It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a...
October 24, 2007
... giant blimp in the sky!!!
As we were finishing up lunch today, ("Two more bites of sandwich, all of your apples and then you may have a cookie ..."), the boys suddenly leapt from their chairs and ran to the windows.
"MAMA!" they called, faces pressed to the screens, "WHAT is THAT???"
At first it was nothing more than a large bluish shape weaving its way through the low cloud cover. We couldn't really see more than its shape and size, but we could hear its engine, a dull roar from somewhere nearby. Then all of a sudden it appeared directly overhead ...
We realized it was a blimp! (Also known as an airship or zeppelin.) Well, you can just imagine the scene back down here on earth.
Grab the camera!!
Where are my shoes?!
Where did it go, is it gone??
The blimp operator would have been chucking if he could see us - a mother and three kids whipping in and out of doors and hanging out windows (screens popped and lying below), snapping pictures like crazy. (And I assume he (or she for that matter) could see me at least - I'm wearing bright orange today, the very sweater in my picture at left.)
After a bit, I admit, it did get a little disconcerting, it seemed like the blimp was circling our very house!
Over and over again, lower and lower each time ...
Not surprisingly, Crackerjack was the first to express concern:
Is he trying to land?
Is he going to crash into our house?
Why won't he leave?!
I explained about advertising and how the blimp was trying to get a message across, (a message someone - in this case, DirectTV - had paid for). By canvassing an area repeatedly, the ad will be seen by more people. This might result in more sales. My little informative spiel went over like - pardon the pun - a lead balloon, so instead I looked online.
I was just googling How Blimps Work when somebody asked, "Hey, where did it go?"
For almost an hour it seemed the thing would never leave, and then suddenly ...
... it was gone.
