Plan For Confrontation

I was raised in a small rural community where everyone knew each other, house and car doors were seldom locked. In the event of a family emergency, all neighbors came together and to the rescue. You did not need government assistance and seldom depended on the church for assistance other than spiritual.

From the days of those memories in my youth to present time, our society has been in a steady decline. Many of the mystery crime stories on television are about murder, armed robbery, sexual assault, home invasion, drugs, and human trafficking. White Collar crime is tolerable by comparison. Please forgive me, I am being facetious.

I am writing this post because of an incident that occurred recently in my personal life. I have a habit of waking a couple of times during the night to get a drink of water. Approximately three days ago I woke up soon after 3 in the morning and as I reached for my bottled water, I thought I was still asleep when I heard muffled voices in our family room or on our backyard deck.

Instinctively I looked for my wife to make sure that she was still in bed asleep. Next, I concentrated to make sure of what I was hearing. Since we only have the two of us in the house, and two puppies 8 months old, any extra voices are cause for alarm.

I had to make an executive decision on the spot, and I did. I decided not to wake my wife because I wanted her to stay safe in the bedroom while I dealt with what I was almost certain would be a confrontation. As preparation for a confrontation goes, I have always maintained a baseball bat by my side of the bed.  On this occasion, we had been doing some end of year cleaning and I had been breaking down cardboard boxes for recycling, so I just happen to have a box opener handy.

I went down the hall without turning the lights on, prepared to have the element of surprise on my side. So once again, I come through without a scratch and the opportunity to gain experience, a lesson for future use and to share. As I rounded the corner into the family room, I saw that the television had been turned on, and that was the source of the voices.  We have had power outages in the area, and some dimming of lights without an electrical outage (culprit). I checked all the windows and doors to secure the house.

Two days after the incident I decided to discuss it with my wife and asked for her input. The bottom line is that we now have a plan in place. She wants me to wake her up so that she can call 911 if necessary.

If you do not presently have a plan in place, please develop one, and be sure to discuss it with other members of your household. You cannot imagine how many times I have heard people say, “That has never happened in our neighborhood before.

Someone once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”  Be safe in the New Year. The best is yet to come…