I always liked to ask the hypothetical question: If lightning strikes you, but you live, are you lucky or unlucky.
It was always a cute/annoying thing to ask, and I never really gave it much thought beyond the idea that it would make me seem smart and deep.. and somehow knowing that it did neither.
Finally this week, I got asked the question myself, in a manner of speaking. My house was burglarized on thursday, and the guys trashed my bedroom, ripped through my drawers, overturned my mattress, and collected most of my electronic equipment in the living room to take with them, when an astute neighbor noticed and called the police.
In the end.. the perps are in Jail, I have all my stuff back, my wife, my cat, and I are all fine.. and its almost like it never happened.. if you minus the lost sleep, the violation, the day spent refortifying my home security, and the muddy footprints… but really.. we lost nothing tangible.
SO now, I find myself trapped in a world with two species.. the ones who ask me “how I’m doing” and the ones who tell me “You’re lucky”.. and neither seems appropriate. I’m fine, but not really.. its very strange…
So, now before I go to sleep, after the third time I check the locks, I ponder whether I am luck or unlucky, and pray lightning doesn’t strike again.
Live to fight another day…
Sorry to hear about the break-in. I would have to be one of the people that say you are lucky. Mainly because you and your family are okay. I have been the victim of a break in before and have had literally everything i owned taken. Luckily I was not home and was not hurt. I say that with a grimice. Yes it sucks that i lost a lot of my things i worked hard at collecting and keeping as memerobilia, but on the flip side i was not physically hurt and lived to laugh about it another day. The electronics and stuff can be replaced.
The feeling of security is the toughest thing to recover. It took me moving into a new place to feel secure again. On the bright side of that, I had hardly anything to move. :o)
I wish you the best, and just give a shout if there is anything that i can do to help.
~Jon
Thanks
Jon, I appreciate it.. like I said, we’ve even got everything back.. but you’re right.. that lingering need to get up and look out the window every night when I hear a car or to check the doors when I hear the cat downstairs is tough.
We will probably seek a security system or a dog or both.. we considered a gun.. but I would probably end up shooting the cat.. and sometimes not on accident…. so we won’t be getting one of those.
I wonder.. was there ever resolution on your break-in? Did insurance replace your stuff.. and did the guys ever get caught?
There was no satifactory reso
There was no satifactory resolution. The cops took a report, I was renting at the time, and did not have renters insurance (didn’t know such a thing existed at the time), and as far as i know, no one has ever gotten caught. So i literally had to start over from ground zero again. It sucked alot. I have contemplated getting a gun a few times, but have not felt the need in our new area. I feel pretty safe around here. I guess that i have never found myself in a position that i would really have a use for it.
Guns, kids, and me
Possessing a gun is a humbling thing. I mean, think about it: if you have a gun in your hands, you have two options: use it, or not. Using it most likely means the death of the intruder, or frequently, someone who is not an intruder. To not use it may mean the death of you or your family, or, if you’re lucky, that your goods leave your house.
I guess there’s a third choice: wave the weapon around without intending to use it.
Me, I’m still a little ambiguous. My dad was a gun fan. My father-in-law is a gun fan. I enjoy shooting guns, and I wouldn’t object to owning one, really. Yet I haven’t felt compelled enough to want a handgun yet, mainly because I’m a big, fat chicken. The thought of taking another person’s life makes me physically ill. Even if I did it for the most just of causes… it gives me much more compassion for those people who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder after being a soldier, or after a violent incident. I’m just not the type of person who can stomach it.
I can’t shoot someone over property. I just can’t. However, I think I’d be willing to crouch at the top of my stairs with a shotgun, and shout down to the intruder, “Hey, you, feel free to take anything you want; obviously, you need it more than I do. But if you take one step upstairs towards my family, you will die.”
One day, Christy and I want to buy matching handguns. But, for some reason, not yet.
