Fall schedule and larceny, what a combination

I have decided that I am not decorating for fall until September 15th. I know you were all on the edges of your seats waiting for that announcement, so now you can move on with your lives. You're welcome.

I told my husband the other day that I was feeling very pressured to decorate for fall.

Pressured by whom he asked.

The internet, I mumbled.

He looked at me quizzically.

I explained to him that on the blogs I frequent people are already ushering in fall. They have begun decorating for fall and making crafts and reveling in the cool weather. I am not ready for this. I am holding, very tightly, to the last days of summer. Oh, I know what I said last week. Am I not allowed to change my mind? Please, I just don't want to be cold.

I had all good intentions of writing up a new Transformation Thursday post featuring the green ottoman that I recovered, but my plan was thwarted by the town thief. My oldest son's bicycle was stolen last night. In truth, he and his cousin had their bikes stolen. They left them out in front of the WaWa. We have told them before not to do this, as they are simply borrowing trouble. Last night they borrowed and bought trouble. He called us to ask for help and we told him to call the police. I drove down to meet them and my husband began trolling the streets for two BMX bikes. Two very expensive BMX bikes.

As the kids were entering the store, they noticed a group of kids loitering on the sidewalk, and my niece recognized one of the boys from school. When they came out of the store the kids were gone and so were the bikes. It was easy to deduce what had happened.

The police came, took all of our information and told us that they would be on the lookout and would contact us if they found anything. They then headed down to the home of the boy that my niece knows. I wanted to follow them and see if the kicked the door in or used tear gas, but they didn't. They calmly talked to the boy's parents. That could have been so exciting.

We all continued to search in different directions around town. I drove slowly up and down all of the neighborhood streets peering into driveways and behind parked cars. I asked everyone I saw if they had seen some kids riding two bikes, and then proceeded to describe them. No one had. I said- well if you do please call the police because they are stolen. It was like a scene from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, and I was large Marge. (In case you are not a fan of the classic movie, Pee-Wee's bike is stolen.)

I knew that we were probably not going to find the bike, and I went through the full range of emotions. I vacillated between wanting to throttle my son and buy him a new bike. Between utter compassion and total frustration.

We all arrived home about the same time, and as we were discussing our plan of action for tomorrow, my cell phone rang. It was the police, and they had found John's bike. We could not believe it!

Two boys rode it to the park, sat with it for a while and then got up and left. A man who was shooting some hoops all by himself saw all of this transpire and thought something was fishy so he called the police. Something was fishy because I had circled that park twice and there was no sign of the bike, or the boys.

The police brought the bike to our home. It had a flat tire, but other than that it was in perfect condition. I asked if the man had gotten a description of the boys and the police officers said that he had not because it was so dark. I wanted the bike dusted for latent prints so we could find the perp. And then I remembered that I am a housewife, not an investigator on CSI. And also, the police think I am nuts.

The police seemed to think that the boy whose house they had gone to put the word out to get rid of the bike. I don't know about that. What seems more plausible to me is word got out that some crazy housewife in a Tahoe was combing the streets in search of the bike and threatening people with jail time. I would be scared of me, too.