Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Fun with tanks and horses

This is a very busy week at work. I am working extremely late two nights, putting in 13 hour days. Yesterday was one, and today is another. Last night I attended a National Night Out neighborhood party where I manned a table with information on a project we are proposing for a major stretch of road in the area. It was actually quite a nice party with a good band, people dancing, kids having fun, plenty of food, and attractions to keep everyone engaged.

The attractions included groups and organizations with tables set up to make information available, like mine. I noticed that the tables giving away something, anything, had the largest numbers of visitors. It didn’t matter if it was a pin you could clip onto your shirt, a bumper sticker, blow-up beach ball or a fabric shopping bag, people just love to get something for free.

Other attractions involved the mobile precinct from the police bureau, a tank from the FBI, and fire engines. The most popular, by far, were the horses of the police’s mounted patrol. I use to work closely with the commander at Central Precinct, who commanded that unit. He always said if he had a dollar for every time someone petted one of the horses, he would never have a funding problem. They really are great horses!

Every time I looked over at the FBI tank the same little boy was hanging out the top hatch with a big grin on his face and having the time of his life. If possession is 9/10 of the law, that child now owns a tank. “Mom, look what I brought home!”

Tonight I’ll be working late with a community action committee for an upcoming, very large and high profile project. I’m pretty sure there will be no band, no ice cream, no horses and no excited kids. Few of will be having any fun at all.

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