Hearing Helicopters

It's been awhile since Bell Spice has been at the keyboard, mostly because a lot has been going on in my life over the past few months -- a LOT of international traveling following by gf coming home after being away for 6 months.

So you might be expecting to hear about one of those things or about my usual topic: parking. But recently, I've been thinking a lot about helicopters. Mostly because, from my apartment, I hear helicopters not infrequently. This is due to the fact that I'm about a half-mile away from a pretty big hospital, and big hospitals and helicopters seem to go hand-in-hand.

This isn't the first time I've lived in an area where I heard a lot of helicopters. The city I lived in before coming here, I heard choppers daily, but they were normally traffic choppers, since it was a big city and highway congestion was commonplace.

But before that, I spent a year in Iraq, where I lived near the LZ, or landing zone, on our camp. I saw a lot of different kinds of helicopters in Iraq -- and even rode in a Chinook once (as a person who experiences motion sickness, I took a LOT of Dramamine before getting on that bird and otherwise avoided riding helicopters whenever possible).

In Iraq, some birds were cargo and transport, some were medical, some were attack birds. I remember driving in a convoy down the highway one day and seeing an Apache attack helicopter, fully armed, buzzing down the other side of the highway. It was flying maybe ten feet above the rode -- almost as if if was driving down the road rather than flying.

Once a week, helicopters brought our mail up to us from Kuwait. And it was out on the helo pod, helping to unload the overstuffed (and very heavy) mailbags that many of us thought, even if only briefly, about how we could get ourselves into flight school. And on one occasion, a helicopter came to take my battle buddy, who had been wounded by a roadside bomb, to a hospital.

In civilian life, people are often fascinated by seeing a helicopter -- perhaps because they are a bit rare. But for me, they are old hat. But they are also a reminder -- when I see or hear one now, I know that it is flying on hospital business. Having had to put an injured friend on a helicopter in the past, I realize that what might seem 'cool' for those of us watching the helicopter is most certainly not 'cool' for someone else. But I also remember that helicopters also once brought me my mail. And that gives me hope -- that something can be at one time both terrifying and wonderful.

Things I Like Listening To While Laying in Bed in the Morning

I was feeling a little lazy this morning, and as a result laid in bed for awhile after waking up. While I was laying in bed, I started compiling a list of things I like listening to while I'm laying in bed. This list is likely incomplete, but in nor particular order:

1. The rain
2. Thunder
3. Strong wind
4. A train going down the train tracks that run through my neighborhood

When GF is around, I would also add to the list:

5. GF breathing/sleeping beside me
6. GF in the shower


On the flip side, things I definitely do not like hearing while I'm being lazy in bed include:

1. Birds (what can I say, they rapidly get annoying)
2. Car horns or car alarms
3. Lawn mowers


I'm sure there's more that I could add to both lists if I thought about it a bit longer. The question is, what's on your list?

Catching Up - The Geese, the Art Fairs, and the Travel Doctor

I realize I haven't written in awhile -- mostly because I haven't been driving to work and therefore don't have any many parking structure-related stories. But there have been things to write about, I've just been busy -- both with work and with putting my creative energies into another writing project I've got going at the moment -- so here's a quick rundown on what's been going on since my last post:

1. The Geese

You might recall the fact that I was annoyed with the geese. And then that I was happy to note that they seemed to have been pushed out of the park by the ducks. Well, as it turns out, the geese have simply moved down river a bit, and rather than hanging out by a path through a park they are now spending their mornings hanging out next to a sidewalk on one of the town's busier streets. I was biking past them just the other day and guess what? They hissed at me again.

The goslings do, however, appear to be growing up fast. They're still a little smaller than the adults, but are certainly getting close to full-size. No doubt, however, they will need intense psycho therapy later in life as a result of having over-protective yet only semi-competent parents.

2. The Art Fairs

Even longer ago, I had written a post about how annoyed I get with pedestrians in the Parking Structure while the Art Fairs are clogging up most of downtown. This year, due to the fact that I now live only a mile from work, I either walked or biked to work every day of the Art Fairs. As a result, my only sources of annoyance were the pedestrians who wouldn't get out of my way while I was on my bike and the fact that, with half-a-million extra people in town for the Fairs, all the bars cancelled their Happy Hour specials -- no need to try to lure people in for a drink when there's suddenly five times as many people wandering around, I suppose.

3. The Travel Doctor

For those of you who are not already away, I'm planning a vacation to Ghana later in the summer. As a result, I had a trip to the travel doctor a few weeks ago to get the necessary vaccinations, medications, and information. Rather than re-iterate my entire travel doctor experience here, I'll simply refer you to the blogpost a friend of mine wrote about going to the travel doctor and tell you to simply replace 'Japanese Encephalitis' with 'Dengue Fever.'

Quick Hit: Ducks Push Geese Out of the Park

Some of you may remember a couple posts ago when I discussed the oh-so-fearsome geese that kept hissing at my as I walk through the park on my way to work.

I am now proud to announce that the geese are now gone. Although I'm sure there are those who would claim this has something to do with geese migratory patters, falling property values in the park, or the goslings getting old enough to go spend a week with their grandparents, I am convinced it is because of the ducks.

