Need a Ride?

Last night Richard casually said "A Blackhawk is picking me up for work tomorrow.  At the park." 

I stopped fiddling with the laundry and stared at him. "What are you talking about? Tomorrow? Our park?Huh?"

"Yeah, tomorrow.  It's for a mock disaster exercise.  It'll be here around 9:30."

I stared some more.  "What are you talking about?  Our park? What?"

He tried not to laugh at me as he explained that, in case of a state-wide disaster, major roads would be closed and the key military leaders would need to be able to get to work to take care of disaster-solving stuff.  So, if he couldn't drive to work, the National Guard would come to him, via a Blackhawk helicopter landing at the park not two blocks from our house.

I questioned him a bit more and then said, "you're just NOW telling me this?"

Turns out he didn't really want us to know any time in advance 'cause he knew we (the kids and I) would get so excited.  I said we needed to let all the neighborhood children know because that would be oh-so-cool to watch through their little eyes.  He told me "no."  I wasn't to tell anyone because, and I quote, "I am NOT a spectacle."

Well, I convinced him that at least a few neighborhood children would need to know, so I told a couple of OUR children, and they helped to . . . ahem . . . spread the word, if you will.

Also, as a side note, he was leaving for Washington D.C. today, from wherever the mock-disaster-headquarters would be and so he would need to take his suitcase to the park and it would ride along with him.  As we left the house this morning I assumed we would walk the 10-house distance to our park, but he loaded the bag and the kids into the car.  I insisted we walk because it was a beautiful morning.  He used the "spectacle" word again.  I told him Coop could pull the rolling suitcase a few paces ahead of us on the walking trail and no one would be the wiser.

It was still a no-go.  The kids happily rode their bikes to the park, and we followed "inconspicuously" in our very-large, seats-eight vehicle.

We hadn't been there but a couple of minutes when it came flying in.  Loud and windy and awesome. Friends that I had leaked the news to stood around.  People from the surrounding houses flowed out wearing their pajamas and jutted their chins toward the sky.  Children pointed.  The air churned. Adults cheered.  The blades thundered above. We all waved.

It was quite a spectacle.