self preservation
Regular Member
It turns out that I didn't, but I'll get to that. Over the last week the wife has been battling a cold and I have had some allergy issues. So after putting our son to bed around 9, she took some Nyquil and I took some allergy meds. Of course both make you sleepy. In our haste to get some sleep we forgot to set the alarm. Even when the alarm is not activated it still has a feature that tells you when a door or window has been opened. Imagine the surprise we both got at 1am when our alarm beeped twice and said "back door open."
Of course my handgun was close by so I grabbed it and headed through the house searching. Even after coming out of a dead sleep, on allergy medication to beat it all and having a decent amount of terror inside of me, I remember telling myself to keep my finger off of the trigger. I didn't want the dog to bark and me get spooked and start shooting. Or even worse I didn't a family member to surprise me. I kept telling myself over and over "if you have to shoot, make damn sure you know who you are shooting." The only light on in the house at that time is a florescent light that we keep in our kitchen in case our son gets up wanting a drink in the middle of the night.
I finally make it to the kitchen where I keep a rechargeable flashlight mounted to the wall. After clearing the house I walk back and shut the back door. I walk back into my bedroom where I find my wife sitting up, gun in hand, finger off trigger. She told me that if anyone besides me or our son came into the bedroom she would make sure that we would need new carpet. So what opened our back door? Once again, in our haste to get to bed I must have not pushed the door all the way shut when I came in from taking the trash out earlier that night. The back of our house always taking the brunt of high winds. Our storm door was damaged last week and I haven't hung a replacement yet. And due to the bad winds we had last night, and due to my "over sight" I got a rude awakening this morning.
I think even in a scary situation that the wife and I did ok with keeping safety in mind even when we thought we had an intruder inside of our home. Of course I'm sure it wasn't perfect. So if anyone would like to offer some advice on what we did right or wrong, I'm all ears. That's how we learn.
Of course my handgun was close by so I grabbed it and headed through the house searching. Even after coming out of a dead sleep, on allergy medication to beat it all and having a decent amount of terror inside of me, I remember telling myself to keep my finger off of the trigger. I didn't want the dog to bark and me get spooked and start shooting. Or even worse I didn't a family member to surprise me. I kept telling myself over and over "if you have to shoot, make damn sure you know who you are shooting." The only light on in the house at that time is a florescent light that we keep in our kitchen in case our son gets up wanting a drink in the middle of the night.
I finally make it to the kitchen where I keep a rechargeable flashlight mounted to the wall. After clearing the house I walk back and shut the back door. I walk back into my bedroom where I find my wife sitting up, gun in hand, finger off trigger. She told me that if anyone besides me or our son came into the bedroom she would make sure that we would need new carpet. So what opened our back door? Once again, in our haste to get to bed I must have not pushed the door all the way shut when I came in from taking the trash out earlier that night. The back of our house always taking the brunt of high winds. Our storm door was damaged last week and I haven't hung a replacement yet. And due to the bad winds we had last night, and due to my "over sight" I got a rude awakening this morning.
I think even in a scary situation that the wife and I did ok with keeping safety in mind even when we thought we had an intruder inside of our home. Of course I'm sure it wasn't perfect. So if anyone would like to offer some advice on what we did right or wrong, I'm all ears. That's how we learn.
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