At least that is what sounds like from my office. The Navy's Blue Angels flying team is busy practicing their moves over the City of San Francisco for this weekend's Fleet Week celebration.
I hate the damn Blue Angels.
Every year the Navy floats a few of their big ships into San Francisco for an orgy of pro-military People tour the ships. Folks get to touch the military hardware (and a few even touch the men and women who use the hardware). Sailors and Marines get drunk. The Blue Angels fly through the air. This has been going on for years, dating back to the days when the city of San Francisco and the Bay Area as a whole was lousy with Navy bases.
Never mind that damn near every military base in the bay area is gone. Never mind that the area as a whole, and San Francisco proper - where the ships dock and the Navy people hang-out - is not exactly a hotbed of pro-war and pro-military fever. The navy hasn't been based in San Francisco for years, but they still stop by every year.
And to be honest I don't mind the Navy stopping by. The Navy boys go to our strip clubs where the rules are loose and the girls are clumsy. They drink in our bars. And they generally behave themselves. I don't go down to the recruiting event that takes place on the wharf, and they don't come into my neighborhood, so it is all good.
The problem is the damn Blue Angels.
They do two shows, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. During their show, they fly - in formation - over the City to set up maneuvers over the Bay. In addition to the two shows on the weekend, they practice their little event over the heart of our beloved city on Thursday and Friday, for three hours. And this, my friends, is insane.
See, San Francisco is a real dense city. We got over 750,000 people living in 49 square miles. That's around 16,600 people to the square mile. The only city more densely populated then SF is New York. And, like New York, we have lots of folks come into the downtown area to work in tall buildings. Tall buildings that are buzzed by low flying aircraft for three hours a day, four days in a row.
So, here I am, sitting in my office, while 8 flying jet fuel bombs buzz the second most densely packed city in the United States.
I hate the damn Blue Angels.
Some folks in other areas of the Bay Area like the Blue Angels. Great! Let the jets buzz those cities and leave us alone. In fact, last year the Blue Angels skipped Fleet Week. It was nice. Our best weather is in early October, and it was a jot to go outside in the middle of the day, drink in the sun and have lunch without the noise of the jets. It is said that the Blue Angels skipped SF last year because of our huge anti-war protests following the start of the war back in 2003. The Navy was punishing us.
God, please let the Blue Angles punish us again.