The lamp has been next to my chair for many years.

In my previous home, the chair and lamp were situated much like my current home – in a corner with windows on either side.

One night, I was awakened by what I thought was glass breaking. It was midnight and I was sound asleep. I came awake thinking I heard the tinkling of glass breaking, but it was so quiet by the time I was fully awake that I was unsure if I had heard a real sound. Both cats were still on the bed next to me and Karl was quietly sleeping so I thought it was a dream noise and went back to sleep.

The next morning, I had been up, outside, had breakfast and done a few chores before I saw the hole in the window by the chair. That explained the breaking glass noise… On seeing the hole, I thought a bird had flown into the window and broken the glass. I went outside – no body… Back inside, I noticed that there was also a hole in the screen, then I noticed the holes in the lamp shade. It was such an odd experience – noticing the hole in the window first and jumping to a quick conclusion, never noticing the screen and the lamp …and then slowly seeing everything…I had to laugh at myself.

Then I got to thinking about what would have enough velocity to go through the window, the screen, the lamp shade….and where was the bullet now, and who was shooting at my house (me?)?

I turned around and saw a gouge in the wall opposite the chair and then a nick out of the bottom of the picture frame above the wall gouge.

Photos are the same picture in my current house – no wall gouge.

Being a good CSI fan, I started looking back across the room where I thought the ricochet might have gone. Didn’t find it! I called the Sheriff – I really didn’t know if they would be interested, but they were and a deputy was at my house in less than 10 minutes. He found the slug which looked like a tiny bit of solder melt. It was where I was looking but so small at that point and partially buried in the carpet. So much for my CSI career…

With the handy holes in the lamp, the screen and the glass, we could see the trajectory and it led through the trees at the edge of my property, right to a speed limit sign – about 100 yards away, in front of my neighbor’s home. We walked out and the sign was pockmarked with dings – unfortunately, not that unusual here. The neighbors’ kids, teenagers – came out to see what we were doing and they got all excited as they had been up late watching a movie and heard what they thought were firecrackers – close – 3 of them. We made a small party of looking through the grass near my house for a bullet in better shape – the deputy wanted to nail the group that was shooting near homes. We had a good time, but didn’t find anything so a bit of an anti-climax to the story.

I fixed the window, screen and wall. I intended to replace the lamp shade and the frame, but I’ve never done it and now it is all part of history and I have no plans to do anything about either.

The lamp shade with bullet holes…a bit of the Wild West.