Friday, March 31, 2017

Friday Mishmash, With a Crazy Story at the End!

You know you don't get out much when going to the movies turns out to be a big deal.  Our movie theater recently renovated and now every seat is a Luxury Lounger, where you get to choose your seat, and recline and try not to get too comfortable and fall asleep - or does that just happen to me?  Jeff and I decided to go see the Lego Batman movie last weekend and we had too much fun:
Don't worry, we put our phones away when the previews started.

Not only do the seats recline, but they are situated so that there is a tall divider behind each row, and it feels very private - you only see the people in your row.  Which was also fun - three little girls came in and the mom got them all set with their drinks and candy and popcorn; a few minutes later, we looked over to see they'd taken off their shoes, and of course we had to follow suit.  We enjoyed the movie and the experience, and for the price of a matinee, we'll have to make an effort to go more often.

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Remember a while back when I complained about the ACLU sending membership renewals for years after our youngest had joined ten years ago?  Well, I picked up the mail last week and saw that familiar envelope in the stack, and started to grumble to myself, when I took a closer look and saw my name on the envelope - oh, that's right - I'd forgotten that I'd joined after the inauguration.  Well, OK then:
I am official now.

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So last week, I was dead asleep (for a change) in my blackout-curtained bedroom, when I started hearing a helicopter right above my house.  It was there and then it flew away and then it came back and it was so annoying that I finally forced myself awake (which was really irritating, considering that I don't sleep well to begin with, so to be actually asleep?  Gah!).  As I kept hearing the helicopter, I remembered that we don't live in a flight path and this was unusual...not to mention it was the middle of the night, but then, I wasn't fully awake at that point.  I picked up my iPad and checked our local news station to see what what up - nothing there, nor on our city forum.  Finally, I remembered that we have a Facebook page for our neighborhood, so I checked it, and that's where I saw that a neighbor had posted, asking if anyone had heard a lot of gunshots.  Um, we don't live in a gunshotty area!  What the heck??  

I picked up my phone and saw that I'd missed a call and had a voicemail, which turned out to be a robocall from our police department saying they were looking for an armed suspect in our area - eek!  Well, that would explain the helicopter, but I sure didn't feel safe every time it flew over my house.  And also, Diane and I were going to run that morning, in just a few hours.  Now, here's where my runner's brain went:
  • We are going to run five miles soon.
  • We can't run if this guy is still out there.
  • If they catch the guy soon, we can still run.
  • If they don't catch the guy, where else can we go to run?
I texted Diane, who luckily had more brain function than me going at that point - she was all LOCK YOUR DOORS (they were) and WE'RE NOT RUNNING TODAY.  She was right; I was thinking that I could get in my car, lock the doors, open the garage door and drive away fast so the bad guy couldn't catch me.  I know.  Crazy.  But seriously, this is why you rarely hear that I've missed a run - it's programmed into my brain that if I'm supposed to run, then by golly, I'm going to run!  

After a couple of hours with the helicopter, the bad guy was caught - and he really was a bad guy.  A state trooper had pulled over a car, the passenger started shooting at him, the driver bailed, and the trooper shot back while the passenger leaned over and drove the car a short distance away before crashing it into a curb.  He took off running, which is when the search team was called in.  Luckily the trooper wasn't shot, and amazingly (because he was laying down, across the seats) the passenger wasn't hit. 

We still wouldn't have been able to run in the morning, as the Texas Rangers were out in force, collecting evidence.  Not that I checked or anything...

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Have a great (and SAFE) weekend!

20 comments:

  1. Cool theater. Don't have one like that here.

    Yeah, that was scary. I would have stayed inside too.

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    1. Yeah, inside was the only place to be, for real.

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  2. That is a crazy scary story! I hope I never hear helicopters flying over my house!! I like the movie theater story better. I've only gotten to try those luxury seats one time, but that would always be my fear--that I would fall fast asleep!

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    1. I almost always doze off in regular movie seats, so being reclined is really dangerous for me, LOL.

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  3. Hahaha. I love it that you were thinking about quickly slipping the car out of the garage and still getting your run in even in the midst of a manhunt!

    Glad you hose safety and that you are safe!!!

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    1. I blame some of that on not being fully awake, but the will to run is strong! ;)

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  4. That is so funny that your brain was on automatic run mode!! That's a great habit to have though. :)

    Is your theater a B&B theater? Ours just remodeled too with the recliners and I LOVE IT SO BAD. We used to have to drive over 40 minutes to get to a theater like that but now? 10 minutes and we are living la vida luxurious! (it's the little things, isn't it?) :)

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    1. I don't know what a B&B theater is, so I'm guessing not?

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  5. The theaters by us got a similar makeover last year. They call the chairs "dream loungers," so obviously you're supposed to fall asleep in them! :)

    That police chase would be so scary in the middle of the night! And I'd have the same thought process about still trying to squeeze my run in. Something like that happened not long after we moved into our current home. I think I was working from home by myself that day when Kim texted to let me know that was happening right in my area (since I was otherwise totally oblivious). Because I was alone in a new place, EVERY SINGLE NOISE freaked me out until Terry got home!

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    1. It would be an expensive dream, but on second thought, if I really needed a nap and could be guaranteed a good two solid hours, paying five bucks might be worth it, LOL!

      Yikes to your situation - I'll be honest, later that day when I finally went out in the garage, I was a little scared to open the door even though I knew the bad guy had been caught.

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    2. My mom slept through some of the new Star Wars when she, my dad and I went at Christmas, and she had no regrets about it! LOL

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  6. Wow, what a story! That is awesome that you got a robocall telling you what was going on.

    So how much is a ticket at the fncy shmancy movie theater? I am always amazed at how much our movie tickets keep going up and up.

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    1. A matinee ticket is under five bucks - not bad, but when we moved here nearly 17 years ago, I think it was only $3.25 - now THAT was a steal!

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  7. Yikes! We had a hostage situation in my neighborhood a few years ago--everyone was on lockdown. There was also a murder prior to that. And I live in a "nice" suburb! Bottom line, you never know...

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    1. So true, you never know...and it sure is unsettling when it happens so close to home!

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  8. I guess I'll start my 10 years of ACLU mailings with my donation after the Muslim "ban". Every time I get outraged I'm funding a cause. This could be an expensive 4 years. Yikes about the bad guys. Awesome about the theatre, but alas, I would totally dose in those recliners.

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    1. I hear you on the outrage/donation - and I agree, this is going to be expensive, but it's necessary, sigh.

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  9. Pretty scary story if that happens. Glad you are safe and no one was hurt. We have had such a situation here a couple of years ago on a Saturday afternoon when they robbed the gas station a few minutes from my house. Turned out one of the suspects had ran through my street to get away.

    The theatre sounds so luxury and cool.

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  10. Holy cow! How nuts that it was right over you! I would have first been annoyed by being awakened, too ;)

    Our theater renovated to seats like that and it's hard not to get too comfy. But it makes seeing a movie in the theater so much better!

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