Not A Quiet Neighborhood

There was some excitement in my neighborhood yesterday afternoon. As I went to pick up my daughter from school, I drove past a busy corner on the edge of a large residential area where there were about eight police cars, two fire trucks, various other vehicles, and a large, black van with the words painted on the side, "Bomb Squad Investigation".

Anything that says bomb squad and is within a mile of my house gets my full attention. Traffic was still flowing along past this menagerie which surprised me. I kept thinking, "How come the street isn't blocked off?" Kids were being dropped off from school buses about this time. I was concerned to say the least.

Desperate for information I scanned the news, turned on the radio and heard nothing. I finally found a small 'breaking news' article on the Seattle internet site describing the incident as an investigation for explosives in an abandoned well house that began around 2 pm today. Yikes! We have buried natural gas pipe lines. What if this thing blows some of the lines?

I waited a short while for my husband to get off work. We all hopped in the car and headed for the grocery store ten miles away at 6 pm. The road was finally blocked and traffic was being diverted around the scene. A few of the houses immediately across the street had been evacuated. When we returned home around 8 pm, the activity was still heavy but no other evacuations had occurred. A news update said that 2-3 explosive devices were found shrink wrapped along with firearms and ammunition buried around the well house. It is believed the individual responsible had been killed six months earlier by a bounty hunter. We had to trust that things were being handled and to get some rest for a busy day on Saturday.