in your\npajamas in the middle of the night holding a flashlight to go and check the\nscary crashing sounds you just heard! Or\nthat teach you to call someone halfway around the world rather than dialing\n9-1-1! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with that\u2026Happy Halloween everyone!\u00a0 And remember, stay away from dark basements, strangers in hockey masks, anyone carrying a chainsaw, and don\u2019t go down streets named Elm Street or Transylvania Ave\u2026.just sayin\u2019\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n