Wednesday, March 31, 2010

A RUDE AWAKENING - A TRUE STORY WITH A MORAL

We were awakened from a dead sleep at 4am this morning when our burglar alarm went off.  Trust me, it was not a pretty sight.  I sprang out of bed yelling, "Holy Cow!" and ran straight for the phone, but as I got there realized that the sound was much, much too loud for the phone.  Then I did a series of "starts and stops".  I started for the stairs - realized that maybe someone was breaking in - and stopped, thinking my husband would get up.  Think again.  Then I started for the stairs again - and stopped because I thought that if a burglar was indeed downstairs, that maybe wearing a robe would present a better picture.  I started for the closet, got my robe, then stopped - thinking once again that if it was a burglar, surely my husband had better take his "hurling stick" and go downstairs instead of me.  Think once again.  Finally I started down the stairs, vainly trying to remember the code for the alarm and having my blog password coming to mind instead.  I finally got the right code in and the sound stopped.  Blessed silence!  I then proceeded to check out the downstairs for possible intruders - realizing too late that I had not grabbed the "hurling stick".  As I came into the den, I realized that the wind outside was really blowing crazy.  Then I heard my husband yelling from upstairs, "The wind is really blowing, maybe one of the skylight windows isn't latched tight." 
This whole incident reminded me of a guy I used to work for.  I guess he had had a hard night, so decided to go into his office and take a nap on a cot he had there.  It was a really slow part of the day and usually we didn't get any customers during that part.  He told me that if we did get any, to come wake him up.  Well, sure enough a guy came in.  I went to his office and called his name, but he didn't respond.  I walked over to him and shook his shoulder a little bit and he not only woke up, but sat up hurridly with his hand coming up to my throat!  I said his name and he stopped.  He looked at me and I told him we had a customer.  As I started to go out, he called to me and apologized.  He said to me to never touch him or shake him when he was asleep without calling his name first.  Duh.  That would have been handy information. 
Later I thought about the speed that I had jumped out of bed with when I first heard the alarm and the fact that my husband hadn't even stirred until I had jumped up yelling.  And the moral to this story?  See, I'll be the first one there in an emergency, but will be too disoriented to help.  Then my husband will come later cool, calm and collected with a solution to the problem.  :0) PS. In the picture above, they have hurling sticks.

6 comments:

Delirious said...

I'm reading a really good book right now about survival. The author says that one of the biggest obstacles to survival is that when an emergency happens, people "freeze up", and don't think straight. I think planning ahead, and imagining what we would do "if", would help us be ready when something happens. I haven't even thought about what I would do if a burglar came to my house!

Dee Ice Hole said...

SO WAS IT THE SKY LIGHT OR WHAT???? Inklings can share a similar story but in hers there really was a person involved. It was Mike---just not the Mike I thought it was.

Amber said...

next time you better make your husband get out of bed and go downstairs instead of you!! what if it HAD been a burglar!

Stick said...

Delirious, you are right. That is why you practice karate moves over and over. You develop a muscle reflex in a given situation so that you don't even think, you react. Practicing what you would do in an emergency is the same thing. It helps to focus your energy in a positive direction without having to realy thnk about it at first.

Inklings said...

YIKES! There's a way to jump-start your heart for sure. Maybe I will have to blog our break-in that happened in Montana. :0)

Bullet for Babs said...

I've been scared for so long that this same thing might happen to us at your house.