Bless His Heart

We recently got a new supervisor over our section. Just due to the nature of things, we don't have any supervisors in the agency with bomb experience, so it's nothing new - but he is smart enough to know what he doesn't know. I have a good relationship with him from work in other areas, so the past month has seen frequent questions in emails or stops at the office as to how my unit would handle certain situations, what some of our procedures and equipment are, and the like. All part of helping share my knowledge with the department and part of the job.

Now, one of the expectations of my job position is that you answer the phone. I get a lot of freedom to come and go, or use time off when needed, or to do all sorts of other stuff - but. you. answer. the. phone. when. the. boss. calls. Particularly as bomb calls and tactical events tend to be rather tense and time-critical it's certainly a fair expectation. So the family and I are well-versed in the fact that my phone may ring at odd moments, and I will shift gears to answer it and prepare for whatever may come next.

Tonight was one of those times. We were in the post-dinner bath and bed cycle for the munchkins when he called & I answered. It started out with a "so if you had a situation involving such-and-such, and you ran into this type of device, what would you do?" - letting me figure out pretty quickly that it wasn't a "get dressed and run out the door" moment as I started to get a few more details so as to answer him properly. From the way the conversation was going I wasn't sure if this was a possible training scenario he was discussing, or something that had happened elsewhere he wanted more info on. But we worked through what he wanted to know in a few minutes as I walked him through the decision tree I'd use.

Then, he just got me to shaking my head... because he closed it up by saying "Thanks, I was just watching this show on TV, and they didn't do any of that and I wondered why."

Bless his heart, really, because I do appreciate that he wants to learn my side of things - so that when I am asking for stuff, or telling him what I am doing on a call, at least he has a grasp of why. But, you may reasonably presume that any "bomb squad actions" you see on television or in the movies are relatively distanced from reality, at least to the point that you don't need to call me at eight at night for an explanation...