“She has the flu” was the message I got from my coworker who was also home sick thanks to his daughter. After being sick for four days, he took her to the doctor just to rule out something big like bronchitis – instead he got the news she had the flu. Which means he likely has it too. And both of them have been sick past the point where the medication for the flu would help. (Per the doctor, the flu everyone is getting is not one in this year’s flu shot – ugh!)
My younger daughter has been sick for the same amount of time as his daughter, and she had the same symptoms too. Good chance my kid had the flu too. Today, while at work, my coworkers kept asking if I was ok. I guess I didn’t look like I felt ok. About 4 hrs into the day, I went home. When you are both hot and freezing at the same time, you probably have a fever. No one wants to get sick over the long weekend, so I was encouraged (escorted) out the door.
I was going to go to bed around 8:45 when I heard it.
*bang bang bang bang bang*
Followed by
*bang bang bang bang bang*
The dog even jumped out of bed and went to a window. First time I have ever seen her go into alert mode. I found my younger daughter wide eyed on the couch – she had muted the TV when she heard the first set, then was shocked to hear the second. I couldn’t tell exactly where it occurred. Our house sits in a way where something can sound like it is happening right outside of my window when it’s actually a block and a half away. I went cautiously to see if I could see a car or person outside on the neighboring busy street. Then called 911 while my daughter looked on the Nextdoor site to see if others heard it too.
The 911 operator was awesome. He told me police were already in the area. They had gotten a lot of calls over a wide area. He asked what I had already looked to see – people or cars? Did I hear any screaming or yelling? After answering his questions and getting more info from him, I hung up to reassure the kid that it likely happened many blocks away – maybe even on the nearby freeway.
According to the posts on Nextdoor, everyone in about a mile range had reported hearing the gunshots. Some people north of us heard only one set of shots, some near me heard both sets while those south of us only seemed to hear the last set of shots. Police were all over the place – including a helicopter. Sadly they found nothing so far.
On a side note – I must say I was floored by the number of people heard what was very clearly gunshots yet ran to social media first instead of calling the police. Those that did call police called non-emergency instead of 911 because they didn’t want to bother anyone. So my daughter and I had a conversation about when to call one over the other. In this case because someone could have been hurt, 911 was most appropriate. As I told her, non-emergency is who I always called when we had active drug deals happening across the street. But I digress.
Needless to say, I am not coming down from the adrenaline rush as quickly as I had hoped. Granted, we are having a wind storm right now too which means lot of banging and rattling of window panes and such. All things keeping me on high alert instead of relaxing.
The upside is I’m feeling better. Though maybe that’s the adrenaline too?
Oh, and according to the police blotter, more gun shot exchanges were heard about 10 min later in a different part of town (which is nearby). Guess it was just passing through *shrug*
