In the past few months there have been two occasions that have reinforced upon me that I should trust my instincts.
Incident One
I was hanging out with my girlfriend for the day and we were going back to her apartment. It was mentioned to me that her roommate would be out of town. As my girlfriend was opening the door to her apartment, I thought I saw a flicker move behind her bedroom window. My instinct was to grab my girlfriend, go in first, with gun drawn.
Several things stopped me from doing this. As I was trying to figure out what I saw, my girlfriend had already entered the apartment. Secondly, I also dismissed what I saw. Fortunately, it was not a MWAP (mutant with a plan), but my girlfriend's roommate, who had not quite left town. She did leave a message on my girlfriends phone, which my girlfriend did not check. The roommate was in my girlfriends room trying to get on the internet.
I am still of two minds if I had time to react. The opening of the door followed very soon after I saw the flicker. I would have had to act very fast to stop my girlfriend form entering her apartment and to get between her and the "threat". I also believe that I would have had dumb questions ask like, "What?" and "Why?", but I can't really do much about that.
In short, I acted slow and refused to believe what my eyes saw.
Incident Two
Last Sunday, I was leaving a friends house and the weather looked nasty. The plan was for me to lead my girlfriend to the interstate, where she would go west and I would go east on interstate 40. I explained to my girlfriend that she should find the weather as soon as she gets into her car. I figured that everything would be ok once we got moving. It was not until I was in my car and driving that I realized the full extent of what I was driving through.
As I was driving, I found out there was a tornado to the southwest of where we were. I also found out that my girlfriend was going to be driving though the storm as it was coming to her. I was able to get her on the phone and tell her to pull over in Conway and wait it out. Well, by the time she go to Conway she was in the middle of a lot of rain. She managed to make it to a hotel (my suggestion because they have TV's in hotels to watch) to wait it out.
In this case, I failed to listen to what the more cautious part of my brain was saying. I also failed to adjust my travel plan based on new information. To allow your instincts to take over you must first have a certain amount of willingness to change plans. I also failed to impart my exact feelings of fear to others. In other words, I did not let my instincts shine.
Both my girlfriend and I made it home safely, we were much luckier than others.
Source:"A motorist was killed Sunday night when the driver of a van drove into a tornado shrouded by darkness and rain. The storm picked up the vehicle and flipped it onto its top in the median of Interstate 40 near Morrilton."
cube
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3 comments:
Glad you both made it safely. There is something to be said for reaction time. Everytime V comes over and I'm opening the door and I fumble he tells me "We'd be dead by now if there were zombies coming". Guess I need to work on the whole dexterity thing.
Stewardess needs to be careful about movement in her apartment. I have on more than one occasion come home and found my door open an inch or so. Never my doing, landlord and boyfriend were the culprits. But you shouldn't just barge in if there could be someone inside that doesn't belong. It's not worth it to not pay attention to things like that.
Thanks for the warning, L.A. I certainly come across as the dummy in this post, Cube. *pout* Hey, and thanks for preserving my anonymity and telling everyone I was in Conway on Sunday. *dripping sarcasm* Glad I was ok. Your news blurb scares me, even after the fact.
"Your news blurb scares me, even after the fact."
did you see any lumber on I-40? If you did not it must have happened well after you left or well before you got there.
If either of those options are not the case, then it happened while you were in little rock or in Conway at the hotel.
Almost anyway you cut it, you were safe and secure.
"I certainly come across as the dummy in this post, Cube."
Not really, I was the one (in both of the cases) with with the information that failed to act. I thought I made that clear.
Also, When you are at your apartment door you can't see your window because you back is turned. There would have been no way you could have know their is was a flicker if I was not there to tell you about it.
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