LOCK THE DOOR?

I live in a pretty small town. Very small to be exact. Population about 900. Its a rural community surrounded by farms. Corn, sugar beets, and tomatoes are the big crops around here. I buy my beef direct from a farmer and have it cut to order at a local abattoir. We can buy fruits, vegetables, etc. direct from the farmer and roadside or front yard stalls.

I leave my garage unlocked. Technically I don't even have a lock on my garage door. I rarely even remember to lock my car, much less my house unless we are actually going out.

We have a local newspaper out here, one of those little rural community papers that every little rural community has. You buy it for the simple fact that the publisher keeps track of who buys it and I think they make a point of getting pictures of your kids in it now and then as a show of thanks. You can read about the local kids hockey league, that the Legion is having an all-you-can-eat lake perch dinner on Friday, and at least one story each week about how "big city folk" don't respect or understand us "rural folk".

You also get the local "crime" section. When I lived in Toronto there was crime, but even living where I did, and I lived in some bad parts of town including the notorious Jane-Finch corridor and Parkdale, I always felt that trouble only finds you when you are looking for trouble. Out here, you simply don't have violent crime unless it is of the domestic variety, and this section of the newspaper is usually a couple stories about how somebody was arrested for drunk driving or a window was broken.

Today there were about a dozen stories about garages being broken into all over town. I immediately starting thinking I should probably put a lock on my garage door. This irrational fear overcame me, even though I really have nothing valuable in my garage except a couple empty cases of beer and my lawnmower.

Then I thought a bit more and decided that having my lawnmower stolen would probably be a good thing. I could get a nice shiny new one in the spring.