Always Ready?

One night, about 5 years ago, I was startled in my sleep. My husband leapt out of bed and shouted at me in the darkness, I've got to go check the mains.

What the....? Honey, what are you doing? His response a little delayed, I said, the mains, I've got to, never mind. He apparently woke up at this point and realized he was no where near a ship and that I was amused by his dreamy-time antics. I chuckled. I've shared this story and even given the best impersonation of the act of him catapulting out of bed in his sleep. It was quite comical.

You see, having served onboard cutters, my husband has this knack for being able to pull himself together at a moment's notice to tend to business. He chalks it up to midwatches and zero dark thirty emergencies. Of course, somehow he still manages to snore through a child waking in the middle of the night, even if I'm swatting him repeatedly to get up. It's amazing how that preparedness is selective.

At any rate, last night I awoke to a song. His cell phone ringing, or rather singing, of the hook. I exclaimed, your phone's ringing, he leapt out of bed at my first announcement and ran down the hall. In sheer amazement, I lay there and by the tone of his voice and the responses I knew it was a CG call. Whether it was a coworker, a ship, a subordinate, I may never know. I just know he was ready to take that call even at 0230 and having a conversation as if he had been up for hours and was well caffeinated. He'd pulled himself together well. Still, I was none too pleased to be woken at that hour. Accustomed to it, but not pleased.

So, here's the kicker. He climbs back in bed and soon falls back to sleep. A child awakes, the child hits dad in the face (accidentally of course), screams, cries, fusses and my husband never wakes. Clearly, he has selective readiness/preparedness.