Another Strange Dream

I am going to try not to get in the habit of posting about my dreams. Most of the time they don't make sense and I'm sure nobody really wants to hear about them that much. But the one I had Monday night dug up an OLD childhood memory that I had almost forgotten and brings up a semi-interesting story.

I'll start with the story. I can't even remember how old I was during the period but it was sometime in elementary school when my mom took on the job of executive director at her office. She had to make some tough decisions, including having to let go of a lady that worked there. Well this woman's husband went NUTS. His name was Ernie and he did all sorts of things in the wake of his wife being let go.

The harassment was mostly on the level of him making tons of random phone calls to us where he would burp on the phone and then hang up. Some nights, he would call over and over again and do the same thing every night. It progressed to him driving past our house and stealing our mail. My parents had to have a mail slot cut into our house at that point!

Eventually, Ernie started stealing hub caps off of our cars or sometimes even taking all of the lug nuts out of the wheels. One time, he dumped a bucket of white paint on my dad's truck. He also egged our vehicles from time to time.

This is just the stuff I remember. My parents hired a private invsetigator and took Ernie to court with all of the evidence they gathered and eventually he went to jail. I remember watching the movie "Ernest Goes to Jail" in celebration.

Well last night for some reason, I had one of my very vivid dreams involving Ernie. He had started his harassment up again, this time focusing on my house here in Denver. He was leaving notes and warning me not to leave my dogs in the back yard while I run, and even warning me not to go running at all! He would also very slowly and deliberately drive past our house, peering out his window, Cruella DeVille style. It was quite an odd dream. The weirdest part is that I don't think I ever saw Ernie's face when I was little, but I had a very vivid (though probably incorrect) image of his face in my dream.

Well anyway, I'm sure my parents will really appreciate my bringing up all of these fond memories. :) It was just such an odd period of time in which I understood very little at the time, but it's pretty amazing that someone could do all of that to us in hindsight!
*Note: Yesterday, I went running and left the dogs in the back yard and all was fine. Although I felt slightly safer carrying my new "jogger" pepper spray along with me. :)