Back in the late '80's the military dropped in an Apache or a Black Hawk helicopter(I don't know how to tell one from the other) for recruitment purposes to the campus of the college I was attending . I didn't know any of that was going on, I just happened to drive by the thing when it was sitting in a field just off the road. As I drove by I was impressed by the thumping noise the blades where making as they cut through the air. It's sorta like a rattle snake...once you hear one you never forget what it sounds like.

It's no big deal to see one or more of those things flying around out here at a distance. You can hear em coming and you know what it is from the sound but they're...away...away from really populated areas and up high and always in the day time. Never at night.

Last night, The Woman and I were sitting here watching the tube when I picked up the unmistakable thumping off in the distance heading towards us. It got louder and louder as it came closer and closer. I'm thinking...this is aint right...they never come from the direction it was coming from and it sounded low and it's night time. Closer and louder it came until I thought...this SOB is going to hit the house or is going down in the front yard. Thank goodness neither was the case but as it went over it had to have come right over the house and it was low!

It was a totally different experience than watching them go by at a distance or hearing the one idling in that field many years ago. When it went by us...the house was literally shaking. The floor was bumpin to the thumpin. The walls were rattling so bad I thought the pictures were going to bounce off the walls.

The Woman rarely cusses but she had jumped up to look out the window to see if it was coming down in the yard or to just get eyeballs on it to see where it was. She turned around and said...That felt like a phucking earthquake! That was the best way to explain what it did feel like. It felt like a fricken earthquake.

Short of some of the near tornado's that have come by us in the last few years, that was the most impressive thing I've experienced in my life.

I couldn't help thinking...I'm glad I wasn't on the receiving end of whatever one of those things could dish out in a wartime setting...just having it buzz us was intimidating as hell by itself.