Yes, there are a lot of ducks in the park these days. And part of me suspects that the ducks were not impressed by the geese hissing at them and told them they could take their precious goslings elsewhere if they were so concerned about any other living entity (including, possibly, the grass) coming within 3 feet of them.

So what has this regime change meant for Bell Spice on her morning walk to work?

1. Ducks don't hiss. (Or, if they do, they don't do it around me).
2. Ducks don't crap all over the path through the park.
3. The ducks don't appear to have any ducklings that they're 'protecting.'
4. The ducks seem to realize that if they want some space, it's pretty easy to stay away from the humans (who mostly stay on land) by spending the majority of their time in the water.

The score so far:
Geese, 0; Ducks 1

Where Do You Park a Camel?

As some of you may know, GF is currently traveling to exciting and exotic locations this summer. She recently shared some pictures of the Egyptian pyramids, and I was not the only person to notice a handful of camels next to one of the pyramids. (Which really helps put the pyramid in the picture in scale.)

This all got me to wondering: where do you park a camel?

Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that camels are a great mode of transportation in desert climates. I even rode one once (and was surprised to learn that riding a camel is in no way even remotely similar to riding a horse). They're more sustainable than cars, though not as fast. But I still have to wonder about parking.

Once you have the camel at home, I have no doubt that suitable accommodations are not difficult to come by. But what do you do with your camel after you've ridden it to the pyramids (or, for that matter, to the 7-Eleven on the corner)? Do you tie it up the way cowboys always tied up their horses outside saloons in old Western movies? And if so, does that mean that there are 'camel tying posts' conveniently installed near the pyramids?

On a positive note, if you did tie your camel up, I'm sure that whole spitting thing would prevent someone from trying to hijack your camel. Having had my car broken into at least once in the past, having a mode of transportation that didn't include windows wouldn't be such a bad thing. If only camels were suited to Michigan weather . . .

Geese, Ganders, and Goslings

I've been trying to walk to work more often lately, which has resulted in dramatically less time spent in the Parking Structure and therefore fewer opportunities for Parking Structure-related adventure. So instead, today, I'm writing about my walk to work.

You see, to get to work, I cut through a park, walking along a path next to the river, taking a footbridge across the river, and hopping out to the street on the other side. It's a beautiful way to start the day -- walking along the river. However, 6 families of geese are apparently nesting in or near the park. (I know it's six, because as I was walking home the other day, all six of them were either swimming in the river or nibbling at grass on the bank -- though one family of geese does appear to be a single-parent situation).

Now, I don't have a problem with geese. I mean, I'm not crazy about having to dodge the goose poop which tends to be all over the path, but I can deal with that. And, for that matter, I have many fond memories when, as a kid, my parents would take my sister and I to the Wildlife Sanctuary in Green Bay where, for $1, you could get a paper lunch bag full of corn to feed to the geese (and many of the geese would come up and eat it right out of your hand).

These geese in the park, however, are not about to eat anything out of my hand. It's probably due to the fact that they all have young goslings, but every time I walk past them, they hiss at me! Now, I get the protective animal parent thing. But just a few notes on hissing geese:

1. If you don't want me coming within three feet of your goslings, don't have them within three feet of the path. Definitely don't line them up in a row that stretches across the path.

2. If you're going to get all ticked off and start hissing, you might want to save it for someone who's actually threatening (or, you know, walking in your direction) rather than anybody who's nonchalantly walking by, minding their own business.

3. Do hissing geese actually scare anybody? I mean, sure: they're annoying. But all they do is hiss. They don't advance. So what or who are they actually scaring away? 'Cuz if I was a coyote, I'm pretty sure I'd take one look at a hissing goose an think lunch.

Bell Spice v. The Elevators

It's been awhile since I've written. But today, I'm bringing you a multi-structure blog post. That's right.

But before I go any further, I should warn anyone who might have an elevator phobia not to read any further.


Here's the crux of it: I'm am convinced that, some day, the Parking Structure elevators will be the death of me. The elevators in the parking structure at work were not working on Wednesday when I left. Which meant I had to climb six flights of stairs to my car. They frequently break. And when they don't break, one can wait 15 minutes before they finally show up to take you to your chosen floor.

One day, some friends and I stepped into the elevator, hit the button for the fifth floor, watched the doors close . . . and stood there. After a couple minutes, we hit the button again, but we remained at ground level. Mercifully, the 'door open' button worked just fine, and we again took the stairs.

On another occasion, I was riding the elevator from the fourth floor to ground level. The elevator oddly stopped between floors, the doors half-opened, and just as I was thinking it might be appropriate to panic, the elevator resumed its decent as if nothing had happened.

It's not like the work parking structure is the only one with dubious elevators. GF and I were recently in Texas, and had to ride the elevator in the San Antonio parking structure. We only had to go down one floor (and we only had to take the elevator due to our somewhat unwieldy luggage) but the elevator was sloooooooooow.

Truth is, I'm not a person who generally has anything against elevators. But parking structure elevators tend to have it in for me. It's only a matter of time, I tell you, before I'm writing a blog post about how one of these elevators tried to kill me . . .