Lockdown

Yesterday was an exciting day for my various fa mily members, for various reasons.

For my brother Smed, it was exciting because he got to ch a se bank robbers and light trees on fire. I've heard about smoking out the bad guys before, but didn't know it literally happens. Either way, he couldn't wait to text me and tell me to look for him on the local news. (Which I did -- however, all the SWAT guys look the same in their combat gear.)

For Mark, who was on the other end of the drama, it was also exciting. His school went into lockdown for 35 minutes, while his Uncle Brad tried catching the escaped bank robbers. I thought it might've been scary, so I asked if he was nervous during the lockdown.

"No," he said, without hesitation.

"No?" I asked. "It wasn't scary?"

"It was fun," he answered immediately. "We got to eat lunch in the classroom!"

Turns out, he had no idea what was going down, or why they were in lockdown. And he was thrilled that the school nurse came to him to check his blood sugar, instead of trudging to her office like he usually does.

And for that, I am grateful to his school staff once again. They run a tight ship over there, they protect the kids and keep them safe without scaring them.

As for me, my reaction was a little different. I'm usually at work and would've missed the whole drama, except that I had an allergic reaction and had to leave early for a doctor's appointment. So I got trapped first on the freeway, and then on a side street. When I finally got home an hour later, I noticed a plethora of helicopters flying overhead, all of them quite close to my house. And instead of being nervous or scared, I simply sighed, and thought, "What did Smed get himself into today??"

Oh, well. Nothing like a little high drama to break up the monotony.