New Responsibilities

September started off strong with my boss giving me some extra responsibility. I had been paranoid about getting dropped since I’m taking much longer on an issue than I originally anticipated thanks to all this technical debt, so it was nice to see she was willing to put some trust in me.

New Experiences

Despite the strong start, September ended poorly. My chef’s knife was a bit dull and I knew my sharpening block was in storage, so I dropped by Public Storage for the first time in a while on the 24th. When I arrived at my unit, for a moment I thought I had somehow stopped at the wrong G97 because someone else’s lock was on the unit. After double-checking my sanity and the unit, I realized someone had cut my lock. I talked to the on-site employee and he said his boss wouldn’t be able to come by and cut it until Monday, so I went home dreading what would be missing.

Come Monday, I made the half hour drive back to Public Storage and unlocked the unit with the new key they had given me. Everything had been thrown around. The first thing I noticed missing was my old motorcycle. I had expected it but was still hoping the old tires, cludgy transmission, and the destroyed fairings might’ve disuaded the thieves. A large, 40-gallon stock pot was the next thing I noticed missing when I discovered my handmade pottery, that I stored in the pot, smashed on the ground. As I picked through the debris, I slowly realized more and more had been taken – things I had forgotten I was storing. The worst of which were my old tax documents, so now I get to be worried about identify theft.

I made a police report and filed an insurance claim, and now I’m just waiting to hear back from both. Experiencing theft was a brand new experience for me. I’ve heard it can change people, making them bitter and distrustful, which I can understand, but right now I’m just sad – that someone lived a life desperate enough to do something like that – and worried about the ongoing consequences.