canesisters
Garden Master
How can I complain about losing a night's sleep when there was such a good reason?
The windows vibrated. The doors rattled in their frames. The dogs paced. Once I heard the dishes rattle in the cabinet. The night sky even lit up a few times. It wasn't a thunderstorm. It was hundreds of men & women working all night long - honing their skills at aiming and firing artillery in the dark.
I live about 20miles from Fort Pickett ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pickett ). We're accustomed to artillery sounds. Just about any weekend is likely to be accompanied by distant BOOM, BOOM, BOOMs. And hearing it at night is not all that unusual either. It usually sounds like a distant thunderstorm.
But every now and then something is different. I don't know if it's the weather conditions? Or perhaps they're using something different in the training? But a few times a year it sounds as if we are likely to be hit by a stray shell. Almost as if they were doing maneuvers in the pasture behind my property.
Whenever I hear it - distant or close - I am always stuck with a sense of gratitude. There are people working hard over there. They are learning skills that I will never know. And I am not unaware of the possibility that those very skills may one day be called upon to directly defend my home and my loved ones.
And on those few nights every year when I give up on sleep and look for a movie instead, I always say a prayer for the folks who may be spending the night - not 20 miles away from it - but directly under live fire on some far away place.
The windows vibrated. The doors rattled in their frames. The dogs paced. Once I heard the dishes rattle in the cabinet. The night sky even lit up a few times. It wasn't a thunderstorm. It was hundreds of men & women working all night long - honing their skills at aiming and firing artillery in the dark.
I live about 20miles from Fort Pickett ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pickett ). We're accustomed to artillery sounds. Just about any weekend is likely to be accompanied by distant BOOM, BOOM, BOOMs. And hearing it at night is not all that unusual either. It usually sounds like a distant thunderstorm.
But every now and then something is different. I don't know if it's the weather conditions? Or perhaps they're using something different in the training? But a few times a year it sounds as if we are likely to be hit by a stray shell. Almost as if they were doing maneuvers in the pasture behind my property.
Whenever I hear it - distant or close - I am always stuck with a sense of gratitude. There are people working hard over there. They are learning skills that I will never know. And I am not unaware of the possibility that those very skills may one day be called upon to directly defend my home and my loved ones.
And on those few nights every year when I give up on sleep and look for a movie instead, I always say a prayer for the folks who may be spending the night - not 20 miles away from it - but directly under live fire on some far away place.
