Morgan on the back deck

Morgan is up early and happy, she’s babysitting for a family in Aspen for the entire day until 11 pm.  I see her off in the driveway, and soon after Steve and I take a road trip to pick up our new camera set, which has come in.

We are home a couple of hours later and quickly have our main hall filled with cardboard packing and foam inserts. A six camera DVR setup that promises to capture whatever is going on outside the house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Steve is joking that he hasn’t been up in an attic in more years than he can remember, but can’t wait to get started.  Barring unforeseen problems it should all be hooked up and working by the time Morgan gets home.  It means a lot to me, to give Morgan some new hope that we can gain the upper hand.  Nobody likes to admit it, but we have pretty much been at the stalker’s mercy so far.  Even the super high tech thermal imaging scope, that accurately shows a human body far off in the distance in pitch darkness, has not yielded any new clues.  Steve has resigned to the fact that it is best used in a group, closing in on the prey.  So we have moved on to video cameras, color during the day, and black and white at night.

There is a sizable spool of wire for each camera, and my job is to keep it untangled and feeding it up into the attic, as Steve takes the ends to where the cameras will go.  We weren’t completely in agreement as to where they should go, and while at first six sounded like so many, I was wishing we had gotten at least a dozen so we could have had really good coverage.  It takes hours just to feed all of the wire, and when Steve finally comes back out after the last one he is quite a sight, and he has managed to completely tear one pant leg off his jeans on some sharp thing up there, and I burst out in laughter, he is laughing too, and I sadly realized it had been far too long since we had laughed like this.

Around 1 pm, part one of the installation is complete, and we head to Glenwood Springs to pick up a list of supplies to hopefully make it all work.  Morgan has a sixth sense about where Steve and I are, and sure enough she sends a text to her father just as we get to Glenwood.  “Are you guys going by Walmart at all?”  He hands me his phone and I answer, “We could. Whatcha need?”  She answers “Size 2 double pointed needles.  Will you call me too when you’re on your way home?” I tell her. “Will do.” And she ends with “Thanks!”

If I had been a knitter when I was young it would be easier, but this is something Morgan has taught herself, and is completely engrossed in and I know nothing about knitting.  She had plans to make a complete bedspread out of panels and is working up to it with smaller projects. Steve and I stand at the art section and look at a mass of needles, and while the request sounded simple at first, we find out right away there are no size 2 needles. Steve is trying to find a set that includes them, and I send a text to Morgan that we are at Walmart.  My phone corrects it to ESP art and Morgan wonders where ESP art is, she has never been there. I tell her Auto correct and she understands.  “They have size three.” I tell her and send a picture of them. “Perfect :)” she answers and then adds, “HaHa That’s exactly it Thank you!” I sent her a text back that said, “Great, since that’s all they had we bought it.”

We head home and I do some work while Steve pours through manuals with the magic codes, and the programming that has to take place and of course the inevitable glitches, but 2 hours before we expect Morgan back home we have it on.  And far better than I could have imagined we are looking at a screen of six different views around the house.  It is just getting dark, and the last tune-in is me watching the screen and directing Steve as he goes around and aims each camera.  We will move and re-point them many times over the next few months, but we have pretty much the entire perimeter of our house in view at the same time.  I’m both thrilled, and sad for the obvious reasons.  Thrilled that we have this new protection, and so sad we needed something like this, I would never have imagined.

I can’t wait, and called Morgan to share the good news with her including the part about her father ripping the leg off his pants.  She laughs too, as I hoped she would.  I really want her stress to be less.  I also want it to be over.  And I don’t want her to let her guard down.  It’s a lot to want all at once.

Morgan is home shortly before midnight and we show her the latest greatest in our arsenal to catch the stalker.  She is visibly excited about the cameras, and I am so happy for that.  We are all tired and go to bed.  I’m almost waiting now for that bang on the window, so I can play back the video, and watch him, then call the sheriffs, and show them, won’t that be nice.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working this evening.  On 9.18.2011 he worked from 1:00 am – 6:02 am & then from 6:28 am – 9:31 am)

Click here to read about the 49th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1230