I've been up early grading the last batch of student papers and, luckily, decided to work at my dining room table. My dog, "B" was outside sunning himself (and watching the world go past our corner house) when all of a sudden I heard him barking up a storm--and for you dog owners, you know when your dog's bark has a different timbre and tenor to it--this one said "INTRUDER ALERT! A STRANGER IS APPROACHING THE HOUSE!" (he has a different bark for a dog walking by--it's part territorial and part, "Hey, maybe we could get together fora date at the dog park").
I looked up from my computer and saw A WOMAN STEALING MY OBAMA LAWN SIGN FROM MY FRONT YARD!!! (the unfenced portion).
[This is not a picture of my yard or sign, but it is a close approximation of where I had the sign placed in front of a large oak tree]
I jumped up and ran out of the house and screamed "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???!!!"
The woman, upon seeing me rush out of my home and scream at her, slipped on a pile of leaves that we had just raked up yesterday. To her credit, she turned around and calmly talked to me instead of running away (which was good for me, because I'm in house slippers, and the thought of sprinting after her to retrieve the lawn sign wasn't something I really wanted to do).
According to this woman, she was working for Obama's campaign and had been instructed to go around the various neighborhoods of my Southern college town collecting lawn signs. I pointed out that she simply could have knocked on my door and asked me to remove it rather than coming onto my property and TAKING IT without asking, which is technically STEALING. She promptly apologized, quite sincerely, and then walked to the corner where a man was waiting for her.
So my question is this: REALLY??? Have Obama lawn signs become such a commodity that people are now resorting to STEALING THEM in BROAD DAYLIGHT??? Should I feel the way that disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich did about Obama's vacant senate seat--that my lawn sign is *golden* and that I should expect to reap the benefits of selling it off to the highest bidder? Is this all a sign of serious Obama-mania???
