>I just heard from my friend today – he had a bit of a run-in last night.

He’s been living in Framingham area since he graduated from college. He lives in a nice upscale apartment, a place you wouldn’t expect anything like what happened to happen.

Him and his girlfriend were sitting, watching TV when there was a knock on the door. She went to answer it. Two guys of guessable ethnicity pushed their way in the door — my friend charged at them, pushing them out — until they pulled out a gun.

Robbed at gunpoint — by someone who’s balls engorge at the touch of steel. They cooperated, as anyone would. If you have a choice between your life and your stuff — fuck it, I’d give anything. What good is anything else going to do if you’re dead?

Thankfully I’ve never been in that position. I know how it feels to be out of some material possessions, quite a few times, in fact. They’ve always taken the cowardly way out, though, stealing right out from under my nose. Twice I was out — the other time I was sleeping. I suppose any of those times it could have escalated had I come home sooner then expected, or not attributed the noise to someone else in the house. I’m not sure what I would have done.

There are precautions I didn’t take, but make up for that now by over-compensating in order to feel secure. It’s a scary world out there. I always thought my father was crazy, being so paranoid about locking doors, windows, and anything else no matter how long we were gone. I mean, we lived in the country, hardly anyone around — who’s going to rob our little modest house anyway? He had lived all over, and had his share of bad experiences. I wish he’d actually have shared some of those so that I might have understood better, but for reasons he didn’t say, or most likely just didn’t remember — he never went into it.

So I had to learn — the hard way, on my own.

It’s necessary, no matter where you live. I’ve picked it up early, I think. That’s just the way it is, how you have to do it if you don’t ever want to come home to a ransacked home… or worse.