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Mar. 9th, 2008 04:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarflameTwo or three weeks ago, Aaron's bike was stolen during the night. We don't have a garage so all the bikes are kept on the back porch, which is a screened patio...there's a table and chairs, a tv, an excercise machine, some plants, this and that back there. We think his bike was probably actually on the side of the house that night, but still behind our gated wooden fence. He was heartbroken as it was a really cool BMX bike - a mongoose - that Grant and I serendipidously found on Craigslist at the last minute before Christmas - for *$10*. It was his "big gift". And of course we can't afford to just go replace the thing. He rode it every single day, too, and it came along whenever we went to the park. He's been saving to go half with me on a new one, I told him I'll match whatever he comes up with. He was really bolstered by the $20 the tooth fairy left him at a single shot not long ago. Still and all it's something that we knew would take months.
Today, we walked up to Winn Dixie (grocery store). Laura and I with our six collective kids, plus Robbie. Who is about to turn THIRTEEN, can you believe that? Anyway, we go in, we do our shopping, we come out and AS we come out, two punk ass kids I recognize as serially unsupervised around-the-corner neighbors pull up on bikes, drop them by the door, and walk into the store. I see Aaron looking suddenly sad and confused, follow his gaze, and see his bike. On it's side lying there. Absolutely no question his bike.
I left our party standing there to chase those two into the store yelling. I told them I would call the cops and go to their houses, because I know where they live, and that my son was going to be riding HIS BIKE home, to our house where it belongs. They looked at me like fish, with tiny mouths and huge eyes, while I realized everyone else in the store was staring, too.
They caught up to us not long after, but off to the side and didn't see us at first (we were on a covered sidewalk and they were riding the one bike they had left out in the street), but they heard me say, "Those two!" to Robbie (he knows everybody in the neighborhood) and ducked into a store fast and stayed there til we were well past. Robbie says the one who was on Aaron's bike has EXTREMELY ghetto guardians, no parents in sight...it's like a really old grandma and an older brother/uncle who's apparently like 19 and usually stoned. And Robbie thinks he would probably want to fight us if we showed up saying they stole our bike, or maybe was even the one who took it for the younger one (who is only like 11 or 12). I'm not sure what the "right move" is or if there even is one, and I kind of feel bad for the kid if the bike WAS gifted to him, but they sure acted guilty - they're little punks who throw things at dogs and yell at passing cars, and they didn't say mum about me taking the bike? Yeah. And I'm really, really happy for Aaron, albeit in a slightly "the bike seems tainted now" way. I told Aaron he can't ride out front without me for awhile, we'll just take it to the park or Grant or I will ride alongside him for bike rides, unless I'm out there to supervise, for a couple of weeks at least. Our street is usually very calm and I know almost every neighbor well enough to have been in their house at some point(it's a block long street), but just a block or two away, around the corner, we have 2-3 houses mixed in to the rest of the nice area that are like circuses of unruly preteen kids, and so even though you don't see any of them on our street normally, things get taken at night sometimes. Both of my next door neighbors and my across the street neighbor have had things stolen out of their yards by kids who have pretty much zero accountability. It kind of makes me want to try to "reach out" to the kids, but they are so freaking jaded and cynical already and I really don't have the energy for it. When Grant Sr was letting some of them come over to play with Robbie, a playstation and an iPod dissapeared the same week they broke the safety enclosure on the trampoline and we had to replace it. I also had a knitting needle bent into a U and so much spyware on my computer that we had to replace the hard drive. It's kind of sucky, really, because the reason they all dissapeared from "our street" is that the one who DID live here had an on again, off again mom who was on major drugs, that OD'd and died. So he moved to live with other relatives and now the rest of them stay over by where they live. Which I have to admit is great, in a "that poor boy and his mom" way :/
Laura thinks I'll just be "stirring the pot" if I actually call the police or go to their houses about the bike, and I should let it lie since I have the bike back. I don't know. I mean what kind of parents let a kid keep a bike that the kid just shows up with one day? Parents that aren't even freaking around is my likely guess...I mean I know the kid who was with the one on Aaron's bike HAS a parent in the house, at least, but it's a single mom who is almost always working. And he isn't the one and maybe didn't even know about this, anyway. I actually kind of like him, if I had to pick one of them that I like. *sigh*
When we got back, with our groceries, Laura made some reeeeeeeeeally good empanadas con carne with real homemade picadillo, SO YUMMY. I'm going to take some to Aracelia across the street tomorrow, she can't eat this stuff anymore but her husband loves it and misses it. I made some mushroom and peas filling with olive oil and butter and flour and onions and things, for a couple of them for Annie, and she tore hers up too.
