Areas of Unrest

QOTD: "Love they neighbor as theyself, but choose your neighborhood." - Louise Beal

Reading: just finished Lennard Bickel, Shackleton's Forgotten Men

Listening to: Brazzaville, Rouge on Pockmarked Cheeks

Decluttering accomplishments: unpacked a couple of boxes, caught up on household paperwork, threw out a few old magazines

20 October 2002 - Living in Sniperville

I did some truly scary things this week. I filled my car with gas, dropped off and picked up dry cleaning, and went grocery shopping. Not to mention walking four blocks between home to the Metro and three blocks between the Metro and work. What really hit home was Monday's murder, as I've shopped at that shopping center. One guy at work was even more freaked than I was. All he could say was, "I just keep looking at the pictures and that woman's car was right where I usually park."

It didn't help that today's newspaper had an article about how scared people are to run everyday errands. They talked to various people who work at a suburban Virginia shopping center. A shopping center that just happens to be the closest one to where I live, roughly a five minute walk. The one where I handle my dry cleaning and some of my grocery shopping. The article managed to point out the wooded hillside nearby and the proximity to the interstate. Gee, thanks, Washington Post. Why not scout out more places for the sniper to strike?

Rationally, I can say the probability of being a victim is low. There are some four million people in the area and he's killed nine and wounded three. (Yesterday's shooting in Ashland is not yet conclusively proven to be his work. I'm assuming it was, though, especially since all the people saying that he hadn't struck on the weekend convinced me he was going to.) But rational thought has little to do with the fear. While I'm not at the point where I'm going to run zig zag through parking lots or pay an errand service fifty bucks to fill my car, I also find myself avoiding going anywhere I don't have to. I may be half-convinced that the white van is a red herring, but I still find myself counting such vehicles as I walk down Wilson Boulevard.

I'm glad to be in business travel mode the next week and a half. That will also help with the chaos at work. We had a huge crisis emerge this week, which is probably under control but could still explode. I can handle everything I need to via telephone and email. And my usual coping mechanism has me heavily into planning mode for some fun things. I'm expecting to have made some vacation reservations by the end of this month. I've narrowed down possibilities, but still have to see what I can do schedule-wise. I've already got plans for a weekend with Robert in San Francisco in December.