So in the last 24 hours a few people have had a similar reaction to the discussion topic here: here and here with the response “I don’t want to live in fear!”
Only I don’t see it as working like that. Now I’ve never had to fight for my life, and I hope I never have to, but I have been in a bunch of scary situations, and I will personally attest that fear has never set in until I was out of options…or the dust had cleared and I was thinking about what COULD have happened.
That has lead me to to always be prepared and always have a backup plan, not only because its smart, but because it gives you something to do when things get bad other than being scared, and being scared sucks!
So just for a tie to that and also showing my personal definition of condition orange I’ll talk about last night. Last night the wife and I went for a walk around the lake, we had some errands to run in town and I wanted to take some pictures of the baby geese.
My town, and the walking path around the lake is totally yuppified, but still I brought my gun. As we were walking I noticed a car pulled off the road and onto the shoulder, just behind us. I turned my head I noted it was a late-model Cadillac in great shape with a middle-aged man behind the wheel and no passengers I could see.
Now the shoulder he pulled over was right on the lake and a common spot for people just to park and look at the lake, or go over to one of the many benches at the water. The car seemed not to be the ride of somebody looking to do me harm. If you can afford a Caddy, then what do you expect to get from the Weer’ds? And the driver didn’t strike me as somebody particularly interested in me.
The car stopped and we kept walking, and that was the end of the story, but I noted to Mrs. Weer’d that event right there was a pretty typical “Condition Orange” for me. I didn’t reach for my gun, I wasn’t afraid of anything, I just saw a car pull up behind me and “follow” me (I assume he was just getting his car as close to the curb as he could without scuffing his rims) and I kept an eye on him until I was sure he had no interest in me. It was a minor thing to do, that essentially took nothing out of my day, but it sure did add to my safety because if something HAD happened, I had my eye on him.
Turned out the Mrs. was doing the same thing. But then something different happened…
A young woman jogged by wearing a skin-tight jogging suit. I immediately checked her outline for weapons…then I checked again. When I mentioned this to the Mrs. she just rolled her eyes. : ]
So errands run, got a little bit of exercise, and I got a few pictures:
Some Ducks
The Baby geese were nowhere to be found, I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
Arrrrrr
-Weer’d Beard
I can’t say it any simpler – awareness does not equal fear.
Let’s put it an other terms: if someone came up to me with an opportunity to invest in a company or a project; I need to be aware of the risk involved with that person or company right?
So, the first thing I do is see if I know the person, if i know the company. I determine how safe the risk is.
If I don’t know the person, If I don’t know the company or the type of investment; I realize that my level of risk has just increased.
So, is that being afraid of investing? Nope, it is being a smart investor, right?
so no pictures of the jogger??? = )
like the new site.
I had two choices. Attempt to get a picture before she ran away, or confirm her curves.
One must err on the side of caution! 😉
I immediately checked her outline for weapons
Yeah, I’ll try and use that one with my wife. Somehow, I don’t think she will buy it (especially if we are at the beach and the subject is wearing a string bikini, but you never know, I’ve watched a lot of spy movies and the girls in the bikinis are the ones you have to watch out for).
Just need to explain that to your wife.
That or explain that a wandering eye does not necessarily mean a wandering heart, or other organs.
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