I don’t care how tough a guy you fancy yourself, there comes a time in everyone’s day when you let your guard down, take your boots off, and relax.  Whether you live in a two-hundred-square-foot apartment or a sprawling manor, it isn’t a home until you’re able to power down all of those concerns you have about the outside world and just unwind.  For some of us, it takes a while to get that comfortable after a stressful day.  Anxiety about work, stress over money, concerns about personal relationships; they can all delay the onset of that beautiful moment of peace we all long for when we prop our feet up on the coffee table, take a deep breath, and exhale the day away.

For me last Saturday night, it took until just about 1AM to get there.

As I’ve mentioned before, my wife and I had a break-in while we lived in Army housing in Massachusetts just about seven years ago.  In the years since, I’ve tended to take the noises I hear downstairs in the middle of the night a bit more seriously, and I’ve become increasingly conscious of the security I employ around the house.  I now lock all my doors and windows (as a Vermont boy, that was a hard transition to make), use an alarm system, and keep a firearm close to my bed while I’m sleeping.

I don’t, however, tend to pay much attention to things that go on outside – there are plenty of animals around where I live, and although I’ve chosen a house that’s pretty far out of the way, there are other like-minded families around that also moved to the area to avoid the types of interactions you get to have as a member of a homeowner’s association.  In short, I don’t complain about you playing music I can hear in my yard a few hundred yards away because you don’t complain about me shooting my Glock at the target in mine.