No, I’m not going to recap the debate. I admit I watched it, with my lovely bride and her dog, Max, but we’re not going to talk about it. Instead, let’s talk about helicopters.

Yes. Helicopters. Specifically, SH-60 Seahawk helicopters.

Fiddler’s Cove is surrounded by five naval stations: NAS North Island, Naval Station Coronado, and Naval Amphibious Base Coronado to the north, Imperial Beach Outlying Landing Field to the south, and Naval Base San Diego to the west. Off hand, I’d say we’re in a pretty safe place. With that safety comes lots and lots of air traffic, late into the night sometimes. Today was one of 2 late into the night days since we’ve been here.

I’ve probably mentioned all those bases before but not at the same time. This was so you can get a little more perspective about the Navy influence down here. So, please forgive me if I’m repeating myself. I do that once in a while because I’m old and it’s OK. People understand.

The helicopter noise I mentioned earlier isn’t really all that bad. It’s just one of those things that don’t really bother you until you concentrate on it. That’s a lot like tinnitus. You know it’s there all the time but normally it’s unnoticeable. I know this is true because I have tinnitus. I’ve had it for a long time but didn’t think about it because I didn’t know it had a name. When I discovered the name, it because a problem but I’ve learned to live with it, most of the time.

Now, about those helicopters. One of them spent all afternoon today going in circles over the bay between Naval Station San Diego and Fiddler’s Cove. All day it circled the bay. Once in a while it changed direction and shifted from a predominately counterclockwise direction and went clockwise with an occasional figure eight thrown in just for fun. It wasn’t entertaining all the time, mainly when it buzzed our side of the bay. All day that went on. You know, it probably would be OK if they would just drop leaflets letting us know what’s going on, but they don’t. They just go in circles. Then, all the sudden, they fly inland on the Naval Station side and disappear for a bit, but you could still hear the noise slightly, then it would dash out over the bay about 6 feet off the water and stop and hover, facing us, like a puppy wanting to play.

Having shared all that, it really wasn’t that bad. Yes, there is a lot of helicopter traffic flying over us on a regular basis, and an addition 3-5 F/A 18 Hornet fighter jets coming in for landings at North Island.

Sounds bad, right? It’s not, really. What I said is actually true, but it’s more interesting than annoying. One of the things I think about when I see all the helos fly over is, I wonder how much it costs to fill their gas tanks. Can’t be cheap.

Today the San Diego Padre’s beat the Atlanta Braves in their first game of the major league playoffs. When we lived here, we would go to a game once in a while. That was when Steve Garvey was playing first base after being traded by the LA Dodgers. Steve was fun to watch. Both Jeff and Jennie got autographed baseballs from Steve after one of those games. He signed their hats, too.

OK, it’s time to quit. My mind is jumping around like a ball, and I can’t focus on an interesting topic. Perhaps you’ve already figured that out.

I’ll end with this – I made some popcorn the other night and asked Diane if she would like some. She said, “sure, I’ll take a little bowl.” So, I found the smallest bowl I could and gave her some.

She didn’t even flinch. Just took that tiny little bowl and ate the popcorn. I was expecting a little more of a rise from her. Instead, she just asked for a refill.

So, g’night.