My Husband "Subvet" says that when our first son "Sonshine" was born the sun rose on our world, when our second son "Gator" was born the sun laughed and when our daughter "Sugars" was born all the flowers bloomed. That says it all.

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain."
Anonymous

Your mind is the garden, your
thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can either be flowers or weeds. — William
Wordsworth

Friday, August 3, 2007

Show and Tell

Kelli is hosting show and tell Friday again

So, here's mine.

In a recent meme I said:

3) I qualified for the Concealed Handgun License the first time I'd ever been shooting.
True
Yup, I have the green man target to prove it. It was actually my 2nd time on the range, but the first time the trigger of my revolver was so stiff I couldn't fire the stinkin thing. The 2nd time I went to the range was when I met up with an instructor who fixed the trigger. I did not grow up around guns and have had NO experience so Subvet and I thought starting with a trained instructor would be the smartest way to go. I must say it felt good when after putting 3 shots of my first 6 either in the X or the 10 ring (the other 3 all went in the 9) he said, "Well, you don't need me anymore...." (For you who want to know, it was at 7 yards)
Now I just have to save up the $300 to take the class....
On a related thought, I've been asked by a couple of people upon learning that we now have a gun in the house "Would you really shoot someone?" My answer hasn't wavered. I HAVE THREE BABIES TO PROTECT. As my instructor pointed out (he also teaches self defense) egress from my home if invaded ISN'T good. I will have to stand and fight and I will do ANYTHING wait, EVERYTHING NECESSARY to protect my babies. Also, we bought the exploding bullets that (supposedly) won't go through walls so anyone who enters my home without my permission better be prepared to die. And yes, I do answer the door gun in hand. I'll tell you the reasons for all this home defense in another post.


Today's show and tell is the target. Subvet keeps telling me to be sure and say that I "started in the center then moved outward as my hands got tired." It is true, but I'm not sure what difference it makes. (I'm a novice remember.) There are 24 holes in that paper, if you're interested.




I also figure I'll tell you the reason why I finally let him get me the gun. He's wanted us to have a gun in the house ever since 9/11/01. I kept over ruling him, until this happened

We live in a small town. When we moved here the city limit sign said pop 2,300. It now says 5,600. Nope, I didn't forget any zeros. It's a SMALL town. One fine day when I was 8 months pregnant (the last time) I had both boys asleep in the van so instead of pulling into my driveway (which always wakes them up) I parked on the street in front of my house to let them sleep. As I sat there an "old" man (my guess is 60-70ish) walked up to my house, opened the storm/screen door and tried the doorknob. He stood there for a min or two, during which time I'm calling 911 on my cell phone from the car. He then walked down the street to the cross street. Now the road I live on is not a thru street and we're only a couple of houses from the corner. He went up to no other houses, just straight to mine. He turned down the cross road towards the back of my house. We don't have an alley, we share our back fence with the back fence of the houses on the next street. Meanwhile I'm giving 911 as accurate a description of the man as I can while I'm looking at him. The operator says she'll send someone out. The guy comes back up to my house (bypassing all the other houses) and this time knocks on the storm/screen door. Waits a bit then walks off again. I'm thinking a friend in blue should be turning the corner any second now...hopefully to catch the guy in my lawn. 2 hours later I call her back and ask where on earth my friendly neighborhood cop is. She says to me, "Did you want contact? You didn't say you wanted contact." I didn't know that I had to REQUEST for a cop to come talk to me when a guy just tried to walk in my house. Well, we went back and forth a bit and the next morning Subvet has a little tete a tete with our local chief of police. Turns out the call went from the county 911 operator to the city officers as a "WELFARE CHECK ON A CONFUSED OLD MAN." It's a good thing Subvet was there and not me.

