Memorial Weekend Sunday felt more like a Saturday - until the lights went out in the neighborhood, and then it felt like. . . no time at all. The electricity suddenly kicked out, and I head a loud explosion outside, so I knew the lights weren't going to be flicking back on any time soon.

There was no point in hanging around here, since I couldn't use the computer, watch television, listen to music, or even cook food. So I showered in the dark, shaving by touch, and headed out for a Saturday night on a Sunday evening. I wound up at Fellini's Pizza.

Anyway, coming back, I saw Georgia Power crews working on a pole, indicating the juice was going to be back on soon, but what disturbed me was a car idling in front of my house in a pitch-black neighborhood.

Turns out it was our private Security Patrol. Police coverage is stretched so thin in Buckhead that we have to hire off-duty cops to patrol our neighborhood, and this officer was just hanging out while the lights were off to make sure no bad people tried to take advantage of the darkness - and all the non-operating security alarms.

I introduced myself and told him that I appreciated the effort. But then he said, "Do you know that you've got foxes in this neighborhood?"

Yeah, I've seen them a couple of times, I told him. He'd seen them too, and was warning all of the neighbors.

Warning? They're animals. They should be warned about us, I thought, but I knew better than to say that to him. I know better than to say most of what I think to most people, but most especially to cops.

"We've called Animal Control," he said, trying to reassure me.

It's funny. When I saw the fox, I was excited because it was a sign of at least some degree of ecosystem health in our urban neighborhood. If there are foxes, then there are also prey, and clean water, and enough untrampeled, unmolested woods for them to den. But when my neighbors or the patrolmen see them, they see a menace, a threat to be dealt with, a reason to warn the others and call the authorities.

If that's not enough, it seems that last Saturday night (which felt like a Friday), when I was recording music at Nick's, some one or ones came through the neighborhood and broke into a whole bunch of cars. No actual cars were stolen, but windows were smashed, stereos removed, personal belongings gone through and selectively taken. I wasn't affected, since I was out, but where were the cops?

Apparently a block away, giving out parking tickets to all of the residents on an adjacent street for parking on the "wrong side" (never mind that they've parked on that side for years, and there's no signs or anything forbidding them to do so). The Neighborhood Association complained, but were told that we should take it as a sign that the APD were in the area, and be grateful. We explained that we would have been more grateful had they been over one block apprehending the vandals breaking into our cars, that we'd be more grateful if they were here more frequently so that we wouldn't have to pay for our own private security, but our complaints fell on deaf ears.

Maybe they'll shoot a fox for us next.