What the…?
Generally speaking, this neighborhood is quiet. There are a few barking dogs, and a baby in the house behind us who can hit a pitch with volume to make the dogs shudder in pain, and occasional home improvement sounds, but mostly it’s a nice, quiet cul de sac.
Until today. Today, all of a sudden, the air is just filled with noise. Screaming jets overhead make it sound like I’m living in a major war zone. Bagdad-before-the-troops-went-in kind of noise, but without the bombs.
Of course, I went outside to see what was up. I mean, the screams from the jets are, literally I think, deafening. And while we get the occasional jet passing overhead, this is just, well, unheard of.
I looked up to see a fighter jet of some sort chasing another one, very closely. Then one banked and turned on a dime (if a dime could float) and the other went the other way. Looked like some sort of dogfight. Then I saw the markings…
Seems the Blue Angels are practicing for the Miramar Air Show (this weekend), and they’re practicing close enough that I can see the cockpits and read the lettering on the sides of the jets. I tried to take some snaps, but my camera is too slow to get them unless they are too far away to capture well. Damn.
I have a headache from the noise, but it is pretty cool. We’re just on the edge of one of their patterns, so I can see the jets weave in and out, just missing each other on some manoeuver, and flying really, really low…especially for a residential area. Miramar Marine Corps Air Station is just northeast of us so most of their flying is over it, but they are swinging out as far as (I think) the coast, which must just be pissing off the La Jolla multimillionaires.
Not very Buddhist of me, but that makes me smile.
So, I get free entertainment. I just need earplugs and aspirin to enjoy it.