Now, don't get me wrong, I know several of you readers are police officers. The city police officers did nothing wrong in any of this story as far as Subvet and I can determine. It was the 911 operator. I ended up (after a week of tracking this down and having everyone and their dog listen to the tapes of both calls) speaking to the 911 supervisor. She said she'd have put it out as a "suspicious circumstance" I said hey, I'll go for that, but that's a darn sight different from a "welfare check." I asked her why it went as a welfare check...."well, we go by tone of voice and the choice of words..." I interrupted her. Folks, I'd make a tinkle poor nurse if I broke down in hysterics at every emergency. I thanked her for letting me know that next time this happened I needed to cry and yell that some guy was trying to get in my house...help help help...and oh by the way...I'd actually like to speak to the officer sent out to investigate, pretty please!!!! Then, perhaps, it will get off the bottom of the totem pole of 911 calls.

Turns out, the operator who took my calls did get reprimanded over this. She a) should have sent it out as a suspicious circumstance (I mean really, if there's any question wouldn't you like them to choose the more potentially dangerous of the choices??) and she b) should have asked in the first call whether I wanted to speak to an officer or was just "letting them know." However, this incident greatly undermined our confidence in our officers' ability to protect us. I mean, the poor guy in blue on the street can only go by what he's told by the 911 operators. This, sadly, reinforced Subvet's belief that the city police are simply the "clean up crew" who come by after all is said and done. We therefore need to be able to protect ourselves. To any officers who may be reading this saga. I do truly hope that I've not offended you.

What is terribly scary is that had I gone on inside with the babies there was (at that time) a good possibility that the door would have been unlocked when the guy first tried the knob and he would have been in the house. Now THAT 911 call would have sounded a bit different!!

10 comments:

bigwhitehat said...

That aint a bad group.
Nice.

Pen of Jen said...

I am linking you at Kelli's
Jennifer

Anonymous said...

Well you've proved with green man that you are qualified with that gun of yours. The whole 911 call drama you encountered is horrible! Just remember if you shoot someone say very emphatically that you were afraid for your life. That holds up good in court...

Susan said...

Oh how terrible!
Susan

Linda said...

As a 911 operator (former police and fire, now EMS) let me just apologize for the fool that you apparently dealt with when you called.

I never ever went by tone of voice as I know that I, personally, never call someplace all excited regardless of what is going on. Acting all excited should have absolutely nothing to do with what sort of response she sent out. It shouldn't have been a welfare check, it should have been suspicious activity and that's all there is to it. A welfare check is a totally different response for officers than a report of suspicious activity, especially when you have subject description, etc.

On behalf of other, more competent, 911 operators out there please allow me to apologize! Some people should just not be in the profession.

Cookie..... said...

No apology necessary amiga. My partner and myself once received an "illness call" in an apartment house. Upon arrival, there was a very large man sitting on the stairs inside, obviously having great difficulty breathing and talking. There was no blood apparent, but we called for an immediate ambulance, believing him to be having a coronary.

He was taken to the hospital and we went back in service a code 5 (Illness-no call for police action).

We received another call a short time later that the man had died at the hospital from a stab wound from a small (thin bladed), but long "banana" knife that enetered his body in one of his rolls of fat (no blood).

When the tape was played back, turned out he had in fact reported to the 911 operator that he had been stabbed & robbed, something that would have been nice for us to know at the time.

Carole Burant said...

It's terrible that we can't feel safe in our own homes but that's how today's world is. I say if you have a gun and know how to use it...someone tries to break in...go for it! xox

Reviekat said...

Scary story - I'm glad everything worked out for you. You have a nice grouping of shots on your paper.

Stephanie D said...

Whew! I'm impressed! Maybe you should apply for the police chief's job. First on the agenda: fire 911 operator.

MightyMom said...

To all of you who commented on my shooting, thanks.

To Cookie and Linda. This actually isn't my worst ever 911 operator experience. I'll post later about that one, it's a dooooozy!!

Thanks Jennifer for linking me up.

Stephanie, the bad thing is that our Police is city, the 911 system is county, totally different agency. Our poor chief had no way of helping us other than requesting the tapes and giving his opinion (which he did with much understandable CYA).