Off to watch more Lost with Grant as if it weren't 4 in the morning. It's his only day of the week off tomorrow, damnitt, we have to milk it.
Today, we walked up to Winn Dixie (grocery store). Laura and I with our six collective kids, plus Robbie. Who is about to turn THIRTEEN, can you believe that? Anyway, we go in, we do our shopping, we come out and AS we come out, two punk ass kids I recognize as serially unsupervised around-the-corner neighbors pull up on bikes, drop them by the door, and walk into the store. I see Aaron looking suddenly sad and confused, follow his gaze, and see his bike. On it's side lying there. Absolutely no question his bike.
I left our party standing there to chase those two into the store yelling. I told them I would call the cops and go to their houses, because I know where they live, and that my son was going to be riding HIS BIKE home, to our house where it belongs. They looked at me like fish, with tiny mouths and huge eyes, while I realized everyone else in the store was staring, too.
They caught up to us not long after, but off to the side and didn't see us at first (we were on a covered sidewalk and they were riding the one bike they had left out in the street), but they heard me say, "Those two!" to Robbie (he knows everybody in the neighborhood) and ducked into a store fast and stayed there til we were well past. Robbie says the one who was on Aaron's bike has EXTREMELY ghetto guardians, no parents in sight...it's like a really old grandma and an older brother/uncle who's apparently like 19 and usually stoned. And Robbie thinks he would probably want to fight us if we showed up saying they stole our bike, or maybe was even the one who took it for the younger one (who is only like 11 or 12). I'm not sure what the "right move" is or if there even is one, and I kind of feel bad for the kid if the bike WAS gifted to him, but they sure acted guilty - they're little punks who throw things at dogs and yell at passing cars, and they didn't say mum about me taking the bike? Yeah. And I'm really, really happy for Aaron, albeit in a slightly "the bike seems tainted now" way. I told Aaron he can't ride out front without me for awhile, we'll just take it to the park or Grant or I will ride alongside him for bike rides, unless I'm out there to supervise, for a couple of weeks at least. Our street is usually very calm and I know almost every neighbor well enough to have been in their house at some point(it's a block long street), but just a block or two away, around the corner, we have 2-3 houses mixed in to the rest of the nice area that are like circuses of unruly preteen kids, and so even though you don't see any of them on our street normally, things get taken at night sometimes. Both of my next door neighbors and my across the street neighbor have had things stolen out of their yards by kids who have pretty much zero accountability. It kind of makes me want to try to "reach out" to the kids, but they are so freaking jaded and cynical already and I really don't have the energy for it. When Grant Sr was letting some of them come over to play with Robbie, a playstation and an iPod dissapeared the same week they broke the safety enclosure on the trampoline and we had to replace it. I also had a knitting needle bent into a U and so much spyware on my computer that we had to replace the hard drive. It's kind of sucky, really, because the reason they all dissapeared from "our street" is that the one who DID live here had an on again, off again mom who was on major drugs, that OD'd and died. So he moved to live with other relatives and now the rest of them stay over by where they live. Which I have to admit is great, in a "that poor boy and his mom" way :/
Laura thinks I'll just be "stirring the pot" if I actually call the police or go to their houses about the bike, and I should let it lie since I have the bike back. I don't know. I mean what kind of parents let a kid keep a bike that the kid just shows up with one day? Parents that aren't even freaking around is my likely guess...I mean I know the kid who was with the one on Aaron's bike HAS a parent in the house, at least, but it's a single mom who is almost always working. And he isn't the one and maybe didn't even know about this, anyway. I actually kind of like him, if I had to pick one of them that I like. *sigh*
When we got back, with our groceries, Laura made some reeeeeeeeeally good empanadas con carne with real homemade picadillo, SO YUMMY. I'm going to take some to Aracelia across the street tomorrow, she can't eat this stuff anymore but her husband loves it and misses it. I made some mushroom and peas filling with olive oil and butter and flour and onions and things, for a couple of them for Annie, and she tore hers up too.
Off to watch more Lost with Grant as if it weren't 4 in the morning. It's his only day of the week off tomorrow, damnitt, we have to milk it.
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Date: 2008-03-09 10:56 am (UTC)2. Aaron will remember that moment until the day he dies as you going down in history as the best mom ever.
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Date: 2008-03-09 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-10 12:20 am (UTC)I would let it go unless they were to do something else, which hopefully they won't. but if they do, then I would definitely start troubel with them-they need to know they can't get away with this crap. for now, losing the bike is enough. and yeah, it's sad if the older one gave it to the younger one...but he's not your kid. your kid was sad too, and the bike rightfully belonged to him.
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Date: 2008-03-10 01:00 am (UTC)