BTW, Justin, I feel for you. It’s just gotta be this horrible feeling of violation to have someone try to steal your stuff. If someone stole my laptop and computers, for instance… that’s a huge chunk of my life they just walked out the door with. Oy.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
and so it goes…
I went through a time when i was not sure if i could fire a weapon or not. When i went through basic training, I recieved training on how the rifle works, how to fire it, maintain it, and respect it. We had gone through many training excercises ” War games” that tested our skills and got us familiar with the tactical side of things. I had a Sergeant who was in charge of me who had actually been in combat situations and had fired his weapon with a lethal outcome. He gave some words of advice on how he handles things. First he said never point the gun at someone unless you are prepared to fire it. Never fire it unless you plan to kill the person you fired at, and nothing can prepare you for the feelings you have from actually killing what you shoot.
I agree with Matt in the sense of take what physical possesions i have. It’s only money, and that can be replaced. Threaten my family, and the gloves are off, and i will use lethal force. I will say that I have night vision and a bayonet in my night stand. The night vision will let me see as if it were daytime with no light. When we first moved to WV i went out at night to get my dog back inside, and you could put your hand 6″ from your face and not see it, however, with the Nightvision i could see perfectly. The bayonet is more like a souvenier (sp) from the service, but it too has lethal consequences when used correctly. I would not be against getting a gun, but i will wait and see how things go.
I have a hockey stick on my night stand
Probably not the best weapon to use against intruders, eh? The sad thing is I have three of them handy in case one breaks.
Semi-lethal response
I think we could safely invest in a couple of aluminum baseball bats. They are cheap. I have a little martial training with swords and clubbing-type instruments. Could still easily kill a guy, but a stout baseball bat would make it slightly less likely, eh?
Plus it has a superb secondary use other than as a home-defense device. My son’s been begging me to go play some ball with him lately. Kinda’ tough in the middle of the winter, though…
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Lightning Strike
Re-reading your post reminded me. We’ve both been nearly struck by lightning at least once. I should write a blog about it one day 🙂
For those interested, Justin and I were standing on my back porch watching a storm. The way my house was situated, the back would stay prett much totally dry when we had storms, usually, because the wind would blow the rain over the roof. We were watching a really intense electrical storm out there. Then we saw lightning strike the parking lot of the church behind my house, and Justin suggested we step inside. We both did, and stood just inside the rear screen door, watching the storm with awe.
A few moments later, lightning struck close enough that we smelled ozone, had all the hair on our bodies stand on end, and if I recall correctly, Justin said he actually had a total white-out of his vision for a moment. Imagine if we’d been outside?
My other experience with lightning was sitting inside my house two years ago, in an upstairs room next to the window. I was working from home at the time. Lightning struck our house. I had everything plugged into a UPS, with the exception of my DSL modem. Well, lightning arced through my right arm (I wasn’t looking, so to this day I can’t tell you exactly how it happened), frying my keyboard and DSL modem. My right arm ached for about a week and a half afterwards, it really, really hurt. I came downstairs really shaken, complaining of pain in my arm, and only realized a few minutes later that I smelled smoke in my office and that I almost certainly had been close enough to the lightning that it was the cause of the terrible, unfocussed achie from my elbow to my middle finger.
I consider myself lucky 🙂
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Speaking of Lightning…
I remember one other time when I was visiting Matt when we were in Jr. High and lightning had hit the chimney of a house across the cul-de-sac. We were sitting in the “living room” where the piano was located and a storm started to brew outside. It was one of those odd storms that still left the sky partly sunny. I remember seeing the lightning hit the house and not believing my eyes….
A little less than a year ago i was on my way home from taking my sister to the airport and was watching the lightning show jump from cloud to cloud. I was headed to sears to pick up a water softener for the house. I was sitting at the light waiting to turn into Sears when lightning hit close, and i remeber my vision turning red. almost like a intense bright red flashlight was shined in my eyes for a brief second and then went away. That completely freaked me out.
Well i am off to get the girls to bed… I’ll read more in the AM.
~Jon