Der.

Okay, I take back my bitching about the service of the furnace company I use.

The guy was out at my house at 5 minutes of 1.

He found the problem - the previous homeowner had tried to put a filter where a filter is not meant to go. (That sounds vaguely dirty...).

He pulled out the filter (it had not been found before because it was in such an idiotic place) and told me that that was probably the problem, but to call him if the furnace wasn't working okay again.

Again, people are strange: why did the previous owner stuff the filter where she did, instead of calling someone to explain it to her? (or, for that matter, RTFM, as they say on Usenet). It is a mystery to me.

But at least I have a warm house.

And there's also another People are Strange, and a bit of a mystery:

as I was getting my mail, a guy pulled up alongside the curb. (He had been parked at my neighbors' house. These are the neighbors I think I've complained about before, with the loud white-trash gangsta-wannabee friends and the demon dog that sounds like it would like to rip my throat out).

The guy in the car identified himself as FBI. (I didn't approach the car too closely; I've had too many years of women's "not be a victim" training pounded into my head when I was in university.) He gave his name and all. He asked me if I had seen my neighbors in the past couple days.

I said no, not since Monday, when one of them took the trash bin back up from the curb. But their dog was still there. He laughed and said, yeah, I introduced myself to the dog. But I told him I didn't know any more and I was sorry.

And he thanked me and drove off.

And I walked in the house and then sort of dope-slapped myself and said, "ricki, you stupid cow, how did you know he was FBI other than that he said so? You didn't ask to see a badge or anything!" (Frankly? I was more concerned about ME and not getting too close to a strange car...there was a scary abduction-and-rape in a city south of me last night). But I realized: he could have just been a garden variety crook with a good line, casing their house, looking to break in.

So I decided it was best to call the local FBI office, just to check and also get some input on what to do if the guy was likely a crook.

Well, I got a recording, which suggested to me that the guy I talked to was the guy (we only have one agent; we're small.) I left a message, feeling kind of an idiot.

A few minutes later Jody (that was his name) called me back to reassure me. I said I felt like an idiot but... He kind of laughed and said it was ok, it was good for me to check, and he said he would have showed me his credentials (ooh, that sounds dirty too) but that I looked cold and he just wanted to let me get back in the house.

But now, I'm a wee bit freaked out. These people he was looking for - their house is like separated from mine by less than 10 feet at one point. I wonder why Jody wants to talk to them?

I'm telling myself it's something innocent - either one of them's a witness who's going to have to testify, or they're a victim of a long-ago crime and Jody has to tell them the perp is getting out of prison, or something. Not that they're on the run or violent criminals or meth cooks who might inadvertently blow up the place (and also my house and the house on the other side of them because we're so close).

I don't feel UNSAFE in the sense of not wanting to go out after dark any more - but I'm a little apprehensive.

(Maybe, I tell myself, maybe they're running that Nigerian Widow scheme on the Internet. Or something like that. Something criminal but something I'd not be a victim of because I'd not fall for it. I hope if it's a crime it's something like that.)