Imagine my surprise on Saturday, when I saw a low-flying helicopter pass over Farmer H's Storage Unit Store. It wasn't a heavy medical helicopter from the nearby hospital. Nor a military chopper or news copter. I was driving by the prison when I first heard it. They lethally injected an overdue ne'er-do-well there earlier this week. So a part of my subconscious thought it might be related to that.
When I parked at The Gas Station Chicken Store, I heard that copter very close. I saw it in T-Hoe's side mirror. VERY LOW, coming over Hardee's, toward T-Hoe (!), then just past, going down! Wow. Looks like the used-car dealer was giving free helicopter rides to lure in prospective buyers.
While I was inside getting my 44 oz Diet Coke, I heard that copter again. When I was settling back inside T-Hoe, there it went. And came back before I left! Over at Orb K, that copter went over twice before I completed my business.
Let the record show that it was definitely drawing attention. People were pulled over, parked on the lots of businesses that were closed, sitting on the hood of their vehicle, necks upturned. I'm pretty sure most mouths were handing open, too.
This whole helicopter deal made me nervous. How safe is a helicopter giving rides at a used-car dealer? Does it need a flight plan? How does it get gas? I'm assuming it takes a special fuel, and can't simply land at a convenience store to fill up. What about power lines? Do they have to weigh the passengers, or take their word for the combined weight? Isn't the most danger in a helicopter ride during takeoff and landing? Yet these rides were about two minutes apiece.
I was really, really nervous. How safe can that be, flying over a populated area? I still haven't recovered from watching Dr. Romano get crushed by that crashing copter on ER.
4 comments:
But Dr. Romano was a first-class jerk. He deserved that bloody ending. (And your title makes go waaay back in time, to when my family would sing songs in our station wagon during vacation trips.
Sioux,
Did you also sing the Halls of Montezuma song? And Anchors Aweigh, and roll some caissons along?
Oh, how I loved to hate Romano! I especially enjoyed his clashes with Weaver, and how "Lizzie" stood up to him. Romano was circling the drain for quite a while, after his initial tangle with the roof helicopter. Darn that sweet, sweet Luka, and Susan Lewis, for saving him!
I never got to the Dr Romano episodes of ER, I think I quit watching soon after George Clooney took revenge on a child abuser when he noticed the bruise on the child's back exactly matched the tread on the father's boots. I think that's about the time the factory shifted into overtime for six months straight.
If you find out about the helicopter please let us know what was going on.
River,
They're always running somewhere here. Lately, it's been on the POP TV channel, marathons on Wednesday and Thursday. Not necessarily in order. Some kind of theme, I think. I record some for later re-watching. I prefer the after-Clooney years. I never liked him, not his early days on Facts of Life, or Roseanne, either.
I'll ask Farmer H what he knows about the helicopter.
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