Life can be funny

Sometimes life really cracks me up, just the thought of some of the silly things about it will get me going. This morning I received email from my telephone wife, she was saying how she had been up since 12:00 when the rain awoke her. I laughed, I sleep next to a big picture window and was not even aware it had rained.

Yet here is the strange part, if I hear so much as a movement at the door during the night, or the doorknob turning, I am up, wide awake, waiting to protect if needed. Yet, thunder, lightening, trees flying through the night air, I sleep like a baby.

Approximately five years ago I was still in the badge and weapon state of my life. I was living in a single unit ground floor apartment. I was sound asleep, well deserved night off when about 0300 in the morning I hear a woman in the courtyard screaming “Help, they are going to kill me!” I was up, armed, badge, flashlight and cuffs on the belt, on the phone with communications requesting backup and out the door in a matter of seconds.

As I entered the courtyard a woman literally wrapped her arms around my neck screaming for me to help her. Directly behind her were four, very large men and they were still in motion. I am six foot tall, at the time about 185, no fat; I always try and stay in shape. They towered over me and appeared to be the defensive lineup for the Denver Broncos, they were huge and they were madder than hell.

The only chance I had was toss the woman aside and draw down on them, forcing them all face down in the dirt, all the while looking for an escape route,

I knew it was a matter of seconds before they would realize I could not actually use deadly force against them, unless to protect my life or the woman’s. To my knowledge at the time, they were unarmed, I could not risk patting them down alone and I had no visions of going hand to hand with these guys, none at all. I knew my backup was in route, I could hear them, not sirens, but fast moving vehicles, so I stayed in cop mode, hollering for them to remain still and the bluff worked as my backup pulled on scene.

To make a long story short, it was not what I had expected, but the obvious these days, a drug deal gone wrong, this little woman hard burned the four giants and they were going to take revenge. One of the males was armed; it could have turned into a very bad situation. I gave my report they all went to lockup, I went back to my apartment.

One would assume the adrenalin rush would keep me up, not these days. I undressed, in bed, my dog snuggled at my feet and asleep within moments.

Now, here is the funny part. I had heard this women’s call for help and reacted from a sound sleep, yet two weeks later, I awake to walk my dog, opened the door and stood in awe. During my slumber, the devastation and full force of a desert storm had struck the apartment complex, changing the landscape into something from a Terminator movie. All around my apartment was devastation, trees down everywhere; the roof from the office was in shambles with parts in front of my door. People in hard hats were scurrying here and there like busy ants, trying to put things normal enough for tenant’s vehicles to move.

It was a mess, yet I slept soundly through the whole thing without any knowledge it had occurred. I looked down at my dog and the way she looked at me had me laughing till it hurt. She tilted her head and gave me a look as if to say, “Dumb humans, I tried telling you.”

I guess it is conditioned response and knowing a non-threatening sound from one of help. In any case, I had no idea the landscape had changed during my slumber.