"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." Number four of the "Big Ten" is one of those commandments with exceptions. Sometimes an emergency presents itself and we must rescue our ox from the proverbial mire. Such is the case for emergency medical personnel, fire fighters and law enforcement. When there's an emergent need on Sunday, it's nice to know that help is on its way and won't be postponed until Monday.
I was in the church's hallway between Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School when a neighbor found me and informed me that two police officers were at my house. They had received a call due to a tripped alarm. I quickly found Gail, handed off Moriah and headed home to meet the officers. Yeah...that was a fun drive home! They informed me there was an alarm at the house and they had confirmed there were no human tracks in the fresh layer of snow around the front yard and as much of the side yard they could see from the west gate.
As I opened the garage door, all I could think is that maybe Sunny (the cat) knocked something over. When we installed the alarm system, they assured us that pets less than 20 pounds wouldn't affect the motion sensors. One of the officers instructed me to wait outside while he announced himself and checked out the house...then he drew his pistol and opened my door. I have to admit I was a little jealous. I've always wanted to do that and here he was stealing my thunder.
After confirming there were no thugs on the premises, the officer called me in to check things out. The place looked like it had been ransacked...but that was just because we have four kids. Though everything was out of place, it was all right where we left it. When I looked downstairs to verify that the mess was all ours, I came face to face with the culprit. A large, free-floating mylar balloon that we brought home from Aaron's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's had drifted into the corner in front of the motion sensor.
Are you still protected under the Ox in the Mire clause if the ox ends up being a random piece of harmless junk?
