The hunt is on (aka The Insomnia Post)
A few blocks away, a police helicopter is circling overhead, searchlight pointed downwards in search for some bad guy or another. My scanner batteries are dead (have been for a couple of years now) or else I'd know more. Still fascinating, though... Round and round as if tethered to the earth by that searchlight beam.
Years ago, when I was a teenager, my friends and I went out to a "known hot spot" on Baxter Avenue to look for UFOs. We hadn't been parked but maybe three minutes before we were flashed by a police chopper searchlight. Panicked, we capped our binoculars, jumped into the car and fled the scene, our hearts pounding. The black helicopters are real! The black helicopters are real! We didn't sleep at all that night. Just stayed up discussing the reality of the "Oz factor" and how the TRUTH really is out there!
Had we ever bothered to turn on the telivision for anything other than the X-Files, we'd have learned that then-presidential-candidate Bill Clinton was in town giving a campaign speech and the choppers were most likely a part of the security detail. *Ahem* Occam's razor and all. What a buzz kill that was, I don't mind telling you. Sheesh.
On the upside... well I guess there is no upside to having such a thrilling adventure dashed to bits... except... well... had we stuck around that night, we might well have marveled at how the helicopter as it circled, seemed tethered to the earth by that searchlight beam!
It's taken me ten years to see the silver lining of that shattered fantasy! Seriously. My feelings of betrayal at the time were even greater than the Easter-Bunny-Santa Claus-Tooth-Fairy TriFecta of Disappointment combined.
Tonight has been a good night.
Years ago, when I was a teenager, my friends and I went out to a "known hot spot" on Baxter Avenue to look for UFOs. We hadn't been parked but maybe three minutes before we were flashed by a police chopper searchlight. Panicked, we capped our binoculars, jumped into the car and fled the scene, our hearts pounding. The black helicopters are real! The black helicopters are real! We didn't sleep at all that night. Just stayed up discussing the reality of the "Oz factor" and how the TRUTH really is out there!
Had we ever bothered to turn on the telivision for anything other than the X-Files, we'd have learned that then-presidential-candidate Bill Clinton was in town giving a campaign speech and the choppers were most likely a part of the security detail. *Ahem* Occam's razor and all. What a buzz kill that was, I don't mind telling you. Sheesh.
On the upside... well I guess there is no upside to having such a thrilling adventure dashed to bits... except... well... had we stuck around that night, we might well have marveled at how the helicopter as it circled, seemed tethered to the earth by that searchlight beam!
It's taken me ten years to see the silver lining of that shattered fantasy! Seriously. My feelings of betrayal at the time were even greater than the Easter-Bunny-Santa Claus-Tooth-Fairy TriFecta of Disappointment combined.
Tonight has been a good night.