You Can Train Anywhere, Anytime

The day before we left for North Carolina on vacation our washing machine broke. I have had way too many oh-crap-life moments to let something like this annoy me in the least, so I just said, whatever and went to plan B.  We didn't have that much dirty laundry and there was a washing machine at the house we rented, so we just packed whatever was dirty and washed it when we arrived at the beach.  We did call the repairman right away though and set up service call for when we returned.  I will spare you the 3 week oh-crap-life momment is starting to piss me off saga and jump right to this morning.

The phone operator had scheduled the repairman to come to my house between 8am-12pm.  Of course, 100% of the time whenever a company schedules me for a time slot, the repair person shows up about 5 minutes after the latest time.   Since I know this, I was not concerned that 8am is the exact time I am running around getting my kids ready for school, but I should have been.

I woke up this morning and put my yoga like pants on and I had a little spaghetti strap top on. No gun, no cover garment.  Just me in my morning attire.  Let's not tell any of the people who train me that my gun was not on me even though it has violently strongly been suggested, ad nauseum repeatedly that I wear it at all times.

I am in the kitchen packing snacks for the kiddos when my daughter says, "Hey, mom there is some guy at the door."  She did not open the door she can just see him standing there. I look at sure enough there is a man at our door, it is the guy from Se@rs. 

I open the door, he hands me a card, says his name and I let him in.  He seems very nice.  I show him to the laundry room and he starts to work on the washer.  I was not at all concerned that my gun was not on me.  I was expecting him, he was driving a company van, he was wearing the company uniform, he handed me a card, his posture towards me was fine.  Not a big deal.  But then I started to think about all the stories I have heard and read about repairman not really being repairman.  I have read a lot about repairman who don't commit crimes every time they make a call, but sometimes, some of them might engage in a crime of opportunity. I look at a him and think he seems nice, but he is rather larger.  I think I probably should put my gun on, but this is easier said than done.  My gun is in a place where if I went to grab it, the man could see me get it from the laundry room.  I have other guns upstairs, but my kids are waiting on the sitars for the bus, so I don't want to call them up with me and I don't want to leave them alone with him, so I am in a quandary.  What to do...

Also, am not wearing the right clothes.  Can't just grab my gun and slide it on. I have to figure that out first.  Again, I am not really concerned about this, but I am half way thinking idiot, should have had my gun on and half way thinking this is good training.  Probably don't need to get my gun on, but it's a challenge and I want to finishing thinking how I can solve this dilemma.  I go into my downstairs closet and grab a jacket which I am sure seemed strange because it is like 80 degrees, but it was just a little windbreaker and not my huge winter jacket plus regardless I needed something for a cover garment.

The bus comes, I send the kids off and I go into my kitchen where I can see him clearly and where my gun is.  I do busy work and wait for a chance to get my gun.  He turns his back and I seize the opportunity.  Grab my gun, go into the next room, slide my Remora on, tuck my gun in there, tighten drawstrings on pants, fix jacket. Success! I am armed. 

Again, I had no reason to be concerned and I wasn't.  I also know the gun is not a magic answer to whatever could possibly happen if the washer repairman decided to go all bad guy on me, but I feel more confident in my skills to handle bad guy situations with my gun than without it.

Fortunately, the third time is a charm, he fixed the washer!!! He is standing inside our laundry room which is small and with really bad lightening.  He asks me to come in there so he can show me the paperwork and have me sign a few things.  I decide that just for practice, I am not going to go in there.  Normally, if I don't want to do something, but someone asks me to, I do it.  I was not worried about going in there, but I have done things before that I felt uncomfortable doing and I wanted to practice saying no, so I said, "Actually, would you mind coming out here and letting me look at those?"  He said, "Oh, sure the light is probably better for you in the kitchen".  I said, "Yep, sure is, thank you."

I read. I signed. He left.  All is well.