Not As Crazy As We’d Like
I was working on HS just now, in my home office. Every once in a while a chopper would fly overhead.
And again, and again. Low enough to be interesting.
Worrisome even…
A quick tweet – “any idea why there are helicopters flying so low around downtown montreal??”- and back to work.
But then the ambulance sirens started. And as I stuck my head out the window, a chopper flew by and it was clearly a military chopper.
Then firetrucks added their horns to the mix, and careened up my street.
Some quick detective work (twitter search) revealed that Discovery had just flown overhead and that
“it seemd to eject smthing. Looked like a small firework ball around it. Any idea what this is?” – @antares_70.
This is when, simultaneously, I felt very excited and a little afraid. I literally dived for my Nikon D1H under the bed, feeling very much like my journalist father must feel when he runs out to cover a breaking story.
Two more trucks turned at the end of the street, and I jogged over, picking up the pace as I went.
When I turned the corner, they were parked there. Four trucks and an ambulance, all lined up in front of the McGill Pizza building. The choppers were still flying overhead.
I couldn’t see a blaze, or any running to indicate anything but a false alarm. The choppers were still circling, but I hung around for a few minutes, took a half-hearted shot or two, and headed back home.
By this time, the twitter buzz was picking up a bit more, and the following story emerged:
- The apartment block commonly referred to (by me, at least) as “The McGill Pizza Building” had a four truck false fire alarm.
- The Discovery shuttle did indeed “eject smthing”. Lit rocket fuel. A standard thruster burst!
- The Special Operations Aviation Squadron was having training exercises!
I felt relieved and disappointed.
The world’s a crazy place, but not as crazy as we’d like it to be!
fancy camera w/o battery = phone camera instead = FAIL
Thanks to @jessfk, @ernesthon, @antares_70 for helping clear this up.
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