Something Disconcerting ...

... about a low-flying helicopter. Especially one that’s flying low right above your head.

Yesterday I was driving home from work in the early twilight hours, zigzagging along a winding road bordering a stream twenty feet below. I had just left an affluent town and was cruising toward my home town in moderate traffic, when an odd noise outside the car caught my attention. I switched off the radio and it flooded the cab of my SUV.

whap-whap-whap-whap-whap-whap-whap-whap

Then it got real loud. Oncoming cars slowed down. I slowed down, not realizing a hundred percent what was going on. I leaned against the driver’s side window and looked up, nearly veering off the road into the guardrail above the stream. A massive black body hovered right above me, maybe twenty-five or fifty feet straight up.

Except it wasn’t black. I kept darting my eyes back to the road ahead as I slowed, along with everyone else, and alternated windows I peered out of. It was dark green, like an olive green, with a red cross on a white field on its bottom. It swerved around, out over the water, then came back over the road. I lost sight of it but still heard it, then caught it in my rear-view mirror. I rounded a turn and lost sight of it again, but the sound of the rotating blades got louder.

What is going on? Occasionally we see news helicopters overhead if there is an accident on the local highway, but they tend to stay high up and stationary. This looked like a rescue operation in progress.

I imagined myself being hunted in the woods by one of these things. Scary, and exhilarating. After a minute or two of the entire encounter passed, I made a left at a major intersection and was headed up a steep hill. I lost sight of it in the rear view.

I’ll check the local papers over the next couple of days, and if I find anything of note, I’ll post it here as a follow-up.

I got Patch from aftercare, dropped her off at home (my wife had an office day), and drove into town to get a bite to eat. Still thinking of that strange helicopter I caught peripheral motion from the left side as I pulled up to a stop sign.

It was a hawk, carrying off a squirrel.

... disconcerting ...

Note: Everything in this post actually happened, exactly as written. Even the hawk / squirrel.