Every year, two of the local Air Force bases, Randolph and Lackland, take turns hosting an air show. This year it was Lackland's turn, which happens to be the one near where I work. I have never actually officially been to an air show, at least not in the sense that you drive a distance in traffic, park far away, take a crowded shuttle bus and stand out on the hot pavement looking into the sky, trying not to blind yourself by the sun or pass or pass out from heat exhaustion. That's why I've never bothered going. Usually, if I'm going to "go", I watch from a distance, be it the home of a relative living nearby, a close-by park, or a freeway I happen to be driving on that goes by the base at the right moment. And after all the visitors we had last month, and all the drama, I was looking forward to spending a weekend sitting at home doing absolutely nothing. Fighting crowds in the hot sun was not in the cards.
On Thursday they parked a NATO AWACS jet on the ramp right next to the street I use to drive to work every day. That piqued my curiosity. Then, Thursday afternoon, the Blue Angels began practicing and I found myself in a golf cart parked as close as I could get to the runway without getting shot...a front row seat to the weekend aerobatics to come. On Friday when the F-22 was flying ear shattering, window rattling, car alarm triggering maneuvers 1000 feet off the ground with afterburner, I was sold. I came home and told Jen we were going to the air show on Saturday. I am an idiot.
Labels: News
