Dreaming Of A Blue Angel

They've been sending those famous airplane aerial acrobats, the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels, around the country to do salutes to the frontline healthcare workers who are putting their own safety on the line to treat the people who have contracted coronavirus. In New York, they got both teams at once. They've been hit the hardest, so they deserved it.

Compared to New York, here in Houston we've barely been touched. We've had some cases, though, and the healthcare workers are still bravely caring for them, so they deserve a salute as well. I was excited to learn that they would be sending the Blue Angels out to do a flyover.

The event was supposed to start at 12:30, and they were going to fly over all the hospitals in town, including the one right in my own little suburb. I posted about my excitement on Facebook as we left for the event.

Notice the time stamp on that post. 12:09. That's going to be important. Normally, twenty minutes to get to the Lowe's is more than enough, but there were factors I hadn't considered.

We all got in the car, two cars actually, because I was going to have to leave straight to work when it ended, but my kids would be going back home where they were not going to school. We turned one way to head out, but found the line up to get through the first stop sign so backed up that I abandoned that direction and turned around to try another, possibly quicker way.

We drove down a residential street, but the world's slowest delivery van managed to get between my daughter's car and mine. He wasn't just obeying the speed limit, he was making sure to go at least five maybe even ten miles under it. It took us forever to get down that road and out onto one of the main thoroughfares. We were running behind, but we should still be able to make it.

We took a right up ahead, and were on the last road before arriving at our destination, but then we hit an unexpected slow down. Traffic was backed up and creeping along. I kept checking the clock every few seconds. It started at 12:30, but the flight plan had them starting way over in The Woodlands. It takes a good thirty minutes to get from The Woodlands to where I live. I saw this map of the flight plan:

How long would it take for the jets to make that first flight south over The Woodlands then the turn back north to where I live? I had no idea. I was hoping a little while, though, because the time on the clock kept ticking away, and the traffic was crawling. I was getting more and more agitated, and I gave up on making it to Lowe's. Any parking lot with a hole open to the sky was good enough.

I finally pulled off at a parking lot that we passed, and parked and looked to where the planes should be coming past. We sat there for a moment, Van Halen's "Dreams" playing from a bluetooth speaker that I brought with me for the occasion, when someone else in the parking lot came over and asked, "Did you guys see it?"

"Oh, you're kidding, it already happened?" I said.

It was 12:38 when we pulled in. I thought they couldn't possibly have passed quicker than eight minutes, but I was wrong. The guy told me it happened at 12:34. Thanks to the traffic, I had missed the Blue Angels by four minutes. I was devastated.

The guy asked for my phone number, so he could text me his video of the event. So, here's that:



It's not a bad video, but since he texted it, it got compressed down to a super low-res version that sucks hard.

Thanks to that guy, I at least got to see the event, but all it did was make me feel worse. I looked at it and thought, "That would have been so cool to see." My kids, who also missed it, looked at the video and said, "Oh, that would have been awesome." None of us got to know what it was like.

I know the Blue Angels do air shows all the time, so if I want to see them, I just have to wait until people are allowed to gather in groups larger than two again, and go to one. I may do that, but it won't be the same. This particular flyover meant something. The air shows are just pilots showing off what their jets can do for fans. This flyover was a way to unite our community as we persevere through a crisis. Something more meaningful than any air show performance the Blue Angels have ever done...and I missed it by four frigging minutes.

I was so devastated. I got in my car and drove to work, cursing and swearing the whole way. I put an angry song on my phone, and played it on repeat for a good eight or ten spins.

I eventually got tired of stewing in my juices, and put something else on that managed to get my mind off my failure, but then I arrived at work, and it was the only thing people were talking about. My boss asked me if I saw it the second I got in the door.

"Don't ask," was the best response I could give him. I couldn't talk about it. Most people would get to leave it at that, but I work in news, and the news of the day was the Blue Angels flyover, so I saw it over and over and over again throughout the day. I had to edit video of it. I had to watch the news packages on it. My nose got rubbed in my failure at least a hundred times throughout the day.

I would say, maybe next time. Maybe next time there's an earth-shattering event and the Blue Angels fly right over my neighborhood to help unite our country in one purpose I'll make it on time to see that one. But, of course, we all know there won't be a next time.