A Whole Different Perspective on Hethwood

Sunday changed my whole experience at Stroubles Creek.  I had a very good day on Saturday and went to bed my normal time, a little after 12.  But at about 1:30, I was awakened by a lot of noise from upstairs and I wasn’t sure what was up.  However, after a few minutes of loud, almost stomping noise upstairs, I realized that no one had been living upstairs since I moved in on the 15^th.  Whoever it was kept the steady noise up for at least a half hour and it continued somewhat more sporadically until almost 4.  At about 2:00 I called the Hethwood Visitor’s Center and left a message (mentioning my lupus and my chemo), then called the emergency number and talked to Ashley (again mentioning my lupus and chemo).  She told me there was no security to call and she advised me not to go upstairs and talk to the tenants.  Instead she told me to call 911.  Figuring that this was not exactly an emergency, I called the Montgomery county sheriff’s office and eventually talked to an officer who said they would send someone over to talk to the tenants.  However, the noise continued and I called back and the officer said that another officer had come and knocked but the tenants wouldn’t answer so there was nothing they could do (I had asked that the officer talk to me directly but that didn’t happen).  It was incredibly frustrating so I asked the officer to send someone again to knock and to talk with me and it was after 3:30 when two officers appeared (one, K.V. Craver) and they told me that unless they heard noise from outside the apartment, there was nothing they could do (I mentioned my lupus and my chemo and showed them the patches on my arms from the prednisone).  They would not go upstairs and knock and they advised me not to go up and knock.  They thought it better to wait to see what Hethwood would do on Monday.  I finally got to sleep around 4:30, having to get up for my volunteer work at St. Mary’s at 7, but the tenants woke me at 6 with more moving around.   After my volunteer work, I headed back to my apartment around 1:30 and thankfully the tenants were out and I was able to get a nap.  I dread what is going to happen tonight.   I am also having problems with my left side right below my belly.  My belly has grown larger than I like and that usually causes a little discomfort but today’s was pretty intense and I had to take 2 acetaminophens to combat the pain.  I have not eaten much today and I think if I can lose some of the belly, the pain will diminish.  I did go for a 3 lap bike ride (around 25 minutes) and that felt good although at first my belly really hurt.  I also read some Augustine while putting a heating pad on it and that helped a little.   Later I put a hot, wet towel on my knee and that also seemed to help a little (this was advised by Matt at Gardner’s office).  I watched the end of the Northern Trust golf tournament and it went to a playoff hole with Dustin Johnson and Jordan Speith, with Dustin Johnson winning by a stroke.  I emailed Sergeant Craver at the town of Blacksburg Police department just to have an accurate record of what happened last night.    

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